chinese karaoke and other interesting topics...

Shorter-than-usual blog – but I’ll post now because who knows when I’ll get to it again. I tend to drag my feet a bit, or get busy, so when I’ve got something written I should put it out there.
Well, travel IS broadening - new experiences abound. I’ll start with a silly one, which I could have done anywhere (but definitely never wanted to!). Management decided to have a team-bonding exercise, which I was invited to – and it was karaoke. Now, I’ve been known, on rare occasions, to have fun with a microphone in my hand. But singing in front of people is definitely not my thing, even though I love music. I tried to protest that I didn’t know any of the songs they were doing – but then they put on The Eagles’ Hotel California and I was on the spot. After that they couldn’t stop me – Beatles, Cat Stevens, even Moon River. I made them take a picture while I was doing it, so I have proof – a rare travel photo with me in it. I think I sounded OK – but then, doesn’t everyone think that?
The weirdest/funniest part was when they rang up ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’. Most songs had their own video, many apparently made in China, and RRNR was one of them. I’d have assumed they’d do something animated or show some Santa scenes – but instead they went with a snow theme and showed shots of a Chinese ice-sculpture festival. So as RRNR is starting, the first thing you see are giant faces carved in the snow (think Mt Rushmore) of … some Communist Party heroes! (Mao was the only one I recognized, but the others had red-star military-style hats.) Then dragons and other Chinese works of ice and snow. Quite surreal -it definitely made it hard to concentrate on this light-hearted Christmas tune!
Anyway, back to reality. As the weather’s been holding up I’ve engaged in a few more walks around town. I’m running out of places I haven’t seen near the hotel, so I may have to take a taxi to another part of town (one that’s on the map!) and start walking. Today, Sunday, our hosts hired a driver to take us a couple of hours away to an historic town in the Yangtze River delta call Wu Zhen (‘Black Town’). It was pretty interesting; sort of like a small-scale Venice with boats taking you around town, although there are many footpaths as well. There were a lot of museums – one for beds, another with coins, others with clothing, woodwork, etc. I contributed heavily to the local economy by loading up on gifts from the local artisans, including a needlework tiger for $20 (pre-bargaining price: $40) that will go in my den as a reminder of my trip. I probably could have bargained another couple of bucks out of it – the strategy is to take the original price and divide by 3 and work up from there - but what’s the point. I’ve got it and they don’t, so I’ll share a little bit.
Going during the day wasn’t optimal, since we’ve been on grave shift for the past week and are acclimated to sleeping during the day, but we were able to snooze in the van on the way back to Shanghai. And yes, I did stick a toe into the Yangtze River (delta). Now if I can just make it out to the Yellow Sea – I’m going to try that one again tomorrow, while I should be sleeping, because it’s supposed to be clear and sunny with a high of 62. Could be another long Monday night…
During the drive southwest, the countryside was very flat, with a mixture of agriculture and industry. I saw a lot of smokestacks, both big and small, belching filth into the sky, as well as a couple of smoky fires where people were burning their garbage. Now I think I understand where the pollution in Shanghai comes from. Our coworker/guide told us that this was illegal but that the government either doesn’t catch or doesn’t prosecute a lot of people or small industries.
I also saw some odd vehicles. Most places I travel, I see odd vehicles, but these were really unusual – three-wheeled trucks. And I’m not talking little rickshaw-sized 3-wheelers, but full-sized-pickup three-wheelers. One even had duals on the back to carry heavy loads. They were on the surface streets and I didn’t see any on the highways; I’d have to think they don’t handle very well at high speeds. I guess they have an advantage for maneuverability or gas mileage or both.
Just took a break from writing to see the fireworks outside my 11th-floor window. There’s a casino or something directly behind the hotel that was shooting them off, probably to draw business. It’s no exaggeration to say that I hear and see fireworks every night. First night in town, a coworker asked me the next morning “did you hear that gunfire?”. But as we soon learned, they do love their fireworks around here. These ones behind the hotel tonight weren’t going up very high – about even with my window.
No interesting food consumption to report, unless you count the excellent burger I allowed myself tonight. There’s a place around the corner, an American hangout called Johnny Moo’s, that I’d been eying but hadn’t been into. Pretty authentic, I’d say. I paid for it by making myself walk the 269 stairs back up to my room…
Hope all’s well with everyone.