I guess the third time truly was a charm for my trip to China. I was first supposed to go in 2009, but the trip got postponed and ended up in May 2010 -my replacement was actually in Shanghai when Sophia was born. My second possible work trip fell through too though I cannot remember why. So, on Monday morning I set off for Shanghai and am grateful that I was living in Geneva as the journey is much easier than coming from Cincinnati.
Monday was a travel day – I worked and caught up with coworkers in the Geneva lounge, enjoyed a short flight to Zurich and then the long flight to Shanghai. I had a chance to catch up on some movies and sleep after enjoying Swiss Air’s business class, which included delightful chocolates.
Tuesday was mostly an acclimation day – we arrived at 7am, had a short wait at customs, found our driver, and were to our hotel in about 90 minutes. Traffic wasn’t quite as busy as I expected. The pictures absolutely do not do justice to the beauty of Shanghai’s skyline. My coworker, G, and I quickly showered and then spent most of the day wandering the city – we were blessed with a sunny day to enjoy the city- we shopped in the local markets and sampled the best of Shanghai’s Starbucks J as we couldn’t read any of the local restaurant menus and didn’t have locals with us this day. Tuesday evening I caught up on work and got a good night’s sleep.
Wednesday was a full day of work that included store checking and a celebration dinner. The stores in China surprised me and I was even more surprised that I could find US foods in China that aren’t in Switzerland – I didn’t buy any to bring home but was surprised. The celebration dinner and awards ceremony was quite fun. My hotel had a bar on the top floor with a fantastic view so I spent a few hours there catching up with friends from all over the world before calling it a night.
Thursday was another full day of work and then an authentic Shanghai dinner. Another coworker, A, is Chinese so he was able to help us navigate the taxis and menus to have a local dinner. The food was fantastic! We finished with a very Western dessert platter at Haagen Daaz. We had intended to go to the top of another building (on the 93rd floor) for a different view but the smog/fog had settled in so the views wouldn’t have been good, so we headed back to the hotel bar for some more catching up before going to bed for our long days of travel on Friday.
All in all, it was a good experience both professionally and personally – China doesn’t rank in my favorites but I am happy that I was able to experience a few days in Shanghai and imagine work will send me back someday.
I will be home for about 30 hours and then off to vacation
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