Day 8: Shanghai

First thing in the morning we took a 3 hour bus-ride to Shanghai. Even though it was a long ride, it was nice to have some time to relax and read a bit. Shanghai is such a modern, beautiful city – a lot of the buildings remind me of something I’d see in the Jetsons.
We started out with lunch (in a giant banquet hall type-place as usual). We got sweet and sour chicken, french-fries and spring rolls…I was so excited J. Next we went to IBM. It was interesting to learn about their history as a company and more specifically in China. They also talked a lot about the challenges they faced entering the smaller markets in China. We had a lot of time to ask questions, so it was good. We also got a tour of some of their office areas- that was pretty cool too.

After the company visit we went to a 10 story mall. We walked around for a while and then hit up dinner. Turns out that it’s common for Asian countries to have their better restaurants in a mall. We had tons of different dumplings for dinner (this is what Shanghai is known for) – they were so so good. I’m really liking Shanghai so far – the food is good, the bathrooms are western (normal toilets, toilet paper, AND hot water/soap) and the restaurants, meeting rooms and lobbies I’ve been in so far have been heated!

After dinner we went on a river cruise. It was awesome to see the city all lit up, I really enjoyed it.