Last Day

We had a great day of sight-seeing in Hong Kong today. We went to the top of Victoria's Peak, toured the Stanley Beach markets, and visited a fishing village.

We leave at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning for the airport and 30 hours later, I will hopefully be in GSO. It is thundering heavily right now and a large storm is covering the island. I hope it is over before morning.

We are about to head out for our last meal in Hong Kong! See you all soon. I start my summer clerkship with Judge Daniel in Greenville, NC on Tuesday morning.

Caliente!

We capped out evening with a trip to the Mexican restaurant Coyote. We had a great time and the spread was great.

After dinner, we went to a bar named Joe Bananas. The DJ was cooperative and we had the natives rocking to the likes of Margaritaville, Dixieland Delight, and Sweet Home Alabama. We took the subway from Kowloon Peninsula to the Central Hong Kong island to enjoy the same bar scene that welcomed the U.S. Navy during their port visits during the Korean War.

Tomorrow is our last day.

A Day and Night in Hong Kong

I spent the day touring around Hong Kong after we got back from CSX Worldwide Terminals. We learned a lot about how the shipping and logistics business works in Hong Kong. CSX controls a lot of port territory in HK and in Shanghai.

After CSX, I went to a mall and found a Mrs. Fields! I was so happy to have a chocolate chip cookie. I didn't see a lot of people buying in the mall, but there were more people. I made several observations while in the mall.

1. There are a lot more pregnant women in Hong Kong. I saw well over a dozen pregnant women in my two hours at the mall compared to about four pregnant women in 10 days in mainland China.

2. There are a lot more "big-boned" people in Hong Kong. The standard of living definitely correlates to waist size.

3. The Hong Kong natives put a lot of emphasis on cars. I have seen several Bentleys, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, and huge Benzes and BMWs.

In Hong Kong!

We got to Hong Kong this morning after a 3 hour flight from Shanghai. I stayed up pretty late last night working on my law paper and now I am finished! I am turning in early tonight because we have a full schedule tomorrow with visits to CSX and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

We walked around the town for a while tonight and found a 7-11, McDonald's, KFC and TGI Friday's. We met with a real estate firm to discuss the Hong Kong residential and commercial markets.

I almost got Shanghai'd

Today was a memorable day if for no other reason than the fact that I made it through it without losing life, limb or significant cash.

I set out with a friend early this morning determined to find a FedEx location to send home some the stuff we bought so that our load to Hong Kong would be lightened. After two thirty minute cab rides to some of the most destitute and dilapidated areas of Shanghai, we found FedEx in what looked like an abandoned warehouse. No one could speak English or at least English that I could understand. I finally got them to call FedEx and no one in FedEx's customer service center could speak English either and they could not transfer me to an American. We eventually played charades and found out that to send a 15 kg box to the States would be about $150. That was more than we spent on all of the stuff. During our escapade, we saw someone get hit on a bike by a car and saw a bus run into a car. We also got lots of stares from local Chinese people because we were the only white people within several miles. We finally made it back to the hotel and decided to just take a second checked bag on the plane, which will only cost an extra $30. We leave for Hong Kong at 10:30 AM on Wednesday.

I am currently taking a break from a likely all-nighter to finish a paper for law school. I have been so busy in China that I am having to hit it hard in the last days to finish, but I am well on the way.

On a reflective note, one of my co-travelers went to church on Sunday. We have been hearing from tour guides and government officials all week that China allows all religions. This fact was challenged significantly when there were officials at the church checking passports! They would let foreigners come in, but would not let Chinese citizens in. I seriously doubt that religious freedom exists to the extent that you can call it free.

Well, I have taken enough time away from the paper, back to it! I have more presents than Christmas to bring back to everyone.

Shanghai Stock Exchange & GM

Today we started off with a visit to the Shanghai Stock exchange. The Exchange is one of two major exchanges in China. The Shanghai Exchange is for companies with a market cap of over 600 RMB and the Shenzhen Exchange is for smaller companies. We met with the director of securities trading.

When we entered the trading floor around 10 AM, we assumed that the exchange was closed today for some reason. We saw about 10 traders on the floor at computers. We found out later that the exchange was indeed open and that the automated system of trading makes the exchange floor unnecessary on a daily basis.

After visiting the exchange and having another lazy susan lunch, we toured the GM plant in Shanghai. This was the best tour of the trip so far. The plant has one manufacturing line that simultaneously produces three car models, one of which is the Regal and the other two are designed for the chinese market only. All three cars are produced solely for the domestic market.

Last night was a great dinner at the Grand Hyatt, which is the tallest hotel in the world and the 4th largest building in the world. No lazy susan and some really good beef and chicken! Tonight we are going to eat Mexican.

You thought I was kidding ...

I have come to the conclusion that having the head of the animal still attached is good luck. See the following for an example:

In addition to this inference, below is a list of things the Chinese guides have told us that chinese culture regards as good luck:

• Round things
• Pearls
• Spheres
• The Phoenix
• Even Numbers
• The number 9 (Because the number 10 is only for Heaven and 9 is the best on earth)
• Burning incense for Buddha
• Coins
• Gold
• Door knobs
• Gold fish
• Crab Apples
• Magnolias

NOTE: Magnolias, Crab Apples, Pine trees, rocks, and the color red represent benevolence, which is the only thing they look for in a leader other than the leader's ability to over through the previous ruler. Chinese culture says that if you can overthrow the ruler, you assention is intended by God. If you fail, God obviously did not favor your rule.

They haven't really ellaborated on what gives you bad luck, but they have told us the following tidbits, which seem to at least imply bad luck:

• If you put a dragon in your yard during the Qing dynasty, you and your family and neighbors get killed
• If you paint your roof yellow in the Ming or Qing Dynasty, you get killed
• In Gungzhou, they used to eat monkey brains and fetal rats until the practice was banned a few years ago
• Stealing pearls

Sort of like our culture, except totally different.

Shanghai Markets

We spent most of the day shopping in the Shanghai Market District. We visited the "Ghost Market" where we bought tradtional Chinese toys like bamboo kites and tea sets. We also bought traditional chinese counterfeits! The Ghost Market is so named because the market opens so early in the morning on Sunday that the local population believes that only ghosts whould be awake at that hour.

After the Ghost Market, we went to the Xiangjang Market (a.k.a., the Counterfeit Market) and its name speaks for itself. The market was full of counterfeit watches, purses, luggage and clothing from such designer labels as Polo, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbanna, Prada and Gucci. We also found Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on DVD for 10 RMB (just over $1)!

I have now posted pictures of our visit to the Buddha Temple and the Silk market. See http://www.nealrobbins.com/photos/

Star Wars Episode 3

I know, it wasn't very culturally enlightening to go watch what amounts to one of the most American movies ever while I am in Shanghai. However, I am glad I did it. I had a great time and I got to see a lot of the city I migh tnot have found otherwise. We went through many parts of Shanghai to get to what amounts to the Times Square of Shanghai. The cinema (not movie theater as we called it initially which resulted in mass confusion for chinese speakers trying to give us directions) was in one of the biggest malls I have ever seen. There were six floors of Gucci, Sony, Lacoste, JVC, etc.

The movie was great (I will reserve my review until I see the US version to make sure the firendly chinese government didn't taken aything out) and the experience of seeing it in English in Shanghai with Chinese subtitles was once in a lifetime.

Shanghai'd

We arrived in Shanghai today by train from Hangzhou. The train ride was about 2 hours and we got to see some small-scale farms with single workers cultivating them.

We began our day in Shanghai at around noon. After another lazy susan (or as we have begun to call it rotating Mao) lunch which included popcorn shrimp with the heads still on, eel, tofu, questionable chicken, we toured the Temple of Buddha in Shanghai. The temple is home to the Jade Buddha which is a 6 foot Buddha made of jade.

After a short tour of a garden and a silk comforter factory, we arrived at the hotel. We met with some alumni who currently work in Shanghai and then we departed for dinner. In my case, I departed to find out when movies come on in Shanghai and then I had a cheeseburger in my room. I was in need of a cheeseburger fix and I had to take the time to work on a law school paper that I have to complete while I am in China.