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A common gripe among the expats (or at least the ones I met) in Bejing and Shanghai is the air pollution in these cities. Today, and for most of the past week, Singapore has been just as bad. Raging forest fires in the Indonesian island of Sumatra have sent plumes of smoke Singapore’s way. The view of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve from my apartment is very much like the above picture of the Forbidden City taken from Jingshan park.

According to the Singapore National Environmental Agency, the visibility range right now is 2-3km (down from 10km). This is comparable to Beijing which has a visibility range of 1.9km today. Shanghai should be feeling much better than Singapore today with a visibility range of 9.9km.

So if you are a Singaporean in Shanghai, thank heavens you aren’t here . And at least for a day, appreciate Shanghai’s weather

Nong Ho! I just realized that my RSS feeds weren’t working right (the adminnicename problem for folks who know their Wordpress). Apologies for the snafu. The posts and comments feeds should be working fine now. Please leave a comment if you face a problem.

I have also opened up comments, so you should be able to see your comment as soon as you leave it (instead of after me approving it).

(fun fact: Nong Ho is Shanghainese for Ni Hao which is Mandarin for Hello!)

The second time was in Beijing. I was walking in the Hutongs near Yong He Gong (the Lama temple). An “uncle” at a mechanic shop noticed me clicking pictures of what to him must have been a nondescript neighbourhood, and called me. He asked me if I was American (”you American” or something like that), to which I replied saying I was “Inthuren”. BAM! The imaginary keyboard came out, followed by the tapping, pointing and thumbs-up signs. So I told him “Zhongguoren, car, bus, machine, manufacture, thumbs-up thums up”, to which he replied with a wry smile and said “no, not good”.

First day in Shanghai, I step into a Mac near my friend’s place to have lunch. And the radio is blaring beats from “One day at a time”. All good, until I hear the lyrics.

Its Tupac …

in CHINESE

awesome.

In the 24 hours before I set off to Shanghai, I had a farewell lunch with my boss, almost lost my phone, scheduled a phone interview for a date bang in the middle of my vacation, purchased a “computer algorithms” textbook (to prepare for that interview) that I should’ve gotten 3 years ago, did laundry and finally packed.

All the while, I was memorizing stupid pick up lines from my Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook. Classics like:“You look like a distant cousin of mine (nee jung der syung wor der byao may)” and “Can I be with you forever (wor nerng pay nee eechee dao lao ma” are featured in this book, which also has sections on trifles like currency, food and medical needs.

A direct flight to Shanghai-Pudong from Singapore takes 4 hours… mine took 10 hours. (because I’m a cheapskate). Yup, I flew Royal Brunei… (did you know they “bless” their flights before they take off? its pretty interesting, Google it).

My transit stop, Bandar Seri Begawan, has a crappy airport. The orange lighting makes it the most depressing place I’ve set foot in in a long time.

When the boarding call for the flight to Shanghai was made, I was among the 2 non-Chinese persons in the swarm that formed around the security check counter. Naturally, we started talking. She was Australian, visiting Shanghai for 4 days after spending a month or two in south-east asia. We sat down, and I pulled out my algorithms book because I suddenly remembered something. That was the end of that conversation .
Sitting next to me on the flight was a Chinese woman. Started talking to her: turned out she is a hairstylist based in Singapore. She had recently set up shop in Shanghai. blah blah blah, she invited me to visit her shop in Pudong, blah blah. Plane lands in PUDONG!!!

I was unbelievably excited. In part, it must have been the possibility that I would need all that adrenaline to run from the cops, in case they read my emails or all the other crap I write online (like my previous post). Customs and immigration was easy.
Got out, went straight to the airport cabservice counter and booked a cab. 350RMB to get from the airport to my friends place at Zhejiang Lu (Lu=Road)! I made up a stupid excuse for cancelling the cab, after talking to my friend who told me that the ride to her place should cost only 200 bucks (bucks=RMB ). I stepped out and took a cab that actually cost me only 200 bucks.

The ride was awesome. I was stunned by Shanghai’s infrastructure! Massive flyovers, 6 lane highways, fast moving traffic! woah. I had expected to see something slightly better than Bombay. Indian politicians sometimes refer to Bombay as India’s Shanghai. pipe dreams

Shanghai’s infrastructure is amazing. Definitely tens of years ahead of any Indian city.

SO, I got to Shanghai. Lots more stories, snippets and pictures coming up.

I will post my China trip log here over the next several days. Some sections may need passwords, if you know me, you’ll know the passwords. Have fun and thanks for visiting!