More from China

More from Beijing...

In case you were out on a boat for the most exciting 2 weeks of the summer, the Olympics came to Beijing in early August 2008. Signs of the Olympic games were still everywere in Beijing when we arrived the first week of September. One thing that definitely caught our eye was this blue line that kept appearing in the strangest places throughout the city. Anyone want to guess what it was?

Nope. Not a Chinese frat prank.

If you watched NBC's coverage of 2 1/2 hours of nothing but really skinny men and women running, then you might recognize this as the Olympic marathon course. It concerns me just a bit that even driving, I didn't see all 26.2 miles. Note to self: Update will before October 27.

Something else that caught our eyes and questions were the old Chinese doorways. OSHA would have a field day in ancient China. Why on earth would you build a doorway that you would have to step over?

Well, the Chinese wives tale says that the ancient Chinese were very superstitious people. They believed that building in these little speed bumps would literally trip up the demons that might be following them. Apparently the ancient Chinese couldn't run very fast.

No comment, here. Just a scenic view of a Chinese garden.

On to Shanghai...

Shanghai is the financial capital of China. While there was a mix of old and new in Shanghai, its growth and modern look definitely overwhelmed the old. It was truly a beautiful city.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, those are kanji on the side of that building. I believe the loose English translation is, "Wow, what a waste of money!"

Did someone say waste of money? Just wait til you see this. This is an amazing piece of machinery. It is a high speed magnetic train (MAG LEV). It doesn't ride on rails. It rides on high powered magnets turning on an off quickly to float the train down the magnetic track. Awesome, right.

The Americans were impressed.

It's a bit blurry, but that says 431 km per hour (about 268 mph). Impressive. Of course, that was before the bus that dropped us off at the train station almost beat us to the airport. Why build a high speed MAG LEV train if a bus can travel the same distance in the same amount of time when you take into account time spent waiting for the train? The answer is, "Because they can." It's all about the awe factor to the big international bucks coming to visit.

As if we weren't wowed enough by Shanghai, the city left us with spectactular view from the airport. Talk about trying to impress visitors upon arrival to their city. In case you can't see in the background, those are cargo ship on the horizon. Cargo ship, obviously, are only on very large bodies of water. Behind the main runway which is directly behind this plane in the foreground, is the South China Sea. While most American would say that this is an incredible waste of high value real estate, this American says, wow, what a way to spend waiting for a flight. Amazing view!! (Which is probably the response they wanted.)