But Can He Dunk?

On our just-under 2 hour flight from Beijing to Shanghai, I was seated next to a delicate young man (Guo)with stylishly long hair and dressed in a beautiful suit. I inquired whether he spoke English, and he said "A little", but it was a lot more than the Chinese I spoke! He is 32, a Beijing native and only child (as almost all Chinese of that generation are), and is a consultant for NEC IT Solutions going to visit a hotel customer in Shanghai that uses NEC's software to run their hotel. He went to university in Japan, so he speaks Chinese, Japanese, and English.

We talked politics (he asked whether I was a Republican or Democrat, did I like Bush, what did I think of the war in Iraq), Chinese life, and then he asked if I was a Lakers fan. I told him that I was a Phoenix Suns fan, having went to high school and college in Arizona. He said "Aah, Steve Nash, very good player", then went on to name the starting lineup (which I would have been hard-pressed to do). Surprised, I asked if he played (he does) and if he liked Houston since that is Yao Ming's team. He said "Oh, no, Detroit!" and then named the Pistons starting lineup as well. I told him about my children, who are both in San Diego (he knew where it was), and he gave me a business card so I could e-mail him, and then he offered to show my kids around Beijing should they come to visit. Polite, smart, and a hoops fan -- visit him, heck, I want my daughter to marry him!

Speaking of language, we are now in Shanghai, where they speak the Chinese dialect, different than the Mandarin spoken in Beijing. It's almost a different language even though they are written the same. The 4 words I had learned are now virtually useless... or like a Yankee in Dixie, they brand me as a Northerner.

Shanghai may be the world's largest city with 17 million residents, and an hour away are Suzhou (where we are now) with its 6 million people, and Hanzhou with its 4 million people. Flying in to and driving through Shanghai, there are miles and miles of cookie-cutter high-rise apartments -- over 3,000 high rise apartment buildings in all. While we were surprised at the pretty decent air quality in Beijing, the air here is absolutely appalling -- it's the visibility equivalent of a summer morning in Los Osos, but that ain't fog out there.

Suzhou is the silk center of the world -- over 10 million Chinese farmers produce over half of the world's silk. It takes about 100 cocoons to make a shirt. The pupa not only weave the cocoon, but they are also used for cosmetics (there's a huge Maybelline factory here, so remember that when you apply that blush)and as a source of protein (hold it, what was that dish again??). Actually, there is a lot of mystery, blind faith, and guessing going on at mealtime, but the food has generally been terrific.. and we're probably better off not knowing.

On to the next adventure!

Bob Wacker