Molly and I arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday. Shanghai is a beautiful city, but we are not here to take in the sites, we are here to work. So our hotel is not located in the heart of this wonderful city, instead we are in the out-skirts where it's wonderfully working class and grimy. According to our Chinese counterparts, our hotel was reportedly 1 hour from the factory. However, it took us 4 hours to get to there on Thursday! Our van moved about 100 feet in 2 1/2 hours. The way the Chinese respond to the traffic standing completely still is to get out of their vehicles, walk around, smoke cigarette and whiz from the side of the road. Nice! Safety is always paramount here. NOT.
On the highways you see trucks are piled high with all sorts of hazardous materials. Cars, bikes, pedestrians, mopeds, trucks weave in and out. No one pays attention to the traffic signals. Stop signs do not mean stop. There is no posted speed limit. It is the driver's choice which side of the road he should drive on. Making a U turn in the middle of the road with on coming traffic is a regular occurrence....
We had an interesting view of a farming community that was right off the highway. We watched people doing manual farm labour with old tools, women threshing rice, men turning the soil. Curious melons growing on the sides of crumbling old buildings. Strangely, although the workers lacked modern tools, most homes had satellite dishes. China is filled with this paradox. People ride around on make-shift bikes text messaging on their cell phones. Bizarre.
I love China!
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