Welcome to the Mainland: American Express accepted
If you're reading this post, then congratulations! 'Cause I can't. Posterous, like Facebook, is not accessible in the People's Republic of China. So, I can only update the page via email, either my corporate email address or via my Gmail which I think has been rerouted through Hong Kong. We grabbed a cab at the airport because the legendary Maglev train stops running at 9 p.m. and our flight was three hours late. No problem, caught a cab pronto and drove into the big smoke in a little over 30 minutes. Weirdly enough, both Bob and I found the drive into Shanghai very reminiscent of driving from the Detroit airport to his son's home in Birmingham -- wide highways, some marginally elevated above the ground. Also, as Shanghai is on a river and a flood plain, the landscape is similar to the greater Detroit area. However, driving into the city, especially coming down Nanjing Xi Lu was very much like driving down Michigan Avenue in Chicago, complete with impressive Beaux Art buildings, modern skyscrapers and the prerequisite luxury mall. We're staying at the JC Mandarin. We were told it was "tired", but we think it got a face lift for the Expo because it seems like someone dabbed a fresh coat of paint here and there. More tomorrow. Tired.
