Sunny Saturday Walk

   I started my walk out by hitting up the track. I wanted some pictures of the place that I have run so many miles at, I even did an 8 miler here once until I got comfortable doing my long runs on the streets. This is one of the only times that I have seen the track in the daylight and without dozens of people walking around it. The picture on the right shows a bunch of apartment buildings near the track, mine is the one in the middle. I have a view of the track from my balcony and kitchen window, that's how easy it is for me to get there.

This is how Shanghai maintains it's trees...
They lop off the tops!

The Antiques Market

The Chinese are really good at making new things look old
so you have to understand that most stuff here is probably
not an antique. Don't get fooled! I looking for deals on jewelry.

   There are probably 100 stalls spread on 2 main streets. This is also the location of my favorite Chinese cotton cloth shop. I may or may not have picked up a few gifts here. From here I was heading into Pudong to climb to the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center (100 Floors above Shanghai) but along the way I stumbled across the Wanshang Bird and Flower Market. I decided to poke my head in to see what was going on. It didn't take me long to figure out that I couldn't stomach too much time here. It was a lot of stalls selling animals...from cats and dogs to turtles and fish and of course birds. Each animal had the tiniest little cage and looked so sad. I only lasted about 2 minutes in this place, if I stayed any longer I would be having to explain to Donald why I'm dealing with quarantine, to then confess it's for the 5 dogs that I purchased and am bringing back to Portland with me...

Left, the tiniest little turtles, frogs and salamanders. Right, a wall of bird cages.

   I finally made it to the Metro to head to Pudong. Sadly, there is never a quiet moment for me. I had a Thai kid introduced himself to me in the subway station and told me that I looked like Snow White, his Australian English teacher and a Mermaid (oh and he did tell me that I look 23!)...the kid definitely had a few loose screws. I was worried that he was going to follow me where ever I was going so I lied and said I was meeting up with my husband. Luckily, he left soon after that! Phew! I guess Shanghai has just as many crazies at LA (I've got some good stories from my time living there too).

   My timing for getting to Pudong wasn't that great b/c I wanted to get up to the top of the SWFC at dusk so I could wait for the sun to go down but it was only 3:30pm so I had to kill some time. I've been wanting to go to the Shanghai History Museum in the basement of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower so it worked out ok. 

Left, entrance to the Oriental Pearl. Right, entrance to the museum.

The museum started out with lots of pictures of old Shanghai.
This one in particular is of Nanjing Road in the 1930's.

This is a wedding sedan chair from 1927. All hand
carved and took 10 years to complete.

   The first part of the museum shows Shanghai's progression of transportation. Left, rickshaws were the main mode of passenger transportation in the 30's and I love that they are still widely used today (80+ years later). While Shawn was visiting he asked me why most taxis are Volkeswagans and I couldn't answer him but now I know the answer. In 1985, the Shanghai VW Company was established as a joint venture of The Shanghai Automotive Industry. Production of the VW Santana sedan started the very next year and became the taxi choice. Still, probably 90% of taxis are VWs in this city!

   Then I headed to the second floor of the museum that housed life-sized models of old traditional shops staffed by realistic waxworks. These shops were showing what Shanghai looked like from it's very beginnings in 1291 during the Yuan Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty.

Left, cotton cloth shop. Right, tobacco and paper shop (AKA grocery store)

Left,  1930's barber shop. Right, opium den.

Then I walked through a miniture "streets of Shanghai" of the 1930's

Off to the SWFC!

Across the street from the SWFC is the location of the future Shanghai Tower. This skyscraper is scheduled to be completed in 2014 and will be the tallest building in China and second tallest in the world. The picture on the right is one that I took when Donald was in town back in October and the one on the right I took yesterday. They've come a long way in 5 months! It's going to be yet another impressive building in the Shanghai cityscape. 

Being in the elevator felt like I was in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

Left, there were clear parts of the floor that you could look down through. YIKES!

Right, the view of Pudong.

Left, all the people waiting on the 100th floor viewing deck for all the skyscraper lights to turn on.

Right, from the 97th floor you could look up at the see-through floor of the 100th floor view deck.

The lobby of the 94th floor. Yes, they are selling all sorts of crap here.

    I only have 4 more weeks here so I decided to just go all out and enter the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. All the touring books say it is really cheesy and it turns out they were right!

At least I got dropped off at this beautiful sight. It was off to my apartment from here.

More custom shoes

   I finally got back into my normal Sunday routine with a nice long run this morning. It's been since mid December that I've been around for one of these. I took it easy and planned an 8 mile route. I thought for sure that I wouldn't have anything interesting to say about this run but that was before I actually did it. Turns out that I got lost again! The route seemed so simple but one little wrong turn threw the whole thing out of whack. I was so frustrated b/c every turn I made was onto another "L" street. Why are all the street names so frustratingly similiar...Longhua, Longyuan, Longheng, Longshui. No joke! These are really the streets that I ended up on! I felt like I was running in circles! Somehow, probably by running East and North, I finally stumbled upon my original route but I had managed by that point to get in 3 extra miles. In the end it worked out b/c I got to end my long run about 3 blocks from my apartment and didn't have to take the Metro home.

   After making it to the China Post and market for veggies I finally got organized enough to go order a pair of custom shoes. I've known for awhile what I wanted to have made but have just been putting it off. These custom shoes are not expensive when you consider what you pay in the US for a good pair of leather shoes and these ones are custom to my feet. One pair of custom shoes turned into 2 pairs (sorry Donald!). I can't wait to pick them up before I leave town.

YanYe custom shoes on Fuxing Road. Mr. Zhoa is great!

SMP Audit

   On Thursday I got to join my coworker, Stella, from the Corporate Responsibility Department for a SMP Audit. These audits, Standards of Manufacturing Practices, are done at all the final-goods factories that we do business with and help us guarantee that we are working with good partners. Each one of our liaison offices has an extension of the CR Department that is responsible for a particular manufacturing region. Normally when I go to factories it is for the purpose of development of garments, seeing showrooms, workrooms, factory tours (seeing sewing lines and other machinery) and testing facilities. This audit was going to give me a totally different view of what goes on in factories.

   Since the factory was in Shanghai, Pujiang Town in Pudong, I was able to take the subway. I met Stella at the Terminal station of one of the most southern lines and we walked about 3 minutes to the factory. Upon arriving we had to check in because we showed up unannounced. This is how the SMP audits work so we are guaranteed to see the factory in its everyday working condition.

Heading to the office to meet with the factory rep that
would be touring with us and providing all paperwork needed.

Stella on the right, she is letting the factory know what our purpose would
be for the day and what paperwork we would need to view.

   We were going to be seeing 2 factories within one complex, one factory that makes bags and the other that makes sleeping bags. We started our tour at the bag factory and were escorted around by the factory CR rep, the factory manager and the general manager of the company. Stella was looking at all safety aspects around the complex. Above left, all building entrances need to have evacuation plans clearly marked for workers in case of emergencies. Above right, walking into the packing area.

   Left, Stella checking the first aid kit to make sure that it contains all necessary items and that first aid instructions are posted above. The above right shows posted pictures of all factory workers that are allowed in the packing area, this is necessary because the factory ships goods into the US for companies that have high security customs clearance. All workers in this area are supposed to wear government issued uniforms.

We even checked electrical panels to make sure all switches
were clearly marked for each area. There is even a picture of
the electrician that maintains this electrical board.

I had never been in a bag factory before so I was very curious
about the machinery they were using to stamp out layers of foam.

   Stella even has to check that the machinery is well maintained and all safety signs are visible to the technician using it. You can see her here asking the worker some questions about the machine. Another duty that she has to do is randomly pick workers in all different areas of the factory to interview. She asked questions about age, how long they have worked at the factory, where they are from, have they been compensated for overtime, have they received paystubs and did they receive adequate notice about holiday leave (when the factory would be closed). She conducted about 30 of these interviews between the 2 factories. During the interview she needs to make the worker trust her and she needs to explain why she is asking these questions (just trying to make their working conditions better).

Checked out the fire extinguishers and their maintenance
(which needs to be clearly marked).

The sewing lines.

Here, Stella had to look at the machines to make sure that the needle
guards were on the machines and being properly used. The guards
are used because the machines are run at such high speeds.

Then it was off to the testing facility.

   Ok, not the most interesting video but they were trying to show me how they test their tents. Off to the left there are HUGE fans creating wind and above there are water valves creating rain...sadly, since the factory closed this facility for 10 days during the Chinese New Year they couldn't get the rain to work. Seems that a little maintenance was needed.

This is the program that records all the testing results. It's more high-tech
then the rotating platform in the above pictures makes it look.

This is outside the canteen. The factory has posted the daily local paper for
workers to be able to read on their break or in the evening after work.

   Next we entered into the Canteen and checked out the kitchen. Again, we looked for safety violations and sanitation techniques. I never thought that I would be in a factory kitchen so I found it interesting and took lots of pictures. Check them out:

There was SO much steam coming out of this room where they
were cleaning the lunch trays.

Checked out another first aid kit.

   What I found out was that there was an upstairs to the Canteen where workers could pay 8RMB ($1.27USD) for a higher quality meal. The first floor provided all free meals. Also, what I didn't know was that this would be my first factory visit where I wouldn't be taken out for a nice meal. I guess they aren't exactly happy to have auditors around! Turns out we were on the second floor to grab our lunch. I have now eaten a factory meal!

Not as terrible as I expected. It was all a little cold. Clockwise from bottom right; tofu skins
wrapped around ground pork, sauteed bean sprouts, Egg/tomato soup, yogurt, Fried
chicken, preserved pork. I did get complimented on my chop stick use during this lunch.

We needed to check the notification that the factory handed out
for the CNY to make sure it was clear for the factory workers.

The sleeping bag factory:

Walking to the next factory. All these building are part of the
same facility, all one factory. They are usually large campuses.

   We walked through the cutting room, the sample room, the sewing lines, the quilting area and another packing area. This factory was much smaller then the first one we walked through so it didn't take nearly as long. From here we went to check out the warehouse which wasn't very interesting so I don't have any pictures to share. Then it was time to go back to the office to look over employee work files, timesheets, pay records and government issued approved overtime certificates. This took 2 1/2 more hours as Stella needed to document these items in our company system. Since these 2 factories were small and the staff cooperative and organized we were able to complete the audits in 9 hours. Stella told me that some factories are so disorganized that it would take an entire day just to do one audit.

   I have a greater appreciation for the steps that my company takes to ensure that the factories that we work with obey local law and treat workers well. This is an important job and Stella is fantastic at it. I will never look at a factory in the same way again...

As promised!

  On January 15th I promised that I would get the video uploaded of the dance I did in front of my entire office at our annual dinner. Finally the day has come that YouTube and my internet connection cooperated with my long video.

I bet my family wishes that I had some shame...

Since I am the only one up dancing that is sober I am very proud of the guys for remembering all the moves! We had some music issues (like not being able to hear the music). Enjoy!

Famous chicken and Rambutan

   Yesterday a package arrived at the office for my team. It turns out that one of the guys on my team, Oliver who is still on holiday in his home town, sent us a package of goodies. It was a treat that his hometown is famous for, guess what it was....wait for it...

Hurry up and open the package, Ewgenia!
(She was SO excited!)

...preserved chicken!

Left, there were 12 of these chickens in the package. Right, have you ever

seen more beautiful chicken models before?!

   Honestly, from the packaging alone I was a little frightened. If you can see clearly in the above picture on the left, the perfectly golden chicken is placed happily and somewhat deformed on platter, head and all. Part of me, of course, was very curious and in need of some protein for dinner....turned out to be good timing.  After little hesitation during dinner making, I grabbed a pair of scissors and tore open the vacuum sealed foil packet and voile...

   ...a gelatinous mass of meat and bones, no head (YAY!).  I was and still am a bit confused what part of the chicken that I got b/c the meat is extremely dark and I can't seem to find a breast, even though it appears to be half of a chicken (shouldn't every half chicken have a breast?). I will say that it is super tender and falls right off the bone. I took some of the meat and made a chicken and cheese quesadilla. It's very flavorful, not sure all natural flavor or not but kind of good, maybe a little salty. I dug into the chicken a little more today and it tasted just as good but have been finding lots of little broken bones within the meat. The bird must have been whacked in half with one giant stroke, with one giant knife (causing the bones to shatter).

That's not the only new thing that I got to try :)

  As Ewgenia was packing up to leave the office she pulled out some mysterious fruit and set it on my desk. I've seen this fruit before but didn't know the English name. She told me that she brought them back from her home town and she wanted me to try them....she's so good at sharing new things with me :) Actually, everyone on me team is good at sharing with me. One of my goals last night was to bring this fruit home, along with my new chicken, and figure out the name to share with Ewgenia on Friday. The search was really easy, I googled "Asian fruit" and instantly saw pictures of what I had sitting in my hands. Turns out they are...

...Rambutan

   One website had this to say about them:

Native to Malay Archipelago, Southeast Asia

Coming from an evergreen tree, the Rambutan fruit resembles the Lychees, have a leathery red skin and are covered with spines. Rambutan is a popular garden fruit tree and one of the most famous in Southeast Asia. The fruit is sweet and juicy, being commonly found in jams or available canned.

I say, they are delicious! I am a huge Lychee fan and these rambutans are similar but better. Bigger, meatier and more of a citrus flavor! They also have a pit inside of them so you have to be careful while eating. And, they are harder to peal (I needed to use a knife).

Here's a slightly more professional picture that I found,

it does the fruit more justice.

They are worth a try if you ever see them in the supermarket.

Is this a fashion show or a dance party?

   Donald is at the ISPO tradeshow in Munich, Germany this week. ISPO is a huge international tradeshow for Sporting Goods and Sports Fashion. I've never been but have heard really good things about it. Since Donald works for Danner/Lacrosse footwear he is at the show, checking out product and working their tradeshow booth. Check out what he saw:

   I am all for supporting the company I work for but what is up with that fashion show? Too funny!