I’m back from my Shanghai tour and I am hugely disappointed in the tour itself. It was a big waste of time. We went to some nice places but the issue was the tour guide. The pamphlet promises a “smiling, English-speaking tour guide,” but our guide, named Sheila, smiled only in the way that a dragon smiles before cooking you with a puff of fiery breath. What’s more, her employer is Jin Jiang Optional Tours Center a government-owned tour company, so she was a bit of a commie true believer.

Our first destination was an active buddhist temple. Right off the bat Sheila spouted a ridiculous line about China recognizing religious freedom in its constitution. Yeah, tell that to the Tibetans or followers of Falun Gong. That’s when I began smirking and waiting for the tour to be over.

I’m meeting my colleagues for one last dinner together. Once I return I’ll post pictures from today and describe more of the sights.

(I’m sure its just coincidence that my usually excellent connection to The Google died right after I searched for a link to Falun Gong. Yep.)

Wow. Just wow.

I’ve been to a lot of places in my life but Shanghai simply takes my breath away. Looking around, I just couldn’t believe all of this is here.

The training went much better than the Beijing one, in the opinion of most of us. Thirty-two partners attended, some from very far away. I skipped the stupid slide show and did my specialty – live demos and training. This let me cover more ground than Beijing’s session and the flow seemed to connect better with the attendees. It didn’t hurt that this hotel’s Internet connection is 3-4 times faster than the Beijing hotel’s.

We met at the hotel restaurant for lunch. With no grasp of the Chinese language, Gary and I fumbled our way through last night’s dinner and wound up with a good, but not great, dinner. I was frankly not looking forward to another bland dinner – and certainly not bland hotel food. What I got, though, knocked my socks off. It was top-shelf, amazingly flavorful Chinese food. I kept eating and eating until I couldn’t eat any more. What I thought was Chinese food – the stuff in America – didn’t come anywhere near the taste of this food. I was blown away! It’s certainly the best hotel meal I’ve ever had and the best lunch I’ve had in a long, long while.

In the middle of lunch I became the recipient of a spontaneous toast from my colleagues and the attendees at my table, for which I was surprised as well as deeply honored. Outside of my wedding day I’ve never been the recipient of a toast before (and those I shared with my lovely bride). How does it happen that people I’ve only just met would offer me a toast? I find it hard to fathom. Wow.

The rest of the training went smoothly. Everyone did well on the exam I give at the end of the course. As Gary thanked each one of us who put the session together, I told everyone that it was my great pleasure to have been with them today (and I meant it). I think they appreciated hearing that.

My colleague Jenny then helped me book a tour of Shanghai for tomorrow. Following that I had a brief chance to blog the previous post before we all headed out to dinner.

Our dinner tonight was for traditional Shanghai food at the famous Xiao Nan Guo restaurant. We feasted on roast duck; pork leg; roast lamb; beef; white radishes; seafood including sea cucumber, a succulent grouper-like whitefish, and even raw (!) shrimp; and bottle upon bottle of red wine!

Everyone was psyched about today’s training and the mood was festive. I made the mistake of sharing what my tour guide told me back on Saturday. He asked if my Chinese colleagues had taken me out for a big dinner. When I said not yet he told me to expect it. It is a Chinese tradition to treat guests to a big meal and massive amounts of alcohol. Once the alcohol loosens you up your true character shines through, you see. I shared this with my friends and immediately “cheers” became “bottoms up” (or “gala” in Chinese)! We began to down multiple full glasses of wine! I soon begged we “pace ourselves” in order to “make it a long night,” just to inject a little sanity back into things (though the wine was outstanding and I would’ve been willing, if not able, to drink them under the table).

Midway through the dinner, I looked around the table at these friends who were all, with the exception of Gary, total strangers just one week ago. I was enjoying myself so much that right then and there I began to memorize as many details of the scene as I could. I didn’t want it to end, and I never want to forget it.

We had the waiter take a picture of our group. From left to right are Tony, Alex, Jasper, Ja Ja, Dork Boy, John, Gary, George, and Jenny.

Dinner did end, though, at which point Jenny and George volunteered to take Gary and me on a quick tour of the riverside of downtown Shanghai, better known as the Bund. It was skyscraper after eye-popping skyscraper. Neon everywhere. And a good smattering of colonial-era buildings were thrown in for spice, too. If it weren’t for a chilly wind blowing in from the coast we may have walked down the boardwalk for an hour or more.

George is Chinese and on the younger side. He was in awe of my history of travel. I’d mention someplace I’d been and he would hang on my every word, a faraway gleam in his eye. One day, I told him, he may have the same opportunity to see the world as I have. I think he will.

Now I’m back at the hotel with so much to write about and so little time. I’ve been smiling so much today I think my face is permanently stuck. It’s been a fantastic day on so many levels. Already I’m making plans to return here some day.

Tomorrow starts early again as I hop a taxi to meet the day’s tour group at another hotel. I’ll have eight sights to see on my day-long tour. After that I’ll meet my colleages once again for another dinner, and this time it won’t be Chinese food but Italian for a change. Its all been so very fun that if it weren’t for my family being so far away I’d find it hard to leave!

Oh, and see shots of this amazing day in the gallery, of course.

I met recently with a large client and came home wearing a suit – a rarity for me. When my son Travis asked me about this strange outfit, I jokingly told him it was my “monkey suit.” Travis then spent the rest of the day referring to it as a monkey suit. He’ll probably call them that forever! In light of my disposition for casual dress I can’t decide whether his calling them monkey suits is good thing or bad thing!

Well, the monkey suit is off for good now! Training is complete after an outstanding session here in Shanghai. Things went amazingly smoothly, I covered far more material than I did in Beijing, and attendees really seemed to like what they saw. Today’s session alone made the whole trip worth it. I’m very pleased!

I’ve got some blog posts to catch up on but they’ll have to wait a few hours more. I’m joining Gary and the Shanghai team for a celebratory dinner tonight. (I’m guessing it will be Chinese food!) Then I’ll be back to add more of my thoughts on China before turning in for the night. The local team has arranged for me to take a day-long tour of Shanghai tomorrow, which I’m greatly looking forward to. The weather should be nice and picture-worthy, so expect more dazzling additions to the gallery! Incidentally, I copied the day’s photos up there (at least, the day’s so far).

I updated the gallery with shots from Tuesday’s training. Also there are a few pictures of the Beijing Holiday Inn Central Plaza. As you can see, the room is like any other Holiday Inn.

Beijing was unusally clear again Wednesday morning so I got a few more shots of the skyline from my hotel. I also couldn’t resist a shot of the neon above the Shanghai airport. You can also see my Shanghai hotel room.

I can really tell I’m farther south now. The sun rose sooner this morning than the previous days. It was a compelling sight out my Shanghai hotel this morning so I snapped a few of it. You’ll have to wait 12 more hours to see those!

Time to get dressed and enjoy my complimentary breakfast in this beautiful hotel, the Jian Guo Hotel Shanghai.

Ah, Shanghai. Where else can you enjoy the view of glittering skyscrapers together with the aroma of raw sewage? I suppose that sums up where China is in its rapid growth: between two worlds.

We walked to a popular area of downtown where we eventually found an interesting Chinese restaurant. Unlike the restaurants in Beijing, this one didn’t cater to Western diners. The menus had no English whatsoever and none of the staff spoke English, either.

Gary and I managed to point to the pictures well enough to order decent-tasting dishes. Gary ordered some kind of fish in a cold sauce and a plate of beef in a spicy sauce. I ordered a stir-fry with walnuts and ham cubes. It was very good.

On the walk back to the hotel I had the urge to visit the corner Best Buy, just because every corner in America seems to have one. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending) it was closed.

Tomorrow’s another training day, so any looking around will have to wait. I hope to soon get a chance to see this city in the daylight.

My Beijing training day is over now. Things went very well. I’m beat but I can post a few words about it.

There were 36 attendees for today’s training. None of them spoke English, which made my training last at least twice as long once the translation (and spotty hotel internet) was factored in. It was awkward to have to stop every few sentences and wait for the Chinese version, but we got by. I think Jasper, our Beijing colleague, got more information across in his 15-minute talk than Gary and I did all day.

I was impressed that such a large group hung in there the whole day. If my blabbering alone wasn’t enough to bore them, hearing it in two languages must have been twice as boring. They asked good questions during the talk and left with smiles on their faces. I hope they go out and sell now!

After the training we were invited to dinner with John, the company’s country manager for China. We stopped by the company office to pick up Logan before heading to the restaurant.

No sooner had we gotten in the car than BOOM! We weren’t going anywhere because the roads were gridlocked with the notoriously bad Beijing traffic. I think it took an hour for us to drive 6 kilometers. I must have stared at the back of the same VW Sahara for 45 minutes while neither one of us was moving. We could’ve walked in baby steps and arrived sooner! I’ll never again laugh at the bicyclists here taking their lives into their own hands: a bicycle is still the easiest way to get around Beijing.

We finally made it to the restaurant, a famous, traditional Chinese restaurant next to the B&Binn (unfortunately I never caught the name of this restaurant). On the menu were, um, interesting dishes such as (and I am not making this up) grilled fish head, goose gizzard, rabbit intestine, and God knows what else. I played it safe with an order of stir-fried shrimp but still got roped into trying others’ rabbit stew (tasty!) and cow’s foot (imagine eating fatty cartilege- yuck!). After my requisite tastes of the exotic meals, I tried my damnedest to fill up on the broccoli and mushrooms before anyone offered seconds!

Talk with John, Logan, and Gary ranged from kids (of course), golf courses of the world, Las Vegas, Beijing traffic (of course), China vacation spots off the beaten path, Australia’s overrated Gold Coast, and many others. I truly enjoyed hearing my Chinese colleagues’ opinions on matters. We all got along very well.

Tomorrow we fine-tune our training presentation before hopping a 3:30 plane to Shanghai. I’ll be there until Saturday evening, when I fly back to Beijing to catch my flight home the following day. I’m told Shanghai is much like Hong Kong now: glittery, modern, and quite expensive. I’m looking forward to my first look at this world-famous city.

It was a clear morning in Beijing yesterday so I took some pictures out the window oof my hotel. Also I took some pictures at our Beijing office. Mostly I just prepared for today’s training.

You can see my new pics in the gallery, of course.

Time for breakfast and then a long day of training.