Helping the Chinese Economy Grow (Part 1) August 9, 2012

First of all, I am pleased to report that the second red alarm typhoon day did not materialize. I woke to the sound of silence and a bit of sun peaking through the window...

What a gift... Shanghai here we come! At 9:00 I was the first customer in the door at a beautiful, rather imposing Bank of China. I need to tell you that making a transaction at the Bank of China is very different than making a transaction at Wells Fargo. I had some cash from my friend Ed that I needed to change into RMB's to go and buy the good fake Rolex's... (I'll get to that later!) I told the man at the front door what I wanted to do. He asked if I had my passport and then directed me to a teller window. Then he gave me a form to fill out. I slid my form, passport and cash through the window. Two tellers examined the bills to make sure they were the real deal! Also, numbers on the passport were scrutinized. She then showed me the exchange rate for $100.00 (639 RMB)... "O.K., O.K.. she wore a 'trainee' pin, ... great... I had people waiting.... I would say about 10 minutes later, I received my receipt as well as cash that had been counted at least 3 times! I headed back to the Fish Inn to join Dave, Sally and Elizabeth.

Our first destination was the Yuyuan Garden. We took the Metro, line 10!
The Shanghai metro is very clean and easy to use. A few stops later, we were once again out on the streets and soon in the midst of a serious toursit trap make believe market, spliced with a smattering of DQ and KFC!
Many hawkers trying to lure us into tea houses and shopping stalls! There were opportunities to buy fake rolexes, but I remembered what Ed said, and held back.

Once in the Garden, we were fortunate to run into a young Chinese man, recently graduated from the University, who offered, for a small fee, to be our guide. His American name was Tony and he was a great guy.




Throughout his narrative, we worked on the Long A sound as in Crane and Main! He learned the difference between 'tired' and 'exhausted' and we learned a great deal about Mr. Pan who had built the garden in the 1500's. Originally, 70 acres, it has now been reduced to 30. At one time, a person could stand on top of a man made rock wall and see all of the city. Today, the garden is hidden among the sea of skyscrapers in every direction.
Sally and I sat on a bench next to the water, under a pergola, reserved for beautiful ladies!

From the garden, we decided to try the Xibo Restaurant specializing in food from northwestern China (far reaches of Mongolia?) It was recommended on a website forwarded by John this morning. We were told it was a 10 minute walk from Line 10. Thirty minutes later, we arrived thanks to the personal escort service of an elderly Taiwanese couple who lived in the U.S. for 40 plus years. At first they just gave us directions, but on further consideration decided to accompany us to the door. This was very kind of them as he was clearly up in years. They were a delight! (She just retired from an OB Gyn practice and he is a retired engineer. They have two children living in New York City.) Three of us ordered a specialty of the Xibo... a mixture of many small pieces of well seasoned fried bread with bits of lamb and pepper! The glass of Chardonnay was great, and it was a nice change from rice!

After lunch, we made out way to the Jiang 'an Temple. This is an exquisite series of traditional building smack dab in the middle of clusters of skyscrapers.



Going in the main entrance, visitors are invited to purchase a stick of incense, light it in a large caldron specifically for that purpose and then wave the stick in all four directions. Many bells of different shapes and sizes are attached to a large bronze structure in the center of the courtyard. The sound of tinkling bells pervaded the air. Random monks dressed in golden colored robes can be seen walking in and out of doors.




Up in the main temple, sits a huge budha (15 tons of silver) flanked by red silk pillows.


A number of people stopped for a minute to pray... This is the first time I've witnessed any kind of worship since being in China. It was a moment to stop and give thanks for this amazing experience.



It was now around 3:00. Dave left to walk around the French Concession, Elizabeth headed back to the Fish Inn and Sally decided to accompany me to "Tommy: Tao Bao City. (One world, One family, One dream!)
Stay tuned for Helping the Chinese Economy Grow (Part 2)




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Location:Downtown Shanghai