#64 Maglev Train

I left on Friday for a 10 day trip to Peoria and Decatur. My flight from Shanghai was delayed by a couple of hours so I had some time to kill. I decided to try out the Maglev express train to Shanghai.

The train runs a seven minute route between Pudong Airport and Longyang Road Station - about 20 miles. They display the train speed on a screen in the cabin. During my trip, it registered 430 km/hr or 270 mph - half the speed of an airplane ! I paid 80 RMB (~$12) for a round-trip ticket in "economy" class.

The train feels like a normal train ride, accelerating slowly out of the station. However, when we passed a Maglev going in the opposite direction, there was a startling sound, almost like a collision.

This train would be a terrific asset if only it ran from the airport a useful location such as downtown Shanghai or the domestic airport, Hongqiao. As it is, the maglev drops you off at an obscure spot in the Pudong district where you need to take a taxi or other tranport to go to a typical destination.

#63 Bradley U Visit

Today Caterpillar, MTD, and the SIP government hosted 42 business students from Peoria's Bradley University for a visit to Suzhou and SIP. It was a great day that I hope gave the students a chance to get a sense of life and business in China and to see first the remarkable Suzhou Industrial Park.

We started with a visit to the MTD factory which is managed by Charlie who is the GM and a friend of mine. MTD makes blades and other components for lawnmowers and outdoor equipment in their factory in SIP. Charlie gave the group a presentation about his experience in starting a business in China. I think the group was impressed with his brand new factory and growing operations. The MTD factory is directly across from the street from the Caterpillar land.

Next, Caterpillar hosted them for a lunch at Li Gong Di where we had a huge Chinese banquet with a dizzying array of delicacies. In one of the pictures above, Josak is sampling a duck's head in response to my offer of 2RMB to the first person that takes a bite. The lunch was a classic Chinese business meal with round tables and lazy susans. The only thing missing was the Baijiu.

Two of my colleagues, Duane and Gary, and I gave presentations on Caterpillar and living in China. The talks were well received and I was very impressed with the group of students, their level of interest, and the number of questions. After lunch, we dropped them off at the SIP government visitors center where they were given a presentation on the city and taken on a tour of the display area.

Later that night, our friend and neighbor from the Bradley Group, Dr. Getz met us at home for a visit and dinner out. I was so impressed with his ability to speak and read Chinese - a brilliant guy ! We took him and the whole family out for Mexican food. Dan seemed to enjoy seeing the kids and we all had a great time.

#61 The Red Dress

Maria finally wore one of the two red dresses that her Grandma gave her for Christmas. This is a particularly amusing picture because of the rude scene that Maria made upon receiving this dress. Maria, known in general for her irreverent style, exclaimed in front of my mother-in-law that clothing is a "stupid Christmas gift" and Maria had refused to wear these dresses ever since.

Grandma knows that Maria loves to wear dresses. In fact, on a typical day of school or play, Maria refuses to wear anything but a dress. Margie expected Maria to love these two holiday selections. Maria, however, watched all of her siblings receive toys as gifts from G-ma and found the clothing disappointing in comparison. From the picture above, it appears that she is still not appreciating the lovely and thoughtful gift.

#60 Clubhouse Poker

Friday night we had a poker game at the clubhouse in our housing complex. A neighbor and husband of a Caterpillar colleague, Jim, organized the game. Some of you have heard me lament this (and Kathleen rolls her eyes), but the thing I miss the most since moving to China is my monthly poker game with the Peoria neigborhood men. A group here in the Jin Shui Wan compound has gotten together a few times since we moved here last summer. Tonight was the largest turnout yet, with 11 people showing up to play and another handful of guys who stopped by for a beer and a visit.

Jim (pictured in white shirt) went to the clubhouse management in January and asked them about hosting "dǎ pú kè pái" at the clubhouse. They told him they weren't interested. He approached them again recently and took the approach of reserving the room. This time he did not mention cards and they agreed to host the "party" and staff the clubhouse as late as we wanted to stay. It is surprising that the guys running the clubhouse do not respond more enthusiastically to having some customers in the clubhouse bar and restaurant for a change.

We played "Dealer's Choice" all night where the dealer selects the game. The most notable game of the night came sometime after midnight with a round of "2-4 Drop". "2-4 Drop" is a 4 card progressive pot game where losers have to match the pot and the pot can double or even triple with each round. The game ends when all but one person "drops". There is a further twist when that one remaining person has to beat "the man" to win the pot. "The man" is euphemism for "the Deck" - i.e. the next four cards from the deck. I hit a low point for the evening (an perhaps a low point for all of my poker playing days) when I stayed in on a very big pot and lost to the man. I had three sixes and the man had three sevens ! This resulted in my paying hugely to double the pot and the whole group decided that the stakes had gotten too high and we needed to end this round. God forgive my gambling streak and occasional poor judgement. Nonetheless, I had a great time.

Credits to my friend and colleague Bill for the photos.

#59 Qingdao

I had a business trip to Qingdao this week. Qingdao is in east central China on the coast of the Yellow Sea. The Caterpillar China Research and Development Center has an office in Qindao and I was there to meet with our China cooling systems group. We had two visitors from the engine integration group in Decatur, Illinois. These poor guys were wearing the same clothes they arrived in three days earlier after Air Canada lost their luggage in Toronto.

Qindao is quite a beautiful city. It will host the sailing events for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Qingdao looks like Chicago with the city along the waterfront and a nice path and park along the water. I got up early for a run and saw a lot of interesting and unusual activity along the waterfront.

The olympic sailing center is under construction and is quite an impressive venue. The site was cordoned off, but there were several cranes, a concrete pier, and many buildings under construction. Qingdao looks like a terrific place to sail, provided they get some wind. Strangely, there was not a sailboat in sight.

The morning was pretty chilly, maybe mid 30s, and I got my usual stares and smiles for wearing shorts in cold weather. All of the locals were exercising in the usual odd-looking Chinese sweatsuits or jogging in street clothes. There were, however, two much crazier guys who were swimming in the ocean ! As I ran by, I saw them swimming across the bay. On my return pass, they had finished swimming and were standing at a park bench pouring hot water over their bodies, giving off steam like dumplings.

Further along the waterfront path, I heard a chorus of voices that sounded like an early morning church service. I was curious because religion is not typically practiced openly in China. Except for the mass I attend on Sundays with my family, we see practically no evidence of religious activity anywhere in Suzhou. As I got closer to the congregation, I realized that they were not singing a hymn, but instead were singing the theme song from Titanic ! Now if there is anything close to religion in China, it seems to be worship for the music from the movie Titanic. I hear Celine Dion in the car with our driver, in elevators, being blasted out of boom boxes at street markets. Why Titanic ? I have no idea but I think if Leonardo DiCaprio visited China it would be the biggest thing since Nixon came to see Mao.

I observed another unusual activity going on at the rocks on the waterfront. There were dozens of people wading in the tidepools with pails and sieves gathering things that I could not make out from the walking path. One guy had a snorkel and was repeatedly dipping his head in the cold water and coming up with handfuls of green seaweed.

Bob Hitt, the McDonnell Douglas production boss who oversaw the assembly of MD-82 aircraft in Shanghai, was said to have a favorite remark: "Every Day in China you see something you don't see every day". This is so true.

As I returned to the Shangri-La hotel (which is in the midst of a $65 million dollar expansion), I passed the "Evergrowing Bank" then was greeted finally by a familiar sight - the green circle of "Shin Ba Ke" or Starbucks.

More pictures of Qingdao at Snapfish.

#58 Presidential Suite

I am on my way to Qindao on Monday and I spent the night in Shanghai to be closer to the airport for my early morning flight. I arrived pretty late at my hotel and was told that the only remaining room was the Presidential Suite. Check out the pictures of my thousand square foot hotel room with living room, office, bedroom, bar, and two full bathrooms !

Finally, business travel accomodations to suit my needs. It was a shame I only had about six hours to spend in that room.

#57 Spring in Suzhou

Spring has sprung in Suzhou today. It is in the 60s this Saturday morning with sunshine and blue skies. Kathleen took the girls to basketball this morning and the boys came with me on their bikes while I ran. This week I found a nice lakefront path that I hadn't taken before. We took that path and brought the camera along.

The first picture above shows our housing compound, Jin Shui Wan, across the water. Joseph doesn't look too thrilled for the bike ride and he complained for much of the ride that he felt sick. The next picture shows the boat we talked about in Blog # 6. The boat looks ready for business, thought like many things in SIP it is ready for business but does not seem to have any customers. The third pictures shows Marco in front of the new Ferris Wheel that is under construction on the Jinji Hu waterfront. It will be the showpiece of a small amusement part just across the lake from our house. Joseph and Marco are looking forward to the opening.

When we got home, Kathleen determined that Joseph actually was sick - 102.5 temperature. He has now gone to bed.