homemade tofu

tofu
Originally uploaded by meshman.

during our last dinner in Shanghai, we had fresh made tofu -- this guy put hot rocks into soy milk -- 10 minutes later, tofu!

maglev

maglev
Originally uploaded by meshman.

we took the maglev train from Shanghai to the PuDong airport. it was fast. really fast.

adios china!

After spending nearly a week and a half in China, you begin to appreciate the diversity of aromas that permeate throughout the city. In fact, smells are even used to describe cuisine here – we tried “fragrant beef” at some point during the trip – yes it was fragrant and also not so good. Back to the city smells…we’ve decided that the complexity to various smells probably rivals the complexity of tasting fine wines. For example, last night we experienced “wet fur on dead animal with a hint of wasabe”. It’s wonderful to have this sort of enlightened state of appreciation.

At any rate, we met two venture capitalists today … blah blah blah.

Our last night in China was celebrated with a Szechuan dinner – simply unbelievable. The menu went something like this, “some kind of meat with chili pepper.” Most dishes were cooked at the table – but with hot stones! Hot stones in oil, hot stones in soy milk (to make tofu), hot stones with beef and chili pepper. The night was capped with one last KTV yelling session. Of course, we belted out-of-tune renditions to all the classics, but to some pretty interesting screen shots. In China, the tv screen is not the music video for the song, but some random video. The highlight of KTV was Matt singing some ballad to a video of a camel being milked. Yes, close-up video of a camel udder. Really, who in the hell shows a camel being milked?!

nate

goldfishing

The last two days in Shanghai have been a blast. On Sunday we visited a park and shopping street. Walking through the streets, we came across an EA Sports sponsored dunk contest – in which most contestants got stuffed by the rim trying to dunk. Further along, we stopped by (and by “stopped by” I mean “got lost on the way”) a bamboo park. There were little ponds full of goldfish throughout the park….where people were fishing. Yes, if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to fish in one of those Chinese restaurant bathtubs full of goldfish, then this is it. And I’m pretty sure they weren’t going home to be pets either.

On Monday night, we ate at the top of the Pearl TV tower -- the rotating restaurant is 267 meters up. After you get past the vertigo and disorientation, it is pretty nice.

nate

The Bund

bund
Originally uploaded by meshman.

you can see the Pearl TV tower here -- dinner there tonight!

windows billboard

windows billboard
Originally uploaded by meshman.

same all over the world and still broken

train ride from heaven

train
Originally uploaded by meshman.

one of our cozy bunks on the train -- four beds are in there somewhere!

Shanghai!

We arrived in Shanghai! The train experience exceeded all expectations. The sleeper car was a great way to travel through China. In fact, we have come to the consensus that the train was nicer than the Beijing hotel – it is still uncertain whether this comments on the quality of the train or our lodging choices based on the “robustness” of our budget. At any rate, we were able to have a glimpse at the outskirts of both Beijing (in the evening just after departing) and Shanghai (in the morning just before arriving). Beijing is flat farm land supporting huge fields of wheat. Rows of trees divide the farmers’ plots. The land near Shanghai has many small “ponds” and water ways that connect to the Yangtze River. Most of the channels of water are small and have the familiar push pole “canoes.” A few water ways are larger and have barges traveling on them.

Last night (Saturday), we decided to get a taste of Shanghai nightlife. Our hotel is at the end of Nanjing Road, the major neon-filled shopping street. At night, this area fills up with people – you can shop, eat, drink, and karaoke (it’s interesting that it is called karaoke and not ktv in the tourist areas). Nanjing road takes you straight to the “Bund” on the river – this area has a lot of financial buildings and upper crust restaurants and bars – and found our way to Red Rouge – a dot-com type lounge on top of one of the buildings. The scene is a mix of foreigners and locals, but you really go for the view – the balcony overlooks the Bund and the river – incredibly cool. All told, we ventured to a variety of places and most importantly we all made it back to the hotel.

Shanghai has been good to us so far. I’m also back on the adventurous bandwagon for culinary delights – and there is a contingent to find snake! Hopefully some really good pics to come!

nate

Under the leadership of roasted ducks

Well, our adventurous eating habits have caught up with a few of us and we have fallen “under the leadership of roasted ducks.” But like Fernando says, “it is like riding a bicycle. It is not if you fall off, but when.”

On Thursday, we met with UTStarcomm and Sun Microsystems. Both visits gave a great "big" company view of business and China. Later in the evening we followed a recommendation by one of our company hosts and went to a Beijing networking event by Oriented.com. SF to the 'T' in the scene. Afterwards we finally hit up the Beijing nightlife at Suzy Wong's bar -- felt like home in SF...some things never change.

It’s Friday AM now – in a few hours we hop on a train to Shanghai. We supposedly have “luxury” seating for our over night trip – the next post should be interesting.

See you in Shanghai!

nate

The Great Wall

china2 087
Originally uploaded by meshman.

pretty cool.

Matt Singing

china2 059
Originally uploaded by meshman.

We did KTV the other night -- or karaoke. Matt can really belt out some out-of-tune monotone sounds! (Apologies if the pic is sideways)

Peking Duck Dinner

china2 022
Originally uploaded by meshman.

Cheers at Da Dong restaraunt.

Forbidden City

china1 071
Originally uploaded by meshman.

The crew at the front gate to the Forbidden City. In the background you can see the famous big picture of Mao.

Tuesday in Beijing

Today was filled with more meetings and fabulous food. In the morning we visited China Unicom and Facio. China Unicom is the second largest mobile carrier in China and Facio is a solution provider for blackberry-like services in China. Later in the afternoon, we met with Robert Yun from GSR ventures in Beijing. All had great insights into the state of the telecom industry in China.

In the afternoon, we ventured to Silk Street – the market for goods that are really absurdly cheap. Imagine you are in a store and see a “made in China” label and think, “this stuff has got to be cheap if only I was in China.” Well, this is where that is a real. The complex is 5 stories and about the size of a grocery store. Vendors fill the interior and sell everything from “Titeist” golf balls to underwear to “rolex” watches. No I didn’t get a “rolex”, but 5 bucks bought one hell of a “nike” watch.

The highlight of the day (so far – as I’m writing this quickly before KTV aka karaoke) was a peking duck dinner at the famous Da Dong restaurant. After missing our reservation, we opted to pay an extra fee for a private room and skip the line – only to realize on the way to our private room that if you waited for the normal section, drinks were on the house. Sigh, that’s opportunity cost. The new taste for the night was duck liver (we decided duck tongue didn’t have enough group support). Not to bad, but not too good either. The duck itself was incredible. Each duck was hand carved at the table. The skin was served separately and you dipped it into sugar before eating. Now, I’m not a big fan of eating such items but this was really good. It melted as soon as it hit your mouth. The duck meat was eaten w/ hoison (sp?) sauce with fresh sliced veggies with a tortilla of sorts. Unbelievably delicious. Final bill: 678 yuan for a party of eight or roughly 10 bucks US each.

nate

Monday

Breakfast got even better today. It was breakfast for the adventurous, as the group divided into two camps: boring safe breakfast at KFC (yes, the Colonel is here) or the local market. Jana, Fernando, and I headed straight for the bun and omelet section that we noticed yesterday. This was the place to be! -- the market was crowded for breakfast and we were clearly the sore thumbs in the joint -- what a superb plan to experience the real deal. I was the first to order to the lady behind the counter -- as soon as I stepped forward, a critical error in our go-it-alone plan was revealed: none of us spoke Chinese. Never fail, the point and smile technique came through for us. Pointing to the more savory looking items, I came away with 2 buns and an omelet of sorts. Total cost: 3 yuan. Or roughly 30 cents! Fernando was next. In a moment of clarity for the woman behind the counter, Fernando's first pointing-based selection was promptly returned with a "no" from the lady! Go with the wisdom -- Fernando chose otherwise. We retreated back to KFC to meet our less-adventurous colleagues and savor our rewards. Wouldn't you know it, those buns were darn good. But we have yet to determine the meat inside. Oh well, the immodium is still unopened and we are still kicking...can't wait for breakfast at the market again!

Today was also our first day of company visits. A start-up in the AM and Microsoft research in the afternoon. Just as interesting as the meetings was the travel to the locations. Beijing has three major areas: the old industial section to the south, the main downtown city and gov't, and the new high-tech expansion to the north. There are three separate trains/subway lines that provide the same stellar coverage as BART. But, for the Olympics, Beijing is building 5 additional lines! 5! As you travel north into the high tech expansion areas, everything is new. New housing, new buildings, new roads. And for the most part, the buidings are empty.

So I'll end with some more tidbits from China:
- when driving in China, people are a real nuisance when you want to drive on the sidewalk.
- when eating buns from the market, don't ask what's inside, just enjoy.

nate

Our first day in Beijing was incredible. We did the typical tourist thing for most of the day throughout Beijing. First on the list was the gov't area including Tienamen Square and Mao's Tomb. This area is similar to the mall in the DC, there were equally as many Chinese as foreigners visiting the area. Across the street was the Forbidden City (in Beijing -- it turns out that several exist in China -- but this "the" one you'll read about). At the advice of our tour book of infinite wisdom, we did the audio book tour which was supposed to be the voice of Roger Moore (sp?) 007. No Roger, but the City was amazing -- layer after layer of towers and halls and courtyards. Apparently this is were the movie Hero was recently filmed -- i doubt any movie or picture can do it justice. Later that afternoon, we went to Beihai Park that contains the White Pagoda (built for the Dali Lama). At night we met up with some Berkeley alum in the area for dinner and drinks -- we did the emporer's dinner -- a many course meal based on the Emporer's cuisine before leaving the Forbidden City in earlier times.

Throughout the day, we picked up these interesting tidbits about China...

- a full meal can be procured for 2o yuan or roughly 2 bucks!
- China beats Erie, PA. Beer in Erie ~ 2 bucks for a pint. Beer in China ~ 7 yuan (~ $1)
- tall white guys (Matt is 6'7") are the hot ticket to get your picture taken with -- it's even better when you explain he plays in the Canadian NBA (wink, wink)

All for now ... running of to the first day of mtgs. Pictures to come!

nate

t-minus 12 hours

Whew, packing is done. Toothpaste, underwear, shoes. Check, check, check. Now, the wait begins until realization of the first missing/forgotten item.

In 2004, I had an opportunity to travel to Tokyo with the Hitachi Fellowship through UC Berkeley. The drastic difference in food portions had a lasting impression. So, last night I had a hearty dinner of Zachary's pizza and microbrew to tide me over on America portions.

Full belly, packed bags. China here we come!

-nate