Shanghai

I cannot believe it but I am currently in main land China! China is so amazing. I cannot believe it. Shanghai is a lot more like what I believed Asia would be. Shanghai is by far the largest city I have ever been in. They say that here is between 17 and 23 million people that live here. Just think of 23 million people trying to live in Salt Lake Valley which is closely comparable to the geographic area of Shanghai. That is a lot of people. But it is only a scratch in the number of people that actually live in China. Can you believe that there are 1.3 billion people that live in China? That is 4 times as many people as the United States even though China and the continental United States are about the same size. Shanghai is the largest formal city in China. Shanghai is currently giving an extremely large push to be a global player in the market. Because of this they are investing huge amounts of money into the infrastructure here. There is so much road contrition that Utah looks like a nice place with little construction.

We got into Shanghai on Friday afternoon. The airport that we went into was beautiful and new. It was exceptionally large. We got into the airport at an off peak time so our airport experience was painless, quick, and efficient. We are staying that that Renaissance hotel (very nice). The Hotel sent five people to meet us at the airport and then had a large fifty seater bus waiting for us. The airport is about 45 minutes to an hour outside of Shanghai. The drive into Shanghai was quite pleasant. Once we got into our hotel and checked in it was evening. We went straight to the fabric market to get suits made. Let’s just say that it was an expensive two hours : ) about two blocks from our hotel is a real touristy market. They have classic style Chinese buildings and the best dumplings in the world! Seriously they are amazing! We did a little shopping then we walked down to a place right on the river. The city is divided into two parts, the new and the old. The river divides the city into the two parts. Along the river is the Bund which is a really famous old part of town. About 70 or 80 years ago Europe had a larger influence here in Shanghai so there are a bunch of European type buildings that are really pretty on the water front. However, if you look across the river you see where the new meets the old. China is making such a strong push to become modern. Across the river ten to fifteen years ago it was just rice fields now it is the financial center or Shanghai with skyscrapers all across the horizon. They even have one of the world’s tallest buildings that will soon be beat out by the skyscraper in Dubai. The Chinese mean business. Shanghai is by far the most difficult city for us to get around so far. In all of the other cities they have had a much larger western influence. Most of them have been British colonies at some point or another. We have been able to speak English and get around just fine. Here if you don’t speak Mandarin you have a really hard time. Also the infrastructure is not nearly so good. However, I would only give them a few more years they are dumping buckets of money in here to build better subways, roads, and bridges.
Sunday was a really fun day. It was fun because it was really relaxing. We had to leave the hotel at 7:00 am to get to church by 8:00 am. Church was really nice the spirit was strong.

After Church we went back to the hotel and just had a relaxing day. A lot of people are starting to get burnt out so it was nice to have a day where we can all go at our own pace. We got back to the hotel and decided that we wanted to eat (food is a good thing right?). Brother, Fawcett told us of a good restaurant that he liked. We had the hotel write down in Chinese the address so we could give it to the taxi driver. We got to the restaurant at 1:45 pm and they were going to close at 2:00 pm so they refused us service. So we were still really hungry so we walked down the street to this other restaurant. The funny thing is that we are not in the touristy parts of town at this point. We had been taken to the more urban parts of shanghai about twenty minutes from our hotel. We didn’t see a single foreigner the whole time we were down there. So the eight of us in this group went into this restaurant and no one spoke a lick of English in the restaurant. So they managed to get us seated and gave us all menus and they were all in Chinese and we had no idea what we were ordering. They had pictures so we all just kind of guessed. Well two people ended up ordering beers and I ordered what I thought to be fried fish/chicken. Oh no. Definitely not. So when the lady brought it out she came out laughing. She put it down in front of me and then stood behind me to watch me eat it while she tried to hold back her laughing. Not only did she come to watch but three of the cooks from inside the kitchen came out to watch but couldn’t hold back the laughter. Well she didn’t put any fried chick or fish in front of me. It was this weird rice cake thing with this really weird slimy orange fishy type sauce on it. The rice cake seemed like it was made of weird Rice Crispy’s. Well let’s just say that it wasn’t very good. I left the restaurant very hungry still. Some of the other people’s food wasn’t too bad. Someone ordered spring rolls that seemed like they were filled with fish fat. To this day I have no idea what I ate but I think it is better that way. I really wish I would have learned Mandarin at this moment and time. After getting back to the hotel we went swimming which was quite amazing. The pool is located on the 22 nd floor, which is the top, and the edges of the pool are glass so you can see right out to the city. The view is amazing. We went and wandered the market. It was nice.
Monday was a really busy day. We had two business visits. The first was with a company called Human Capital Group (HCG). HCG is a company started by a foreigner. It is amazing what a great blessing being a missionary is and having the opportunity to learn a language. A large number of businesses that we have visited have had LDS people working there because of their language skills and the level of integrity. This company is a Human Resource company started by a member that served in Taiwan. The company focuses on training and talent development. China is such an emerging market; however, one thing that multinational companies struggle with is that there is a lack of qualified local talent. Western business is much different than Asian business. They are trying to help multinational companies develop and find talent that will fit their needs. Our second visit was with Trust-Mart / Wal-mart. They guy we met with was also a Taiwanese missionary that is now the Asia-Pacific CFO. Wal-mart entered into China in 1996 and two years ago they bought a 35% stake in Trust-mart a Taiwanese based retailer. They now have almost 300 stores here in China between the two companies. It was really interesting to go to hear their story about coming into china and the things that they had to do to become a major player here in this region. We were able to walk through a Trust-Mart store and it was really nice a lot like Wal-mart just not as clean. Then they took us to a local wet market to allow us to compare. Let me just say that it was the cleanest wet market I have ever been in. Refrigeration, tile, and no open sewers. It was really interesting to hear different people react to the market. Those that had severed foreign missions were not terribly surprised; those that had never lived out of the country were shocked. I also was shocked but only because of the cleanliness of the market. What really surprised me the most was when I found out that I was the only missionary that actually bought from the markets. All of the other returned missionaries said that they would never shop at the markets but only at supermarkets. I guess that really shows how rural my mission was. After the wet market we went to an actual Wal-Mart. It really looked like a Wal-mart from the United States except for the China specific products. Wal-Mart, and amazing company. The rest of the night was pretty relaxing. We went and got our suits fitted, got delicious dumplings and a light night swimming with Shanghai as our back drop!

Tuesday was an incredibly busy day. We had full day with GM. It was really interesting. One of Brother Fawcett’s good friends is a man named Hugo Decampos. He is the Asia-Pacific electrical purchasing manager. We first went to his office and learned about how the purchasing of materials from suppliers works. It was incredibly interesting. He spoke of the 4,000 suppliers that GM has and how they have keep up their relationships up with all of those companies. It was really interesting to learn how brutal souring really can be. We discussed the different methods of negotiating, some of which are more kind than others. Then we discussed what is the best way to source materials, whether it is through enduring relationships of trust or just straight price. We didn’t come to any conclusions however, it should be interesting to compare with Toyota next week. After our discussion on purchasing and quick lunch we got to go to the GM manufacturing plant here in Shanghai. The plant is actually a joint venture between GM and local company to form Shanghai GM Company. Two weeks ago they cancelled our plant tour with them because of the recent outbreak of swine flu. With much negotiation we convinced them to allow us to come but on the condition that they would take our temperature upon entry to the facility. We showed up the plant and all was well. They let us in and we started our pre-tour discussion in one of their board rooms. However, about ten minutes later a Chinese lady came up and told us that we had to leave because one of us had a fever and they were canceling our whole tour. We asked who and they told us that it was Heidi Clark. They said they wouldn’t allow any one with a temperature over 37 C (98.6F). Her temperature was 37.6 C (99.6 F) not really a fever just a little warm. We then convinced them to try again twenty minutes later and her temperature reading was 37.2 C (98.96 F) (not much of a fever if you ask me since the temperature of people naturally varies. After twenty more minutes of convincing people we got them to let us all in but her. I think that just goes to show seriously they are taking the H1N1 (swine flu) virus here; however, non-logical 0.36 degrees F may be. The plant tour was pretty incredible. The plant is only 6 or so years old. They manufacture Buicks at this plant. I know you may be thinking why Buicks since it isn’t a very big market. In China Buick is huge. It is a very popular brand and a high-end luxury car. The plant was super cool I have seen them build cars on TV but there is something different about being in the building and seeing everything come together. We didn’t get to see robotic welding of the unibody or the paint shop however, we did get to see the rest of the assembly. We then made or way to the market. At the market we did an activity. We were split up in teams and were sent off to try and purchase different things using different techniques. It was really fun to see how the different teams were able to do according to the different techniques. We got second… grrrr! After our exercise I bought some pearls to make some people happy.

Wednesday: What an adventure. This one started early. We decided to go to Nanjing today as a group. That required us to get on a bus at 6:00 am that means getting up before that… well before that: ( Good thing I am a morning person. Too bad I am a night person and don’t like to go to bed at a decent hour. Since Shanghai is a more confusing city we have taken taxis everywhere, this morning we got to try to squish 23 people on a bus that was already full. It was fun. I like the Asian pushing experience. We then took a two and a half hour train to Nanjing. My first bullet train experience. It was nice and quite comfortable. It has really given me time to get caught up on my journal. Nanjing is a really cool city. It is a medium sized city with 8-10 million people. (Crazy that 8-10 million is only medium sized.) We got into the city and went to a park to hold our morning devotional and class. It was fun we were in a grove of trees and were singing Joseph Smith’s first Prayer in China. It was really pretty. We then walked around the city for a while enjoying our surroundings but we were really trying to find a bus that didn’t exist. Once we discovered which bus we were supposed to take things improved. We went to an amazing museum called the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. It reminded me a lot of the Holocaust museum in Washington DC. It was all about the Japanese oppression of the Chinese over the past 100 years. This persecution reached its pinnacle right before WWII when Japan invaded China and started a mass massacre of the people. They ended up killing 200,000 people here in Nanjing and raping over 20,000 over a six week period. The museum was quite graphic and in reality quite depressing to see the brutality. The museum was so enlightening. Fortunately I am a big museum person. It really made you think about people and their interaction with others. It made me realized that if you don’t keep yourself in check you can get caught up in the moment. The museum was worth five hours of train rides. The museum was through the Chinese perspective, however, extremely enlightening. After the museum we went to a place called Purple Mountain. This is a big park up in the mountains comprised of different temples and memorials place in a beautiful forest. First we went to mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. Yat-Sen was the person that really the person that started to bring the political revolution in China. The mausoleum is spectacular. However, like everything else of value it is located on top of a mountain, 392 steps to be exact. It makes me stop to wonder what I can do to get people to build a mausoleum for me! After the mausoleum we went to the Linggu Pagoda which gave us incredible views of the city, however, it as 250 stairs to the top. It was well worth the climb. Amazing views. We then went to the local market here in Nanjing for about an hour then we made with great haste to the train station. Barely making our train back to Shanghai. What a great day. What an adventure. Boy is this trying.