Volkswagen Shanghai and Karaoke (Party World)

We began with a drive to An Ting, to tour the Volkswagen Shanghai factory. Here they make the VW Passat, Gol (Golf), Santana, Touran (Toureg) and Polo. We watched a short video and then rode a golf cart trolley through the factory. The manufacturing line was very quiet and people appeared happy. Factory seemed to have more manual labor than U.S. plants, when I visited the Ford Ranger production line in St. Paul, Minn. The company history on the wall made it seem like the Chinese made VW knockoffs in the past, but now “with the joint venture, Volkswagen cars are no longer manufactured in the back room,” the sign read. Saw much of the VW Passat manufacturing. My cousin Robert, who owns a VW Passat, would have liked it. Then, we visited a Formula One racetrack. Huge place that included 20 some lodges for drivers to stay in. Seating area had multi-colored seats, so that it would always look full (orange, yellow, red, white). Shade was provided by lotus-like petal looking discs that looked like giant satellite dishes and weighed 52 tons apiece. Visited the press box which can hold 500 reporters. Ate lunch at a place, where for the first time, there was no lazy Susan to pass the food. Had multi-colored noodle dumplings with different meat and veggie fillings. Really good but it wasn’t very filling. The servers performed some songs and doily spinning; we also received decks of cards. It’s worth noting here that fortune cookies after Chinese meals is completely an American thing.

Went to the Old China Hand Reading Room in the French Concession. It was what you’d think of in an old bookstore with somewhat dim lighting, dusty shelves, one-of-a-kind tables, chairs, and other furniture and quiet nooks for sipping tea or coffee and writing or reading. Tess Johnston gave an hour talk on the Old Shanghai history. Very interesting stuff with discussion of the initial city formation by foreigners. The influx of white Russians and Jews and incoming Communist Party in 1949. Tess then gave us a bus tour around the French Concession neighborhood. She was probably 65-70 years old and had been in China since 1981. Saw lots of fancy homes but she didn’t have many positive words ab out the renovations or current state of the neighborhoods yards. She was hilarious and like listening to the Fruitcake Lady on Leno or Letterman (I think it’s this one).

We had some free time, so a group of us headed to the Bazaar. Adam & I walked around for 90 minutes while we waited for the girls to make their purchases. Took a cab from there to T8, an Asian/Italian fusion place, in Xian Tan Di to celebrate Megan’s birthday. The ambience was quite nice with a small brook and tiered granite steps as the front entrance. We started with raspberry sorbet, bread with butter, and zucchini sauce.

From here, we cabbed to Party World for karaoke. About 25-30 of us went and we had our own room. It was lots of fun, though initially the karaoke competition made it too serious and not fun. Eventually, we just plugged in whatever song we want to watch. Eventually, we just plugged in whatever Sony we wanted and that was much better. Adam did the ‘worm’ again. Left at 1AM and cabbed to Xian Tan Di again to go to the Paulaner for a ½ liter of beer before bar close. The German restaurant started playing American songs and the sax player took a short video of us singing (On a YouTube channel, coming to you soon!) Went back to the hotel and arrived at 2:30am. Other people were trying to find the next party place.