Yeah, forgot to record down here. One of Audrey's good friends, Richard, took us to this Shanghainese tailor. He is about 92 but still kicking and making traditional clothes. Richard wanted to give us each a traditional Chinese jacket and a dress as our wedding gift. That was very generous of him.
I will have a traditional jacket, grey, to be custom made and delivered by mid-August. Actually, the one I tried on at the shop fitted perfectly. But still the tailer master still has to make one. So, will be interesting how that look on me from Hugo Boss and Zegna suits.
Audrey already has a qipao (Chinese dress) so we will be a match sometime when we have a banquet for friends this Fall.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Shanghai real estate
After checking out things on the web and talking to banks and locals, price will drop in the next while. Should wait. But this is a good time to look.
Since Jan, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen all saw their real estate value dropped by 30%. That's pretty significant. Shanghai seems to buck the trend; but there are signs that the sustaining downturn of the stock market is affecting people's wealth. The gov't rules also begin to bite into the runaway train of outrageous pricing. Some rules are: one person can only buy one apartment; if you use a joint, then you are out of luck for the second. Minimum down payment amount is raised as well.
From the Chinese real estate website, some of the expensive area are seeing price per sq meter dropping. But not sure why Xintiandi still ultra high at RMB100,000 per sq meter.
I am not though thinking the Shanghai real estate market will drop by 30%. This Shanghainese gov't tends to do things on its own and not with the central gov't that much. It's goal is to grow Shanghai. Seems there is a big project every two years. Now is Olympics, 2 years from now is World Expos, and 2 years after that is Disney. There have been lots of conferences about making Shanghai as the next financial hub. Keep this up, maybe; but still have a little commie thinking flare to it. Still can be odd in planning.
With the HSBC premier account, no need to transfer money into China for a mortgage. We can just pay from our HK account. That's good; as I don't like putting money into a place where "export" of currency is still restricted. We can get our pre-approval in 1 day if we needed. Hate to say this but I get better service with the Shanghai HSBC Premier branch than in HK. Go figure. There are three ways to get a mortgage for foreigner - US$ at about 5%, HK$ at about 5.5% or RMB$ at about 7.5%. The bank partners with some developers. If want to purchase, may have about 5% off the price. Of course, bank will levy any fees for processing the mortgage but quite small, about 0.0008%.
Since Jan, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen all saw their real estate value dropped by 30%. That's pretty significant. Shanghai seems to buck the trend; but there are signs that the sustaining downturn of the stock market is affecting people's wealth. The gov't rules also begin to bite into the runaway train of outrageous pricing. Some rules are: one person can only buy one apartment; if you use a joint, then you are out of luck for the second. Minimum down payment amount is raised as well.
From the Chinese real estate website, some of the expensive area are seeing price per sq meter dropping. But not sure why Xintiandi still ultra high at RMB100,000 per sq meter.
I am not though thinking the Shanghai real estate market will drop by 30%. This Shanghainese gov't tends to do things on its own and not with the central gov't that much. It's goal is to grow Shanghai. Seems there is a big project every two years. Now is Olympics, 2 years from now is World Expos, and 2 years after that is Disney. There have been lots of conferences about making Shanghai as the next financial hub. Keep this up, maybe; but still have a little commie thinking flare to it. Still can be odd in planning.
With the HSBC premier account, no need to transfer money into China for a mortgage. We can just pay from our HK account. That's good; as I don't like putting money into a place where "export" of currency is still restricted. We can get our pre-approval in 1 day if we needed. Hate to say this but I get better service with the Shanghai HSBC Premier branch than in HK. Go figure. There are three ways to get a mortgage for foreigner - US$ at about 5%, HK$ at about 5.5% or RMB$ at about 7.5%. The bank partners with some developers. If want to purchase, may have about 5% off the price. Of course, bank will levy any fees for processing the mortgage but quite small, about 0.0008%.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Must be the food from last night
Had a very weird dream I saw myself talking to Paul in Mandarin! Wow. Then Rod worked undercover in his jeans and T-shirt driving away in a 1980 GMC truck to find new investment; and me sitting in the back of a car that I drove using telepathy. I think this all came about from a crazy night eating at this local Shanghainese restaurant. We had local dishes like "hand pull chicken" similar to hand pull pork; spicy beef with green hot pepper, a large plate of pork shoulder, tofu, stir-fried veggies and assortment of appetizers. No beer; just tea.
I tried looking up the restaurant website this morning; very funny is that, it has been blocked. Apparently the restaurant used a free service; the service provider pull the plug on the free service citing problems with numerous scams and express "unfavourable" political views. Actually, it has stated clearly about the Olympics sensitivity. So the free service is temporarily suspended. After the Olympics, it will re-enable the service.
I tried looking up the restaurant website this morning; very funny is that, it has been blocked. Apparently the restaurant used a free service; the service provider pull the plug on the free service citing problems with numerous scams and express "unfavourable" political views. Actually, it has stated clearly about the Olympics sensitivity. So the free service is temporarily suspended. After the Olympics, it will re-enable the service.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Shopping for a place
Well, the inevitable is here; the rental contract is coming up; we are in the middle of debating continue for another 1 year, 2 year or 3 year rent at the current place or buy. So we spent the entire afternoon and evening doing the couple thing.
I surfed the Chinese real estate websites checking the latest news and the vast sale database. Very time consuming. Two people we knew that bought had looked at over 80 locations "in person"!!!! Price right now is definitely too high, bubble high! We went looking for some rental apartments with the range of RMB8,000 per month rent. Only managed getting into one. Yuck! Low ceiling, dark, windows wrong height, main bathroom was in the second bathroom with washer and dryer - Chinese styled tiles, the main bedroom had a half bath with tiles from floor to ceiling - white, long and narrow. I instantly ready to puke! Not because of the ugly factor; it had no windows, long, narrow, cold. It reminded me of the funeral parlor's inner room where my grandmother's body lied in wait for burial. Exactly the same :-( Then the closets, dirty plywood shelves with no finishing; I could see 3 years worth of dust and unfinished. Still had the original plywood rough edges. Funny. This building had mostly foreigner. What, a hostel? Then, we tried other apartments but couldn't get in because no one worked on weekends. Go figure. Then we managed getting into a health club adjacent to this one apartment block; membership is RMB1,800 if one lives in the apartment; cheap. And that went with the facility. Weight room, worst I had seen. Dark, worn out carpet - dark, 3 or 4 machines facing a draped dark wall. Then the swimming pool. To gain access, I went thru the men's locker room. Yuck! Tiles with dirty floor; then this one guy shaving in the hot tub; using the tub as the razer rinsing basin. Then walking up the stairs to the pool area, broken concrete with broken tiles. Suddenly, all foreigners lounging around.... To me, seemed like I had entered a time warp going back to a 3rd world country club with foreigners pretending the 1 star place as 5 star resort.
As I was thinking, price range with that in the Jing An area is really bad, or the real estate agents are giving the bottom of the piles.
I am checking apartments to purchase now; get the money to work for me. After some math calculations, seems the market maybe at a bubble. Or has already getting there. On average a 100 sq meters apartment is about RMB2.5M. That's the low end. Some higher end ones are about RMB3.5M to RMB4.0M. Some with RMB500 per month for management fee. NO final decision yet.
So the saga continues.
I surfed the Chinese real estate websites checking the latest news and the vast sale database. Very time consuming. Two people we knew that bought had looked at over 80 locations "in person"!!!! Price right now is definitely too high, bubble high! We went looking for some rental apartments with the range of RMB8,000 per month rent. Only managed getting into one. Yuck! Low ceiling, dark, windows wrong height, main bathroom was in the second bathroom with washer and dryer - Chinese styled tiles, the main bedroom had a half bath with tiles from floor to ceiling - white, long and narrow. I instantly ready to puke! Not because of the ugly factor; it had no windows, long, narrow, cold. It reminded me of the funeral parlor's inner room where my grandmother's body lied in wait for burial. Exactly the same :-( Then the closets, dirty plywood shelves with no finishing; I could see 3 years worth of dust and unfinished. Still had the original plywood rough edges. Funny. This building had mostly foreigner. What, a hostel? Then, we tried other apartments but couldn't get in because no one worked on weekends. Go figure. Then we managed getting into a health club adjacent to this one apartment block; membership is RMB1,800 if one lives in the apartment; cheap. And that went with the facility. Weight room, worst I had seen. Dark, worn out carpet - dark, 3 or 4 machines facing a draped dark wall. Then the swimming pool. To gain access, I went thru the men's locker room. Yuck! Tiles with dirty floor; then this one guy shaving in the hot tub; using the tub as the razer rinsing basin. Then walking up the stairs to the pool area, broken concrete with broken tiles. Suddenly, all foreigners lounging around.... To me, seemed like I had entered a time warp going back to a 3rd world country club with foreigners pretending the 1 star place as 5 star resort.
As I was thinking, price range with that in the Jing An area is really bad, or the real estate agents are giving the bottom of the piles.
I am checking apartments to purchase now; get the money to work for me. After some math calculations, seems the market maybe at a bubble. Or has already getting there. On average a 100 sq meters apartment is about RMB2.5M. That's the low end. Some higher end ones are about RMB3.5M to RMB4.0M. Some with RMB500 per month for management fee. NO final decision yet.
So the saga continues.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Various stupidities
Sometimes I wonder how some of the big International companies actually "made it" in China. I have observed the followings.
The Big "C" US networking company. Changed venue without actually notifying instructors. Go figure! To a complete different city but still the same province! And changed back to the city that was affected by the earthquake and the one where all the aid first flew into for distribution. It was suppose to be avoided. Today, major aftershock, felt by the city; we'll be there in two weeks. We would have issued the air tix already for the "original" destination. Good thing for double-checking. One of the instructors had issued the air tix and arranged a special vehicle going thru HK border to Shenzhen so that she could flew from there the "supposed" location early for pre-teaching meeting.
The Big Blue. Organizing a teaching class in Shanghai; but had to fly a HR person in from up north, the capital, to oversee the entire "operation"; well she knew nothing, arrived the night before the course, didn't even know where the class was; WE had to go find out and told her! The venue was a freaking dive! It used to be an ice factory converted into a "technology" park. Right.... Staffed with commie work attitude management. Good thing, the "technology" support staff was good. Then all the students were from the capital city, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And the hotel they stayed at was a 5-star hotel (Shangri-la) in a total different district across the HuangPo river (where that ugly space age tower was). So the students had to cut across traffic in taxis about 45 minutes to an hour to the course venue that was musty, poor lighting and infected with long leg spiders with spider webs. O yeah, the kicker was no lunch provided. Must have spent too much on transportation cost and hotel cost. Then when I provided an online menu to order food, they didn't even know how to "surf" a webpage to locate the proper section of the menu IN THEIR OWN FREAKING LANGUAGE!
Then there's the Apple guy. My MAC service is coming due on Aug 3; the auto renewal does not work due to the upgraded "Me" service taunted by Apple. Well, it is not work, still! And the Billing support department replied saying it is only temporarily; I can go checking the service status with a provided URL link; it does not point to the correct place though; then he suggested failing that, I can go to a Apple retail store to buy a Me subscription and put in the activation code. Well, I am in a bloody country that does not have a Apple store conveniently available. And what kind of Internet service that needs to FREAKING buy a hard case box in a store to enable a web-based service? With NO online shopping cart that can just renew automatically after payment? Unbelievable!
The Big "C" US networking company. Changed venue without actually notifying instructors. Go figure! To a complete different city but still the same province! And changed back to the city that was affected by the earthquake and the one where all the aid first flew into for distribution. It was suppose to be avoided. Today, major aftershock, felt by the city; we'll be there in two weeks. We would have issued the air tix already for the "original" destination. Good thing for double-checking. One of the instructors had issued the air tix and arranged a special vehicle going thru HK border to Shenzhen so that she could flew from there the "supposed" location early for pre-teaching meeting.
The Big Blue. Organizing a teaching class in Shanghai; but had to fly a HR person in from up north, the capital, to oversee the entire "operation"; well she knew nothing, arrived the night before the course, didn't even know where the class was; WE had to go find out and told her! The venue was a freaking dive! It used to be an ice factory converted into a "technology" park. Right.... Staffed with commie work attitude management. Good thing, the "technology" support staff was good. Then all the students were from the capital city, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And the hotel they stayed at was a 5-star hotel (Shangri-la) in a total different district across the HuangPo river (where that ugly space age tower was). So the students had to cut across traffic in taxis about 45 minutes to an hour to the course venue that was musty, poor lighting and infected with long leg spiders with spider webs. O yeah, the kicker was no lunch provided. Must have spent too much on transportation cost and hotel cost. Then when I provided an online menu to order food, they didn't even know how to "surf" a webpage to locate the proper section of the menu IN THEIR OWN FREAKING LANGUAGE!
Then there's the Apple guy. My MAC service is coming due on Aug 3; the auto renewal does not work due to the upgraded "Me" service taunted by Apple. Well, it is not work, still! And the Billing support department replied saying it is only temporarily; I can go checking the service status with a provided URL link; it does not point to the correct place though; then he suggested failing that, I can go to a Apple retail store to buy a Me subscription and put in the activation code. Well, I am in a bloody country that does not have a Apple store conveniently available. And what kind of Internet service that needs to FREAKING buy a hard case box in a store to enable a web-based service? With NO online shopping cart that can just renew automatically after payment? Unbelievable!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
AC mileage
I don't think I will get the SuperElite status again with AC; even though flying lots but with too many airlines. And AC does not give you extra mileage with the "higher" classes like last year. Last year I flew over 111,000 qualifying miles and 44 flights. This year. 1/3 at the most.
Pictures from the corner room
Pretty hazy this morning; the air smelled like burning. Will check out the town more later. Here are some pictures from our corner room out:
Hot hot hot....
Yikes! It'll get hotter still. Shanghai is heating up. It was over 35C today; by the weekend it will be over 38C. Ouch! Thank god for air cond.
But I am at a different city only after 3 days in Shanghai so to speak. We are at Kunshan (昆山), a city of over million (?) about 64Km from Shanghai. Not too far. This city actually is at a different province. In JiangSu (江苏). We have just checked into the Swissotel Kunshan. If you have Google Earth, go to this link and download the file to view. It's not the most recent as behind the hotel has been totally developed. I can see another nice hotel almost finished just in front of the park. I promise I will take a picture and post it in the next blog.
The streets are wide in Kunshan. But terrible drivers. Bad drivers. Honking, and passing on the lane with incoming traffic. One good thing though, our hotel is one of the tallest! Good thing, only 22 floors. We have the corner room on the 22nd floor. And the room cost is RMB580 + 15% taxes and free Internet. That's single occupancy. I barged in with my iron-wife. But price still holds. O we'll be here until Saturday afternoon. Iron-wife is going to teach a class at Voith.
But I am at a different city only after 3 days in Shanghai so to speak. We are at Kunshan (昆山), a city of over million (?) about 64Km from Shanghai. Not too far. This city actually is at a different province. In JiangSu (江苏). We have just checked into the Swissotel Kunshan. If you have Google Earth, go to this link and download the file to view. It's not the most recent as behind the hotel has been totally developed. I can see another nice hotel almost finished just in front of the park. I promise I will take a picture and post it in the next blog.
The streets are wide in Kunshan. But terrible drivers. Bad drivers. Honking, and passing on the lane with incoming traffic. One good thing though, our hotel is one of the tallest! Good thing, only 22 floors. We have the corner room on the 22nd floor. And the room cost is RMB580 + 15% taxes and free Internet. That's single occupancy. I barged in with my iron-wife. But price still holds. O we'll be here until Saturday afternoon. Iron-wife is going to teach a class at Voith.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Arrived home
Good thing for AC upgrade vouchers. It made the almost 12 hours crossing bearable. Service was really really good this time compared to before; must be the crew; it made things nice. I actually remember two flight attendants from my previous trans-Pacific flights. Did I fly too much before? Must be. Food and wine were better than any American airlines I flew during the last three weeks. No surprise there. I didn't eat much though, maybe 3/4 of the food. In-flight movies, sucked as always. Must be the cost cutting; the same ones as we flew across to North America.
One thing I did notice, not that many people flying on this flight. Maybe it was Friday, maybe not. The AC lounge in Vancouver was deserted. And not many people boarded our flight. I could see lots of empty seats. Wonder if the Olympics has anything to do with it.
During our transit in Vancouver, I thought we could just walk over to the International without clearing Immigration and Custom. Because it was too early in the morning, we had to. Go figure. One good thing, our checked bags were done automatically without picking them up and so on... At that hour, not much traffic except the Honolulu flight arrived 45 minutes before us. Zipped we were thru Immigration. Then we couldn't get thru International security. It opened at 8am. Nothing before. And then 8:30am before AC Lounge is opened. Lots of waiting it seemed in North America. The shops inside the International waiting area was opened by 8am and why not AC Lounge? Ummm....
Our early arrival at Shanghai was delayed by people hooking us up to the gate; so what was the point. I noticed our ID was scanned "due-diligently" at the Chinese immigration. Basically, my ID card were looked over three times and my boarding pass read letter by letter. Olympic security. Wait until today go to the airport (July 20). The extra security at all major airports. You need to be screened at the door before going into the airport, passengers or not! How complex is that going to be.
We arrived home at 3:00pm or so; then by 4:00pm we were sleeping... woke up twice briefly, then slept until 6:45am this morning. A 14-hour sleep. That was the most sleep I had in 3 weeks! I am sure, two really early flights, one from Oakland to Seattle, then from Seattle to Vancouver took a toll. Then all the traveling with the cross-continent time zone.
Now I am home. This coming week I am suppose to go to KuanShan with Audrey for her work from Tuesday to Saturday. I better stay home and work. Then the follow weeks we will be away.... Macau/Hong Kong. Then Chongqing and Singapore. Should be back in Shanghai by mid-August.
One thing I did notice, not that many people flying on this flight. Maybe it was Friday, maybe not. The AC lounge in Vancouver was deserted. And not many people boarded our flight. I could see lots of empty seats. Wonder if the Olympics has anything to do with it.
During our transit in Vancouver, I thought we could just walk over to the International without clearing Immigration and Custom. Because it was too early in the morning, we had to. Go figure. One good thing, our checked bags were done automatically without picking them up and so on... At that hour, not much traffic except the Honolulu flight arrived 45 minutes before us. Zipped we were thru Immigration. Then we couldn't get thru International security. It opened at 8am. Nothing before. And then 8:30am before AC Lounge is opened. Lots of waiting it seemed in North America. The shops inside the International waiting area was opened by 8am and why not AC Lounge? Ummm....
Our early arrival at Shanghai was delayed by people hooking us up to the gate; so what was the point. I noticed our ID was scanned "due-diligently" at the Chinese immigration. Basically, my ID card were looked over three times and my boarding pass read letter by letter. Olympic security. Wait until today go to the airport (July 20). The extra security at all major airports. You need to be screened at the door before going into the airport, passengers or not! How complex is that going to be.
We arrived home at 3:00pm or so; then by 4:00pm we were sleeping... woke up twice briefly, then slept until 6:45am this morning. A 14-hour sleep. That was the most sleep I had in 3 weeks! I am sure, two really early flights, one from Oakland to Seattle, then from Seattle to Vancouver took a toll. Then all the traveling with the cross-continent time zone.
Now I am home. This coming week I am suppose to go to KuanShan with Audrey for her work from Tuesday to Saturday. I better stay home and work. Then the follow weeks we will be away.... Macau/Hong Kong. Then Chongqing and Singapore. Should be back in Shanghai by mid-August.
It has been a while...
The three-week tour of the States were really taxing to our bodies both physically and mentally. Now, we are heading back to Shanghai; I am currently 30,000 ft in the air crossing the Pacific Ocean. Have to apologize if I did not call everyone to say Hi. I didn't have a chance with all the activities and visits.
This trip really costed lots. We got custom bikes in Boston from Fit WRX. It's a bike shop specializing in road racing bikes. I could not believe how much money you can spend. But in the end, there is a bike that fits your body totally. A fitting session is about 2.5 hours. Your body was measured not just the inseam but also your thigh length, your ankle rotations, your walking style, your flexibility, your shoe size, our sitting position, your reach to the handle bar; then to put thing together, there was a computerized power analysis machine seeing how the bike will provide best power. Too technical. But should last.
Through out the travel - air travel that was the last 3 weeks. Sucked in US. Chaotic, messy. I just didn't like it. Canada makes US looking really good! We flew AA from Boston back to SFO. Was surprise on the service. Good, friendly flight attendants. Movies for the 6 hours plus flight. Liquid O plentiful. Compared to United Airline I flew before or NW, I was shock. All those major city airports, they sucked! Signs, at times comparable to India's Ghandi International airport. Vacnouver's International Airport just flows nicely. Seattle and SFO, both too old and not user-friendly. Misleading signs, long queue for taxi to name a few. The GPS I rented with my rental car really helped in navigation. When I had to second guess with the signs and myself, the GPS took over telling me exactly what's what. Get one next time in California or East Coast.
This trip really costed lots. We got custom bikes in Boston from Fit WRX. It's a bike shop specializing in road racing bikes. I could not believe how much money you can spend. But in the end, there is a bike that fits your body totally. A fitting session is about 2.5 hours. Your body was measured not just the inseam but also your thigh length, your ankle rotations, your walking style, your flexibility, your shoe size, our sitting position, your reach to the handle bar; then to put thing together, there was a computerized power analysis machine seeing how the bike will provide best power. Too technical. But should last.
Through out the travel - air travel that was the last 3 weeks. Sucked in US. Chaotic, messy. I just didn't like it. Canada makes US looking really good! We flew AA from Boston back to SFO. Was surprise on the service. Good, friendly flight attendants. Movies for the 6 hours plus flight. Liquid O plentiful. Compared to United Airline I flew before or NW, I was shock. All those major city airports, they sucked! Signs, at times comparable to India's Ghandi International airport. Vacnouver's International Airport just flows nicely. Seattle and SFO, both too old and not user-friendly. Misleading signs, long queue for taxi to name a few. The GPS I rented with my rental car really helped in navigation. When I had to second guess with the signs and myself, the GPS took over telling me exactly what's what. Get one next time in California or East Coast.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
an update
OK, now that I finally have time sitting down to blog, I am two day and a bit away from flying back to Shanghai. Time sure has flown by. And driving in US has reminded me that the drivers here just do not drive with "safety" in mind. And the traffic signs, before criticizing other "developing" countries, they should look at theirs. Things hiding behind big bushes and then you have to turn right away. Or, you are assume to be a local and "should" know all the exits or entrance to freeways. Driving, the roads are not tuned for high speed driving; yet everyone speeds; no wonder there are so many accidents. And then self-inflicted traffic jams on the free ways. There was no reasons. Keep up! On a stretch of road from Seattle to Portland, we were stuck for in a six-mile stretch of road. I thought there was an accident; it wasn't; just people were driving slow because the road went from 3 lanes to 2 lanes; then all of sudden everything slowed. Then, traffic sped up again; there was no bottle neck, nothing! Then, the cars I have been driving; all had so light steering I think it should be mandatory to own a German made vehicle so that one gets better control of a car. The grand am and the Toyota Camry, man.... I felt like I had no control with the steering. I slowed down to less than 60's but people were driving at 70's or 80's in a 55 zone, scary.
And then the TV programming; it's worse than Canada!!!! Except the Golf Chanel, of course. Too bad I'll be back in Shanghai when the Open is on. O well.
My current location is Los Alto, California, just next to Palo Altos. Staying at the Residence Inn by Marriott; not bad; has a kitchenette, free b'fast everyday; free coffee and bear 24-hours a day; guest welcome night every night with food and beer. Tomorrow will leave here early as we have to drive up to Oakland to catch a 8:35am Southwest flight to Seattle. Spending the day there; then next morning early, we go back to Shanghai via Vancouver; will have about 3 1/2 hours layover. You just never know who will be calling ....
And then the TV programming; it's worse than Canada!!!! Except the Golf Chanel, of course. Too bad I'll be back in Shanghai when the Open is on. O well.
My current location is Los Alto, California, just next to Palo Altos. Staying at the Residence Inn by Marriott; not bad; has a kitchenette, free b'fast everyday; free coffee and bear 24-hours a day; guest welcome night every night with food and beer. Tomorrow will leave here early as we have to drive up to Oakland to catch a 8:35am Southwest flight to Seattle. Spending the day there; then next morning early, we go back to Shanghai via Vancouver; will have about 3 1/2 hours layover. You just never know who will be calling ....
Monday, July 14, 2008
2/3 done
What a whirlwind the last two weeks! GEG,SEA,PDX,BOS,SFO,OAK and since today, I have been to Oakland, San Jose, south of San Jose, and then finally stopping at Palo Alto. Final stop before heading back to Shanghai via SEA this coming Friday. Thursday morning, a very early drive from Palo Alto to Oakland for a 6am flight to SEA. Yikes!
Will write more tomorrow; all I can say is: my niece and nephew are so darn cute and smart!!!!!
Will write more tomorrow; all I can say is: my niece and nephew are so darn cute and smart!!!!!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Another fine border experience
NOT. Our Shanghai to Vancouver flight arrived late by over an hour. Thought we would still have plenty of time doing the US transfer. But the US transfer was so horrible! Must be the new policy of welcoming visitors; and this country was complaining about China's ill treatment of visa application. For the entire US transfer from the Vancouver International, there was ONLY one guy working! He had to process visitors from two sides! One person. I felt sorry for that person. He called and called from his radio. He was a one-man show. But very friendly and tried to lightened the situation. The transfer line-up was filled all the way up to the transfer desk at the Canadian arrivals. And the Vancouver airport helpers kept calling and calling, no response from the US. So, we had about 10 minutes to get to our Seattle flight. Running with flip flops! After an eternity of waiting at immigration then the security check, we ran like mad down this corridor for all the AC short haul US destinations. Right, another 15 minutes walk, but we ran! Made it! But then, all passengers who were trying to board the Seattle flight found no plane at the gate. Oppps... Wrong place. "Sorry folks, follow me". Some passengers actually boarded the wrong flight to some other US destination.
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