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So after more than 15 hours in the air, I finally made it to Shanghai about 2300 local time last night. Staying the the Regal International on Hengshen Lu. The city really reminds me of a cross between Chicago (you can just feel that this is a working person's city) and New York City (horribly aggressive traffic, but one difference -- there's no law against blowing your horn here.) And while there's lots of cars and taxes and buses,
My day started like it usually does around 0530. I'm pretty sure that locals stay thin by walking (I'm doing the 2km to the Microsoft Office on foot, thank you) and riding bikes. Even the bicyclists are pretty aggressive. You'd better stop as they won't.
A long the way, I pass by Xu Jia *** Garden. Its like a public park, I guess. Very nice piece of peaceful green in the middle of all the chaos around it. I also walked by the French Embassy, a police station (there's a lot of police here and man do they chew people out), and a phone booth. I also go by a KFC and a McDonalds. Oh well, guess I won't go too hungry -- too bad there's not a Taco Johns though.
I got lost a bit on my way home, but sort of enjoyed that. Walked by a fruit stand tended to by a very nice young Lady who quite didn't understand why I wanted to take pictures of her produce. I have no clue how to say "Sorry, I'm a foodie and this is fascinating to me. I want to eat it all" in Shanghanese. It looked pretty tempted, but I passed, at least for now. I also walked by a statue dedicated to the thousands of Chinese who helped build the American Trans-Continental Railway. The Statue itself is made from over 3,000 spikes.