Whenever I thought about Shanghai, growing up in Kansas, it was usually related to Shanghaiing (AKA: Crimping), where men were kidnapped to serve as sailors. Movies have shown this as generally happening around London, but the United States also had many ports where people were Shanghai’d. Boston, San Francisco and Portland were a few notable ports. Why was this practice common? It is thought that Shanghai was a common destination for many merchant vessels heading to Asia and between 1800 and 1850’s sailors were in short supply especially during the California gold rush. So to have a full crew people were snatched to work on ships. Plus once a sailor “signed on” to a voyage it was illegal for them to leave before the voyage was completed.

My travel to Shanghai wasn’t nearly as dramatic. I volunteered to fly American Airlines out of Chicago arriving 13 hours later into Pudong International Airport. My arrival in Shanghai was shortly after a big storm so there was some localized flooding, lots of water in the streets and the sky was still overcast. This limited my early excursions to taking a few pictures near the Hilton but we planned to hit the Bund area and take in the sights that evening.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Walking the Bund

The Bund is an embankment area of the Huangpu river that is now a wide promenade near the historic district of Shanghai. Predominately a financial center, the Bund area also has lots of restaurants, shopping and views of the many historic banking buildings. Across the river is the Pudong section of Shanghai with the Pearl tower, Gin Mao building and the Shanghai Stock exchange, plus many other prominent buildings that are lit up at night.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Given this was the first clear night after a major storm, the Bund area was mobbed with people. Of course with 27 million residents in Shanghai, it isn’t too hard to have a lot of people on the Bund. My colleague and I enjoyed the walk up the Bund taking in the sights of the skyline, the statues, the pyramidal Shanghai Hero’s of the People monument and a bit of people watching. One of the nicest things to see were newlyweds getting their pictures taken and seeing the brides in their red wedding dresses, which is the traditional color in China.

Visiting the Pet Trade Show

The real reason we were in Shanghai was to learn more about the Chinese market, get to know our Shanghai distributor more, and complete some product training. We attended the Asian Pet Fair at the Shanghai World EXPO convention center. The building itself is unique but the amount of product inside was mind boggling. I saw all manner of clothing for pets, more pet foods than you can imagine, and even “Hello Kitty” Dancers.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

There were a multitude of booths and one of the biggest things I learned is how much the Chinese people like American products. They feel there is much more quality and reliability to our products so they carry a premium status in China.

Visiting a Veterinary Clinic

The distributor I worked with also owned some veterinary clinics in the Shanghai area. They were very upscale clinics in China but I did find the clinic name humorous. I didn’t have the heart to tell them it might not work as well in the U.S.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

This veterinary clinic was very progressive for China, with boarding, clothing sales, grooming plus the traditional offerings of a U.S. veterinary hospital. While China has seen a recent surge in pet ownership, the veterinary schools were primarily focused on food production and not as focused on pets. Recently, the focus has shifted a bit to more to pets; however, most clinics are far behind the US standard of care. Progressive clinics like this may number 150 in Shanghai but that isn’t very many for a populations of 27 million and only 22% of Chinese households own a pet.

Food in China

I am not a picky eater and I do like Chinese food here in the US, but when actually in China things can be a bit more challenging. During my time in Shanghai we generally ate a western style breakfast at the Hilton but lunch and dinner were with our hosts. Sometimes what was ordered was delicious and at other times a bit scary as we weren’t exactly sure what we were consuming. Nevertheless, our hosts were extremely gracious and we appreciated all they did for us. One particular the last evening we were taken to an exclusive restaurant where we were the only table. This night we had a multi-course meal complete with personal “hot pot” cooking and bird’s nest soup for dessert. Quite good.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Unlike many, I am not turned off by the lazy Susan approach where everyone grabs items with their utensils. People grabbed their items and didn’t touch any other items and many times they used a separate pair of chopsticks to transfer items from the communal plate to their personal dish. The only dish I purposely avoided was when a colleague was scooping up a fried item and Jason, our Taiwanese friend, said “Are you going to eat that?”. David asked, “What is it?” Jason said, “Fried pork lung…and I don’t even eat that”. Good to know so I can pass on that one.

Pearl Tower and More

Flying back on Sundays is always a cost saving, and this gave us a free Saturday to ourselves. The first thing we wanted to do was to see the Pearl Tower. While I am not scared of heights, I specifically don’t like plexiglass floors. It is just too unnerving for me. So, I try to straddle the framing around the plexiglass sheets.

The day, while warm, was hazy with smog, so the views limited.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Final Evening

Our final evening in Shanghai we were out on the Bund taking in the sights of evening lights, when our hosts called to offer to take us out for more Chinese food. We politely declined and then found a local restaurant. Let me know if you know what one it was.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Heading home

The next morning we were heading back to the airport and winging our way home. I stopped at some duty free shops to get the requisite items for my daughters and with that accomplished we boarded our flight back to the USA!

• 

While China can feel a little intimidating, the people are very friendly and welcoming to westerners. I enjoyed taking in the sights, sounds and tastes of Shanghai and hope this pictorial piques your interest in going to China as well.

I welcome all your feedback, suggestions and corrections.