The first two weeks have gone pretty quickly. I've already been thrown in on new business pitches, done an exec media training in English and then watched and listened as the role play/murder board were done in Chinese; visited the American Consulate and American Chamber of Commerce and found a number of good restaurants that serve numerous different cuisines.
The grocery store is still a mystery to me. Ever had a craving for green tea or Shasha Chicken potato chips from Lays; wanted to buy gum in a bottle similar to vitamins in the US; or purchased a quart-sized yogurt you could drink? You have to be careful with the latter because it looks like the package the milk comes in. If you're really looking to spend money, four bars of Dove soap cost US$4 for four bars at the City Supermarket, the import grocery. A medium-sized bottle of Listerine is US$12 and a half-gallon of Breyer's ice cream is US$10. In comparion, an ice cream cone at McDonald's is 25 cents and a large shake is 87.5 cents. Both taste the same as in the US. A Big Mac Meal can be had for US$1.87. A trip to TGI Friday's however is expensive. US$3.50 for a soda when you can buy 20 oz. (600ml) on the street or at All-Days for around 25-37 cents.
Personal space is an interesting concept in China. The bosses' office is pretty sacred and folks only come in if you ask them to do so for the most part. However, if you get on an elevator when it's busy, you begin to think that you're on the subway in NYC at rush hour or taking part in a Guinness Book of World Records attempt. :) Speaking of going up...the up escalator is on the left side and the down is on the right here.
The funny signs continued today. There's one near my office for FAG automotive.
A discussion of China wouldn't be complete without a mention of smoking. Supposedly, it makes up about 9.8% of the GDP here. You can tell. There are ashtrays above the urinals, in the stalls and you'll find men smoking in the bathroom with the windows open. There are smoking and non-smoking sections in restaurants and all the places they existed in the 70's in the U.S.
The 70's and other decades are where you can find yourself in the blink of an eye. The metro is pretty futuristic (uses RFID cards) and very clean. So is the architecture. There are tv in elevators and picture frames in hallways. Yet, PR is still in its infancy, healthcare is an emerging market (supposedly the EKG I described in an earlier post was one of the first designs for an EKG machine), and trash on the streets is picked up by men on bicycles. Mobile phones are more pervasive than in the US but good luck finding a Blackberry. Brooms are still old-fashioned and not modern.
The office buildings are cleaned in the morning before work and the newspapers (South China Morning Post, IHT, Singapore Strait Times, Asian WSJ, etc.) arrive in the evening around 5 p.m.
It is not uncommon for meetings and business events to be held on Saturday or Sunday. Saturday we hosted a press conference for AstraZeneca with journalists from around the country and we have an office party Sunday (along with a client meeting).
The lights on the outside of the buildings go off around 10 p.m. each night.
All of differences aside, Shanghai is a very cool city. You can't go outside without seeing a crane building something. It is changing rapidly and will soon be, if it isn't already, the financial capital of all of Asia.
