Dean finally gets to Shanghai, China

Wednsday March31-Saturday April 3

My flight left Detroit Wednesday around 4pm on a Boeing 777 with 4 pilots, 11 cabin crew, 20 American business class passengers and 250 Chinese economy class passengers who would never sleep or sit down. The flight time from blast-off to touch down was a quick 13 hours and 33 minutes. Thankfully around 1am eastern time, I got my scheduled rest break where I stripped off my uniform and crawled into my crew bunkbed, closed the curtain and slept for almost 5 hours. When I woke up, we landed in Shanghai two hours later, where the local time was around 630pm, Thursday night. There is a 12 hour difference between Detroit & Shanghai. That being said, meant my body clock thought it was 630am and after just barely waking up from my 5 hour nap, I was not ready for bed. So the customary routine, enjoyed by most crew upon arrival, is to partake in the very affordable massage therapy available. So we got to the hotel and changed and headed out for a two hour massage which cost Y108.00 ($15.00US). After that, I was relaxed enough to go to bed.

We stay at the luxurious Sofitel Hotel with that pointed roof and revolving restuarant on the top floor pictured in the background just over my right shoulder. My corner room was on the 29th floor which provided great views of the city. This photo is taken the first morning after we had walked the streets to find a variety of local people making "street food." I went with three other crew members, one being our Chinese speaking crew member. She was awesome and translated when necessary and directed us through the streets where the locals would go and eat. So much fun. The weather that morning was probably a brisk 48 degrees.

A view of the city from my hotel room.

On the entire map of the world when you think of places you want to visit, the far east has never been one of those places for me. However, when Delta is going to pay me close to $1,500 to fly their valued guests to China, and then put me up in a 4 star luxury hotel for two nights, I guess I can do it. So I was pleasantly surprised how much I actually loved China. Shanghai is so modern and probably one of the cleanest cities I have ever seen. You will not find one scrap of trash on the ground...not even a cigarette butt!

This is a lady making my street-food breakfast. It is a pancake batter spread on this hot, round griddle, then she cracks two eggs on it, spreads those around, added some brown mystery sauce and cilantro then folds it up and served it. I think it cost me about 15 cents.

A variety of local breakfast street-food.

You will notice the expression of the lady behind me. This was the typical look we got from the locals as we roamed the streets that morning. First off, I think I was one of the tallest people they had ever seen. Especially the older people when they would see us walk by, they would stop dead in their tracks, jaws fall open and give us a once over up and down with that same expression of the lady above. It probably didn't help that I was dressed in all black and was wearing dark sunglasses...I did look a little covert, CIA-ish. And getting a visa to visit China isn't that cheap or easy to get, and when you do get a tourist visa, they only last 3 years and you are only allowed to visit 3 times. So, beside the few airline crew members wondering the streets, I really didn't see many other non-chinese people at all.


We visited the local market. This was located in more of the center of where the locals hang out. Not so much by my hotel and the marketplace where all the shopping takes place. It was amazing to see all the fresh, and I mean fresh foods available in this market. Most things are still alive when you buy. Including these frogs pictured above who are tightly crammed into this net, but they were still alive....looking up at you and probably saying to themselves, "get me the hell out of here....help." The dead chicken are for quick pick up purchases, but in the back of the market are cages with live chickens which you can pick out your favorite one and they chop it's head off right in front of you. While we were stolling around the market this man was following us around very closely and watching us like a hawk. So I asked our speaker to find out who he was. He was the manager of market and he wanted to be sure that we got the best service and that we were totally happy with our shopping experience.

Still eating breakfast. Popped into this little local resturant and had these dumpling things stuffed with pork (very good) and noodles. Didn't see much rice anywhere in China...that must be a Japanese thing, but these people eat noodles for every meal.

Got to Shanghai, opened my suitcase to realize I forgot to pack...all I had was a shirt, underwear (clean), and a toothbrush. So my first task of the morning (after my two hour massage and eating street food) was to hit the counterfeit market wearing my Delta uniform. I picked out these cool jeans (mainly because they were the only pair I could quickly find with long enough legs). When I got back to the hotel I googled "True Religion" to see what I got. These jeans (genuine) sell for $320US but these knock-off's cost me $15US. Gotta love China.
Spent the rest of the day in the marketplace shopping for gifts for Maria. With the dollar so strong and no trademark laws governing conterfieting, you can pick up a ton of cool stuff for practically nothing. So for Easter I showered both Maria and Mom with tons of pearls, jewelery and other sundry collectables.

In summary, I loved Shanghai. The Chinese people are so nice and most I encountered speak very good english. You can be sure I will try to weasel my way onto another one of those trips the first chance I get.