Gone skiing

We have been to two Rotary meetings on this trip. The first was a lunch meeting in Kowloon. This is a very active multi cultural groupp. Chinese, English, Indian, Arab.. giving you a sense of just what doing business in Hong Kong is all about. The dinner meeting in Shanghai was completely different. There is no Rotary allowed in mainland China! The Chinese government does not allow clubs as we know it. So this group is made up of expats who are living and working in Shanghai. And they just get together as friends to have dinner--wink wink--Several of the Chinese we met had Canadian passports, other had connection to some overseas country somehow. We met Australians and Germans who had lived in Shanghai for many years. One told me it is a great life if you have a sense of humour! The club does some fundraising, and concentrates on giving wheelchairs to senious and children.
The biggest problem with life here is the driving. One fellow had just given up driving himself, and now had a driver. He concurred with me, you just get in the taxi and close your eyes and start praying!
You have to be very careful when crossing the streets on foot. Most (not ALL!) cars will stop for a red light, but bikes and scooters stop for nothing. They just keep going against the crosswalk signs. This of course makes the morning walk very interesting! Lots of marching in place looking for a gap in the action as it were.
Taxis are very plentiful, and inexpensive. They are also very clean with white seat covers that are washed regularly. We always make sure we have where we are going written in Chinese to give the driver. But we have been very impressed with just how many people here speak English. English is taught in Shanghai region from preschool now. It is fun to hear them speak, some have American accents, the young bell hop in our hotel has a distinct English accent. Guess it depend how where there first teachers came from. All road and highway signs are in English. All instructions at the airport were in both languages. Those who we met that have lived here for a while say the city has been transformed in ten years. The part of the city that tourists and business people visit are clean, the new sky scrapers spectacular and public transportation plentiful and efficient. As with Bangkok and Hong Kong the night scenes are breathtaking. And here in Shanghai they have lots of wonderful buildings from the 1890's to 1930's. After 1949 the life here sort of ground to a communist halt, so nothing really was done to these buildings. The old French quarter is intact,..street after street lined with French plane trees (we call them sycamores) cut through with wide avenues. And neon and lazer lights everywhere over the streets, up and down buildings. The old poor areas in the centre have all been razed and the population bought out or moved to the outskirts. Urban clean up is easy when you don't have to worry about voters.
Interesting fact: Chinese people view Shanghai as their Paris or New York and if they make one trip from the country side it will be to see the lights of Shanghai. bbChina has so many different areas and people and you can see the visitors with quite different facial and skin colouring. On national holidays you cannot get a hotel room. As for dress, young people here dress as at home or Europe.. blue jeans, running shoes, and cell phone!
KFC, Starbucks, McDonalds, etc. are on everyblock. And lots more coffee chains.. Chinese have discovered coffee and they love it.
We have been interested English language newspapers on this trip. Needless to say, there is not much in the way of criticism of government in Thailand or China ! Still I had been amazed in Thailand to read about past mistakes of the disposed PM. The South China Post was full of stories about the recently arrested officials in Shanghai. And the China Daily here in Shanghai had scathing editorial about the problems with civic leaders and corruption. And if Shanghai wanted to be the financial capitol of Asia they would have to clean up their act.
Don't know if those at home read about the China Africa summit held last week in Beijing. Every country in Africa was here. The Chinese did not care whether these leaders were under sanction by the west or not. They have promised lots and lots of aid seemingly with no strings..
Except in the fine print.. all African countries promised to support Chinese peaceful reunification of all territories. Think I might be worried in Taipei, Taiwan!!
as ever Katie