Wet market, clothing, Buddhist temples & German beer

First, we visited a traditional wet market. They had live animals (chickens), seafood, butcher shops with hanging meat, there were fruit and vegetable stands, as well as knickknacks. Lots of flies about and each stand owner in the crowded back alley was prepping their merchandise…cutting up meat, making tofu, slicing snake, de-scaling fish. The blood and water mixed and ran through the crevices of the stone alley. Saw one woman kill a live chicken at her food stand and prep it for a customer. Interesting that it doesn’t bother them, though I admit I found it a bit surprising to see. I like my frozen, skinless, boneless chicken breasts from SAM’s Club. What a different world! (yes, perhaps we are spoiled.) Crossing the street with a 45 person tour group is also quite interesting—we literally stopped traffic!

We then visited a 2,500 year old Han Shan temple. Everyone (Chinese) were using red candles and matches. Kind of like the Grotto at Notre Dame combined with Disney World (lots of noise and activity). There were many shrine rooms with electronic red candle votives and golden Buddhas. People pray by putting their palms together and tipping them forward and back. There was a 5-6 story temple and also a bell tower. It was 5 Yuan to go up the bell tower. The monks used to ring the bell to call people to prayer and to bring good luck. Six of us went to the tower and took turns ringing the bell three times each (as is the custom), using a horizontal wooden pole on a string to hit the 6-7 foot tall bell. Adam went first and hit the bell so hard it left a deafening ringing sound not only in the tower, but one that reverberated throughout the serene plaza. :)

Boarded bus and went to Bosideng, the largest clothing company in China. The company houses workers, aged 18-26, in dormitories and provides free lunches and dinners. We got to walk through the factory and it was completely fascinating. The floor is set up in rows with teams who receive incentives/pay based on team output. A dozen people per line and about 100 rows on each of the center line, per room. We went through 3 rooms where there were about 6-7,000 workers per room, all busy sewing winter down jackets. The company employs 16,000 people. Saw the patterns, cutting machines, and bolts of fabric, stitching/sewing the various parts, assembling and inspection. It was a bit weird walking through the factory as they might have though we were inspectin the plant as company reps of one of the clothing companies. Saw tags and coats for Columbia Sportswear, Eddie Bauer, Old Navy and Polo Ralph Lauren. Pretty amazing to see and hear the whir of the machines and the final Eddie Bauer coats poly-bagged and priced, ready for the U.S. stores. Bosideng is their own Chinese brand. Lots of colors & styles—this factory has better working conditions than most factories. About 40% are like this factory, while the other 60% have much worse conditions. This is peak working season, and they work 12-13 hours with overtime pay. Will be interesting to see these products in the U.S.

Drove to Shanghai and on the way, people ignored the lane stripes, and it was again a free-for-all test of will to move forward on the highway. It made me a bit ill. After two hours, we got to our Shanghai hotel, Motel 168 (Mei Lin Ge), in the French Concession neighborhood. (About 15-20 minutes from The Bund, for those familiar with Shanghai.) The city population is 16 million and our hotel was listed in the guidebook under cheap sleeps. The rack rate is $25/night. Adam and I lucked out with a corner room, so we have more space and our bathroom is pretty nice. Asian-style sink bowl, huge tile shower, two desks, TV, two chairs.

Bus left at 8:30pm for the New World Order (Xian Tan Di), which is a Westernized shopping and dining area. There are Thai, French, Italian, Turkish, Brazilian and German restaurants. Adam, Megan, Katie, Beth and I went to the Paulaner for German food. Had German beer, pretzels, rye bread with butter and liverwurst. I ordered German meatloaf (which was actually some kind of ham slab), potato slices, cooked vegetables and beef goulash soup. It was FANTASTIC and just what we needed. Many had spatzel, a flour-like noodle, which I’d never heard of before. Went to Starbucks and got a cup of cappuccino for obtaining smaller bills. A friend bought some Chinese wine and we called it night and took cabs home. The street noise outside our hotel of Chinese voices honking horns slowly faded in the night with the weight of my eyelids.