Myself and some colleges went there to meet with some business partners about business stuff, I will not bore you with anymore work related details.
We went to Shanghai and Kunshan in China, when we landed it was raining and continued to do so for about four days. Needless to say it was a welcome relief to the 100+ degree heat here in Texas but I was still a little bummed out that I wouldn't be able to wonder around and explore as much as I wanted. We did however take a couple of hours that first Saturday we were there to go out for a walk in the rain. The area we stayed in was very industrial and there wasn't much to see that was in walking distance of our hotel.
That pretty much forces us to hang out in the hotel bar everynight and watch the "Shock Band" play.
The "Shock Band" was the best thing since sliced bread until we went to Shanghai and was able to go to more clubs and see other bands playing. They were a typical lounge band that played all the top 40 hits from years past and unfortunately the carpenters. After suffering through some bad songs we found their library of songs and started the requests. They played everyone of them too. The band was very accommodating with the request and soon they had the place rocking.
Over the week we met each of the members and talked with them. They are a great bunch of people. We found out that they are all from the Philippines and that one of the girls that was singing was filling in for another girl that was away on some personal business. Needless to say we all became good friends and we had a standing appointment to go down and cheer and holler during their performance.
This lasted all week, on our last night at this hotel before we went to Shanghai one of my colleges... lets call him Bill, went up on stage and sang with the band. He not only sang one song, he performed 3 lovely Sinatra tunes. As you can see from the picture the girls got a real kick out of this. After their set Bill was trying to talk them into a permanent position with the band. Although it was great fun for a one time performance I think the decision not to let Bill join the band was a wise one for their carriers ;)The next morning we checked out and the went to our final meeting with another partner before the weekend.
Ahh Shanghai... rain, pollution, traffic. If anyone has ever been to Houston that pretty much sums up the type of weather they have in Shanghai. With the exception that Houston has less pollution than this town, and for good reason. In Houston there are about 2.5 million people. In Shanghai there are about 16 million people, and WE complain about traffic sheeesh. To get anywhere in Shanghai via taxi or car it takes FOREVER!!!! Even if your going up the street, you will probably get there faster if you walk.
After we got done with our meetings on Friday we checked into the hotel, got settled and then our guide took us to a shopping center where we were able to haggle and pickup a few souvoniers from our trip. After shopping we headed across the street to grab some food. We found a great bar that had some good western food, beer, foosball table and dart games. Our waitress was great! She played foosball, darts and hungout with us for part of the evening before things got too busy in there.
I will preface this next part of the story with this, before I left town I did a search for a Harley Davidson dealers in the Shanghai area, and I found one! Before I left town it was a personal objective for me to visit this dealer and get a t-shirt from there before I came back to the states.
Well the next morning we got up grabbed a taxi and headed out to the dealer. We arrived about 30 minutes before they opened, so we decided to go look at an "Ancient Chinese Village" that was in the area. It was about a mile away and figured this would be a good place to go to waist some time. Once we got there we were not disappointed it was a really neat tourist trap! Lots of cool architecture to look at and while we were there the Buddhist monks were chanting and praying. It was really neat to see that and hear it. After spending some time looking around the village and taking some pictures we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the HD dealer for me to complete my mission! A t-shirt for me and my wife and some Shanghai HD pins for my friends, Mission accomplished!
After we were done we decided to head all the way across town and go to Nanjing road and Peoples Square. We were told that a taxi ride would take about an hour to two hours but if we took the train it would only take about 30 minutes. The train station was only a few minutes away so we grabbed a taxi and went to the train station. The train is definitely the best and cheapest way to get from one side of town to the other. When we took our taxi from the hotel to the dealer it was 50RMB. To take the train from the dealer pasted the hotel to the Peoples Square it was only 4RMB. So if your ever in Shanghai learn the train system, it will save you loads of time and money when your getting around.
Once we got to Peoples Square I have to say I was a little overwhelmed with the number of people that were there, it was CRAZY! This road is completely blocked off from all motorized traffic cause there are so many people. One thing that was fun at first but then became annoying was all the people that would come up to you and ask if you wanted to buy a watch, DVD, t-shirts. They see a white person and mob you. I finally took one of the guys cards and then proceeded to try and start selling things back to those people I was trying to sell them my HD t-shirts that I just bought. I make you a good deal bro! HEHEHE. One of the vendors that started to try and sell me stuff heard me telling them I would make them a good deal on stuff I was selling they stopped and asked "Are you local?" I told them yeah so they would stop bugging me, it was funny.
We finally reached the end of Nanjing road and headed to Yuyuan Gardens (pronounced U garden). This place was really neat, it was amazing how quiet the garden was compaired to the busy streets of Shanghai. This goes for all parks/gardens we went to visit, once you get into the garden it is like there is a cone of silence around you while your in there, it was nice. We walked around the garden a while and took lots of pictures. However the day was getting on and we were starting to tire. We all decided to run back to the hotel drop our purchases from that day and then head down to a place called the Bund.
From what everyone has told us this is the place to go at night to see a beautiful skyline of Shanghai, and after being there I have to say they were right it was worth the trip over there. There was a different light show going on for each building, and the boats that were on the water in front of the buildings also had their own lights and designs on them. After some pics, we were all getting hungry for some food. We were told that there were many good restaurants on the Bund. However, what was left off of the recommendation is that the restaurants were expensive as hell. Not, very good if your trying to watch your budget. We walked around down there for like an hour and we were now getting really hungry and we were all starting to get cranky.
Finally the walking ended and we found a taxi to take us to a club called Malones. If you go to Shanghai this place is a must see, must eat and must party at club. This is a western style bar with great food, a lot of expats spend their weekends and nights at this place. There were also a lot of local people there too. First order of business was to get some food and drink. Let me tell you the food was great and the drink was even better. Instead of buying individual drinks myself and two other friends of mine split a bottle of JD black label. I think the picture speaks for itself.
After dinner we went downstairs and listened to the band that was playing. They were AWESOME! they played all kinds of good rock-n-roll. I am sorry to say, the Shock Band has nothing on these guys, although I am grateful for the Shock Band getting me through the week.
The band that was playing at Malones was off the hook ya'll! It was our last night in Shanghai and we went out with a bang! We stayed there for couple of hours jamming with the band and just enjoying the time we had left. We headed back to the hotel around 1:30-2ish, one of my friends fell asleep in the taxi the other doesn't remember the ride home or who was in the cab with him, and I think our taxi driver was blind as a bat cause he held the card with the hotel address on it about an inch from his face to read it. I mentioned to my buddy that the day we spent in Shanghai was almost like going to a rally, we went to the HD dealer in the morning, went sight seeing during the day and drank and party with a live band at night. Only one thing missing was the bikes.
All in all it was an awesome trip and I can't wait to go back. More pics for my trip can be found here.
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