Condominiums in China are a hot commodity with all these growing cities. All the people who formerly worked on their farms are being relocated to the cities and no matter how many or how tall these buildings are there never seems to be enough of them.
Hear that, all you “flippers?” Buy a bunch of these and wait for the prices to go up. You can’t miss!
The motor scooter and motorbike business also must be huge. It seems everyone has one and you will see mothers with infants strapped into the scooter on their way to who-knows-where. Electricity must be expensive because even the nicest looking condos have clothes drying on the balconies. Where are their homeowner associations?
We finally arrived in Shanghai, another small city with over 14 million people and roads that go three levels high. They have a mag-lev train that zips to near the airport in just minutes at over 400 piles per hour. The trouble is you can’t actually get to the airport from its final stop, but they will figure that out soon, I am sure. They already have the second tallest building in the world here and are now building the tallest as I watch from my window. They say the national bird of China is the crane (as in construction crane). I can believe it.
There is a place called the Bund, which means river bank in some language. It seems to be the ideal place to view an incredible display of lights at night and do an incredible amount of shopping by day. I mean shopping! Every major high-end brand of anything is available there. BTW, virtually every brand of auto also is made in China and, depending on where the factory is, that area will use that particular brand for all their taxis.
Fortunately (for me) we didn’t have enough time to really shop.
The economy: China seems to be having the same problems as we in the U.S. They are graduating too many college students who find it difficult to get jobs and there are few people left to do the farming and other service type jobs, so their unemployment is around 6 percent.
Smog: there seems to be plenty of it. After a few days, practically everyone in our group was coughing and wheezing. Almost all their electricity comes from coal-fired generators and with those millions of autos idling in traffic… Just imagine.
My wife wasn’t too happy about this but I think Asian women are the most beautiful in the world, especially now that they have up-styled themselves to wear short skirts, etc. I thought it might be a good idea to bring one home as a nanny or something, but she thought it was not a practical idea, having to deal with visas, etc.
Speaking of Visas, I am expecting a call from their credit card department, thanking me for all the business that we generated using their card. I have never been in a place where I was so compelled to buy souvenirs. They all looked so good and worth more than the apparent price. I even ordered a mahogany boat that was too big to pack but after a full-fledged conference with all the store personnel, we were able to make our intentions of shipping it to the U.S. known.
I have been looking to China to solve our solar energy problems by supplying low cost solar panels. Apparently they haven’t worked that one out yet. Another thing that they haven’t solved yet is providing drinkable water. You must use bottled water for everything including brushing your teeth. It becomes quite a nuisance after a while when we are used to just turning on a tap for pure water
After seeing the refuse in the Yangtze River, I doubt that you would want to drink from it. Pretty disgusting but yet there were people swimming in it and of course washing their clothes on the riverbank.
I wasn’t one of them. Would I go back? Maybe if someone else paid for it. It was one of the worst trips I had ever taken but at the same time the most interesting. Go figure!
More from Ernie at www.sochin.com.
