"Opportunities Multiply As They Are Seized"

Overlooking the Shanghai financial district

I thought I would start this entry about China with a quote from Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese General who wrote "The Art of War" somewhere around 400 BC.  I own 4 different translations of this book and, with the start of my work in China, I'm re-reading them again.  Sun Tzu is well known for writing about the strategic aspects of actual warfare and many have pointed out the virtues of these writing as a means to understand how the Chinese approach business as well.

My first trip to China involved a visit to Shanghai - a city with a population of somewhere between 14 and 23 million people - making it larger than even Mexico City.  For perspective - if it really is 23 million, that would make it slightly less than 3 times larger than New York City... pretty hard to get your head around.  I stayed at a western brand hotel in "The Bund" section of the city and we were able to walk to and from our meetings, to restaurants for meals and for the small amount of sight-seeing that we had time for.  The section of Shanghai we were in was very modern and there were lots of expensive (western) cars on the streets.  It's obvious that China is spending tons on infrastructure and letting the world know that they are able to compete with the rest of the world in terms of up-to-date cities.

One of the many striking features of Shanghai was the traffic.  There are lots of cars and lots and lots of scooters / motorcycles / mopeds and none of them believe that traffic lights are more than a suggestion.  You had better diligently watch everything in every direction at every intersection or you might find yourself involved in an accident.  I guess that if everyone knows that those are the "rules", chances of accidents are lessened but that does make the flow of traffic slower than it would be otherwise.  In the video below - please keep in mind, there are traffic signals at that corner, as well as crosswalk signals for the pedestrians but it's obvious that they are not really considered to be important.

"Would you care for some duck tongues?"

Another striking feature is the food.  I won't belabor this point but food in China is not what a Westerner would call "Chinese food".  There is virtually no resemblance to what you would find in an Asian Buffet and what arrives at your table can be somewhat fantastic - think "here's your bowl of duck tongues Sir".  Our hosts would describe to us what was in each dish (beef, duck, chicken, etc.) but you always wanted to ask the follow on question - "what part of the ______ is it?"  That question is usually better left unasked!

The Shanghai Team

One other feature I'll mention (for this Blog) is trying to work through the 13 hour time difference.  It takes ~17 hours to get to Shanghai (GRR - YYZ - PVG) and you arrive there the day after you left due to the International Dateline.  I was in a complete state of disorientation on the first day after arriving and even though I had successfully drugged myself to sleep about 6 hours on the airplane, you are still messed up as your body tries to do life in its normal manner and you are living a schedule that is completely out of sync.  It can be quite a battle!  And just as you think you have started to win that battle - you return home and start it all over again.  I definitely found it more difficult to adjust to the time difference at home, where things are familiar, that I did in China and Nancy had to suffer with my inability to sleep properly (midnight? - my body thinks it's 1:00 in the afternoon) for more than a week.

All of that said, I leave for Zhuzhou next Sunday and we'll let another adventure unfold itself.  I'm truly trying to see these trips as opportunities to be seized - they are certainly taking me out of my comfort zone!