No, not the Hamptons. Although it felt like it. We spent our weekend at the Shanghai Racquet Club & Apartments, an expat village just outside the city. If we didn’t know better, we would have thought we were at a country club back home.
Most of our weekend was spent with Bill Crampton, Boston born and bred, self-described China geek, and more information that Wikipedia and an encyclopedia put together. But the cool part was it was all related to Chinese culture, in a way that no book could show you. He teaches cultural training for expats before coming to live/work in China so if you are planning to live/work in China, you must give him a call. Our 2 days with him were invaluable. www.test-best.com
After our first day of cultural training at the ‘Club’, we convinced him that we could learn just as much, if not more, about Chinese culture out in the city. And we were right. On every street corner, every restaurant, every garden, Bill had some cultural tidbit to share.
Some of the things we learned include:
• There are more than 106 Chinese cities with more than 1 million people.
• The differences between cities, counties, regions and provinces.
• How the government ‘really’ works.
• How quickly Shanghai has changed in the last few years.
• A few Chinese tongue twisters.
• What upscale malls (plus engineering competitions) look like in Shanghai.
• How China’s colorful history plays a role in how business decisions are made today.
• The first Chinese car company to go public – Jinbei, and the first Chinese car to come to the States – Chery.
• The unwritten rules about Chinese driving – nudging and weaving.
• Where to buy the best maps and language books.
• What is in Eight Treasure Tea.
• How to eat great Chinese food that smells like meat and looks like meat but isn’t meat.
• And a zillion other great facts we couldn’t get in a book.
One highlight of our cultural day #2 was going to the top of China’s tallest building, the Jin Mao Tower, (88 floors and 420.5 meters). It is the 4th largest in the world after a tower in Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and our very own Sears Tower in Chicago. The view from the top was impressive. You clearly (okay, not so clearly) see how huge the city is.
The Friday before our cultural presentations began, our wonderful host Lilian set us up with vocational meetings in our respective fields. For some, it was the highlight of the trip. It appears there are some pretty cool people living at the ‘Club’.
We ended our cultural weekend with John (our Australian Rotarian friend) and his wife (who we will call ‘Cha Gi’ – Korean for ‘Darling’ – since that is what he called her) who took us to a Korean BBQ restaurant. Another new and wonderful experience.
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