Traffic & Weather Together, on The 8s...

This is a marketing campaign used by WCBS 880 NY radio. I'm using it because it creates a nice outline for this post:

Traffic

There's a lot of it here. And as I mentioned before, the roads are anarchical. I compare most places to NYC, and continuing that with Shanghai, this is a more aggressive NYC without pedestrian right-of-way. Cars cut one another off (forget about signaling) and barrel though walk lights without regard for pedestrians. The pedestrians are equally aggressive, but are clearly aware that no vehicle - bus, truck, car or bike - will stop for them.

There are a lot of bikes here, and some small bike lanes. The trains run above the roads and are as modern, if not moreso, than U.S. trains (which is no surprise). I don't have any pictures for this post, so I'll save a discussion of the roadways and buildings for a day when I have pictures. I went to a mall and a park the other day, so I'll try to get those pictures from someone else since I didn't have my camera. If you're into shopping, that post will be for you.

Weather

So far, We've had one sunny, one cloudy and one rainy day. It has been in the 70s or 80s morning through night, and it is very humid. Not Amazon humid I'm sure, but it's bad enough that even the hotel sheets and air are a little damp, and outside - even in the cooler areas - it can be very difficult to bare. The notion of walking around without sweating is pretty laughable to us all at this point.

8s ... and 4s

The number 8 is similar to a Chinese word for "goodbye," but more importantly, apparently the number is good luck. In fact, phone numbers cost more to buy when they have more 8s in them! The opposite is true of the number 4, since that number is associated with death.

8!

Visiting the Market

The first place I explored was the store next to the hotel, Tesco. Tesco (UK origin) is popular around the world, and is essentially a Wal-Mart. Of course, this is Shanghai, not the US, so there are some differences ...

The location of the store is under a gymnastics center. This is very telling for two reasons: Shanghai is a complete conglomeration of buildings/structures and functions, very much like NYC; and yes, gymnastics is popular in China.

Inside, the store was pretty chaotic. Much like any other store, you grab a cart and walk down the organized aisles. Good luck finding these easily noticeable items in Wal-Mart though:

• Lays Potato Chips: Italian Red Meat flavor


• Pigs feet


• Whole chickens


• Cow's stomach


• A meat/poulry section that's not behind glass, and open to all consumers to pick through

And that's just the food. This store also has a Sports-Authority-like section, a section of scooters, a Toys-'R-Us-like section and an electronics section, among others. One interesting note about the electronics section is that it's really easy to buy cell phones here. You can just walk up to the counter, buy a phone, and immediately connect to the China Mobile network, which is a state-run monopoly of the cell phone service. Verizon service works here too, by the way.

That leads me to two of my favorite things about being in China.

First, the knock-offs. Fake iPod. Fake Wii. If it's popular, there's a fake-out-China version.

Second, the exchange rate and pricing. The exchange rate here is roughly 7-to-1, and on top of that, among the small sample of items I've seen, prices are roughly 20-40 percent cheaper than in the U.S. ... even after adjusting for the exchange rate.

Sweet.