Nee Howww

Hey this one's coming from Andrew this time. Blog #2 from the husband.

I'm back from traveling over to Shanghai, China for business. It was my first time over there.

***Whit said I should let everyone know what I do, because it's so hard to describe. Here's what wikipedia calls industrial design. I.D. is really diverse, and hard to pin point sometimes. It's imagining up cool new ideas, or dreaming up some kind of improvement to an existing product or service. I research, I draw, I observe, I invent. I work with engineers to test a product, and then I work with marketing and the business side of it all to implement it and provide it to you--whatever that might be.

Not many people know what industrial design is. It flies under the radar, I guess. James Dyson is an industrial designer. I use him as an example, because he is high profile. But I.D. affects everything people buy, how people use what they buy, and ultimately provides an experience(be that good or bad, depending on how a designer designs the product/service). One day I'll give you an example of something I've done. These days I'm a motorsports designer working with ATV's, UTV's, motorcycles, dirt bikes, scooters, etc. That's why I went to China. Ok, Whit--I hope that helps.***

Okay so try to wrap your mind around this: I left last Tuesday from Shanghai to return to South Carolina, and I traveled 25 hours back over here, but somehow wound up still in Tuesday. Back to the 'Past'? Future.... I was curious to see where I was above the earth so, I'll show you with Google Earth--that blue line shows you how they flew us over the top of the world to get to Shanghai.

Now, I've lived in the (American) South my whole life. I've lived in Alabama in its hot hot humidity. I thought I lived in one of, if not the most humid place there is on the planet. But as soon as I walked out of that Shanghai airport (at 1:00am by the way) I could hardly breathe. It was the absolute dead of night, and I could hardly bear it. I am serious about this; if you are not from the south, good luck dealing with that Chinese heat. I had no idea. It's wild.

Here's what I didn't expect about Shanghai. It's the cleanest big city I've ever been to. It was immaculate, and really entertaining. It's much more 'westernized' than you would think. Not to mention there were trees/greenery all along the streets for shade. But there are TONS of high rise apartments. EVERYWHERE.

As we would drive out to different factories in the surrounding areas, I got to check out a cool balance of some traditional architecture still standing among all the modern buildings.

Oh, and Shanghai traffic is wild. They honk about everything, and depending on the size of your car,
I was told if you don't know how to cut, you don't go anywhere. Hilarious to watch the cab drivers cut everyone off--and no one gets pissed. They just come back and jam you out of the lane you wanted to get in, especially if they're driving in the bigger car!

Just so you can see what I went over there for, here's one of the projects I worked on. It's been shown in the States at a trade show, so I can show you. These days, we're all about improving quality, updating the look and feel of these products, and making them more fun. It was really awesome to meet people and see them producing these fat tire mini-bikes. They'll be ready soon.

And I got to test one just to make sure it's runnin' the way it should. It's some good fun.

(The rest of the business pictures probably shouldn't go on here, but just between you and me, I am really pumped about a particular design I did. I got to test it, tweak it, and it should be ready soon. I'll show y'all as soon as it's ready to go.)

I will tell you this though--there were two very distinct fashion statements I saw. I didn't feel right straight-up taking pictures of these people, but it was like every other guy's haircut was like this:

And for some reason.... I can't make this up, there were people all over the place wearing glasses without lenses. And I don't mean inconspicuous glasses. I'm talking Sally Jesse Raphael/ Steve Urkel sized glasses:

But without lenses. So talk about a double take. The group of us went out to dinner the first night and all felt like we were the ones who needed glasses until some girl walked by close enough to confirm it. It's a fashion trend for some reason, and there were a lot of people doing this. We don't know how this has caught on.


*edit: I searched for dorky glasses without lenses, and look who popped up:

Okay. Touché HOVA. I don't get it, but I get it.

Speaking of... nothing came close to the French when it came to "fashion" in Shanghai and I use that term loosely. You could bet your house on it that whatever white person dressed in the most absolutely ridiculous get ups walking around in Shanghai would be speaking French by the time you walked passed them. I can't describe it. Every time I would see the weirdest person I'd ever seen, when they spoke, it was always French. Sorry French people.


Shanghai night life is pretty hoppin'. I think it's known as the City of Lights. All those trees along the sidewalks come alive at night. We ate really well over there, but because it was so hot, we were worn out at the end of the day. No real night life experiences for this guy this time.

The World Expo 2010 is being held in Shanghai right now. It's been going on for 109 days. It's like EVERY new thing from around the world being showcased there. We didn't make it because apparently just to see one exhibit, it could take as long as 8 hours in line. I just checked: 427,100 people went yesterday. And this little toothpaste Gumby thing is the mascot. mmmmmk.

But there's definitely two distinct sides to Shanghai. Since it was so overcrowded at the World Expo, our American buddy Paul, who works for us over in China and speaks Mandarin, decided to take me around the city for some sight seeing.

There's this incredible modern city, and then it's almost like a 'rural' side to the city down these small, narrow, intermingled streets.

Apparently if you want to fit in, you should wear your pj's out when you go to the meat market just so you know. People love doing that over there. [Also, cook your meat very thoroughly. Trust me on that one.] You can get your seafood and others LIVE and SQUIRMING, too!

I did not care to try one of these guys... basically a short fat snake with a fish head? I don't think so.

If you need it to be not squirming anymore,... no problem.

If you're still with me, I appreciate it. I told Whit I should've broken this up into two posts. Here's the funny thing about China. There's sooo many people over there, and it seems so chaotic and never-ending...

...but then again there's a method to the madness. They've got a mess of bicycles and scooters and nasty fish, but then they had bullet trains we got to blaze across the country side at 350km/h.

They have lots of noise and lights and business going on constantly, but then in the midst of it all, there was a Buddhist temple that Paul showed me. It was something I'd never experienced before.

They pray in 3's, and they light incense and thank the Lord they had fans in there!! We got to stop and sit down and Paul talked to them about where I was from, and these two little old people thought I looked so young. I got that a lot over there, which is weird, because everyone over there has the body of a junior high or high schooler, and looked MUCH younger than they were (which is a compliment pretty much).

Honestly, I felt awkward lighting the incense. Mine didn't light up like Paul's did. Maybe that was a hint.

Apparently they also pray to the evil gods, too. I'm not well versed on why, but there's a lot of good vs. evil symbolism, and the colors were so vibrant and incredibly ornate. I really enjoyed getting to see all this stuff.

As you go in the other rooms and stuff, there's more and more rooms to meditate and pray in.

But get this! As we were about to leave, I asked Paul what all these red, wooden plates were tied to the temple's balcony, assuming they were prayers and sure enough, I came across one from a girl with the American name Sally, and it was a prayer about her worry over her SAT exams. Looks like no matter where you go, everyone freaks out over those things. (I wonder how she did.)

We moved on to see more of the sites and there were markets we visited with tons of crap everywhere,

and I got to taste the local cuisine on one of the hotter days (it really was great!).

We walked through a park where some heated gambling and card games were going on, and yet it was still pretty peaceful. They even had built-in elliptical machines that some of the elderly people were using as free exercise. I'd never seen anything like it. They were either exercising, or were shouting and throwing money at the table. What a weird combination.

But here's how I would sum up a general theme of Shanghai with this next picture:

Shanghai is a blend of both the most modern trends and architecture with expensive shopping and flashy cars and is booming with business, and yet there's this mixture of simple living woven throughout the city that you just don't expect to see. It's almost amusing to witness it all going on together at the same time. You've got people drying their laundry on the hand rails of their apartment balcony hanging over the epitome of expensive, high fashion and industrial design (which, to wrap this up, is what I do!)

Great trip. Great culture. Glad to be back in the South. 18 Days til Football begins. :)

--A.Lee