Off to Shanghai

I’m leaving tomorrow morning for Shanghai. I’ll be there until Friday. I’ll let you know when I get back!

Little town near Yellow Mt

On my way back from the Yellow Mountains I stop off at this little town. I decided I wanted to just walk around for the day.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Today we took a different path down from the top to see the other side. The description I could write for today would be the same as yesterday. Again the views were breath taking! After we were done with the yellow mountains my guide took me to the small town were part of the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was filmed. If you have seen the movie, the part where the 2 girls were sword fighting over the lily pond. That part was filmed here. It was a cute little town. Apparently it has not changed much over the last few hundred years. After the town we walked around the country side for a little while. It was very nice and peaceful. After that they took me to a bus stop where I headed to the next town. It took about 3 hours to get to the next town. I have absolutely no idea where I am. I get to my hotel, check in and go to sleep.

Getting to the Yellow Mountains

The train was an overnight sleeper. The only problem was nothing was in English and no-one I found spoke English. I Japan you just look at the ticket which has the arrival time on it. When it�”s that time just get off. 99.99 time out of a 100 you will be in the right place. It�”s my understanding Trains in China are not that way. So while I was trying to sleep the train would stop and I would have no idea if this was my stop or not, and no-one to ask. The train finally stopped at a place that I thought might be it so I got off. Lucky for me I was right. If I was wrong I would have been somewhere in the middle of Chine with no way to find out where I was or how to get back. The excitement of Travel!!!! Anyway the office in Shanghai arranged for a guide to meet me at the station. After about 10-20 mins of walking around I found the guide. At least I think this is the guide, so apparently this was the right stop. I jumped in the car with this stranger and we were off. He started telling me all about the area. I as about if we can stop off at the hotel before we climb the yellow mountains. He tells me that the hotel is at the top. I have 1 weeks worth of business stuff, 2 days worth of hiking stuff, and 4 days of city tourist stuff, all in my back pack. I was expecting to drop off a bunch of this stuff then go hiking. It looks like I�”m going to have to carry all this stuff up the yellow mountain. Oh Boy! Well we get to the base of the mountain and it turns out that there is a cable lift that takes you half way up and you only have to climb the rest of the way. That will help with the weight. My first glimpse as we start up the mountain is this is AMASING! The trails are real interesting. Very narrow and very steep. We actually started hiking at about 8am. We finally got to the hotel about 6pm. Considering I did not get much sleep, I was caring maybe 30-50 lbs, and we only took a few breaks, it was a very long day. My guide would tease me about how slow I was moving several times during the day. When we got to the hotel I held by backpack straight out and asked him to hold it for a moment. When I let go it dropped to the ground and his eyes shot wide open. He was shocked how heavy my backpack was. He stopped teasing me from then on out. ) Another funny thing happened. Because I toured Shanghai all day, was on a train all night, and had hiked most of this day. At one point I thought to my self �SBoy I would love a shower�. Literally within 2 minutes of me thinking that it started to rain. It reminded me of an old saying �SBe careful what you wish for, it may come true�. The views were just breathtaking. But the trails were a bit shaky at times. Most of the trails were narrow 3 ft wide paths with a straight drop on one side and ether a wall or another drop on the other side. There was even a stretch where we where maybe 300-400 meters up on a shear cliff and the only think keeping us from falling were 1 ft wide concrete steps sticking out from the cliff by maybe 4 ft. with 2 ft between. Try to picture walking on 1 ft wide steps and between the steps you look straight down between the steps and see a 300 meter drop. I also found the had rails interesting. Many of the ones on the drop side of the walkway only came up to my knee. I�”m not sure they would do any good if I were to go over. All that said, the views were well worth all the work and nerve.

Guided Tour of Shanghai

Some very nice friends of mine took me on a guided tour of Shanghai. They took me to market places, Famous garden grounds, and other famous places. I had a great time spending the day with them. After we were done the put me on the train for the yellow mountains.

Fashion Show

Picture me at a fashion show. Anyone who knows me will be laughing their rear ends off right now. I was invited and spent the evening hanging out with the 4 pretty girls in the picture. I really like Shanghai!!! )

First night at the bars in Shanghai

I like Shanghai )

After Work

After we were done for the day UGS took all of us out for diner and some entertainment.

Slattery gets Shanghai’ed

Slattery gets Shanghai’ed at the Shanghai airport by a “taxi”. Film at 11:00.
now for the rest of the story

I was at the airport, just picked up my luggage. I guy asked if I needed a taxi. I said yes but not yet. Then I headed off to the ATM. The ATM didn’t work for me and my card so I started looking around for another ATM. THe same guy sees me looking for something so he asked what I want. I said I needed to find an ATM that works for me. He leads me to a elevator and then to a bank I would have never of found on my own. I find out the exchange rate then get about $150 worth. “I didn’t want to get too much while someone I didn’t know was watching. So then he leads me to the street and calls a taxi. It looks a lot like taxis I’ve been in before so I get in.
As we pull away and get onto the main road I noticed all the other taxi’s look like the yellow cabs from back home. Now I figure I’m in trouble.
So I ask how long will it take to get there. They say about 1 hour. So I wait for a bit, until they start talking to me. I wanted them to start things off. That way I seemed relaxed. So now I have to set up the sting.
Step 1) make them feel safe. I ask them how much with this cost. They tell me in RMBs. It was about $100 US. I know how much it is but I want to ask. The dumber I look the safer they will feel. 2 min later I ask again, “How much is that in US again?” About 5 min later I ask again. After answering They talk a bit in Chinese. I guess they are saying something like: “boy this guy is an idiot” Step 1: check.
Step 2) something to lose. I need them to get real excited about how much money they can make from me. I start asking things like “what is that?” and “What’s that over there?”. Giving them a change to impress me with their knowledge of Shanghai. After 3 good answers I asked if they do tours too. They said yes why? I told them that I have 1 week of work but then I have 1 week of vacation and I’ll need someone to take me around for a day or 2. “Do you rent out for a whole day?” They said yes. Then I asked how many days would it take to see everything? They said 4 days. I asked if we could do it all in 3 days (I didn’t want to be too easy a mark) I let them talk me into 4 days. If they were charging me $100 for 1 hour I’m sure they were thinking they could take the rest of the month off after there are done with me. Step 2: check.
step 3) the hook. I say that sounds good. I ask for a receipt. Oh ya and can you give me your name and number so that I can call you when I’m ready. He gave me his name, His home number and his cel number. The drivers name and number too. Now he can’t run away with my luggage. Step 3: check.
Step 4) The switch. As we get close to the hotel I tell them that I’m not sure if I have reservations or not, so could they wait for me while I check. If I don’t I’ll need to pay them to take me to another place. With all the $$$$$ in their eyes they were more than happy to wait. Once inside I find the hotel manager and ask him if this was a fair amount. They could be OK, I don’t know. Well when the manager sees how much this guy is trying to charge me his eyes get real big and makes a shocked noise. He asked me who is charging me this so I point them out. I also tell him they still have my luggage. The manager tells me these are real bad guys then runs out and starts yelling at them. He gets my luggage and tells them to get out of here. I ask how much is fair but the manager says not to pay them I didn’t want to look over my back all week so I said I didn’t mind paying fair value. I gave them about $10 which was just under fair value and left. The most amazing thing was the shocked and hurt look this guy had when he figured out that I had played him. He looked genuinely hurt that I didn’t trust him.
Anyway it all worked out very well. EDS got a discount, I found the bank that I would not have otherwise and they got me to the hotel about 20 min faster than a regular taxi.