Another Way to Get Your 15 Minutes of Shanghai Fame!

Jaywalkers Face Public Shaming
Shanghai Daily
2006-04-26
JAYWALKERS in Shanghai could soon face public humiliation, while those who refuse to pay fines or are belligerent to police will be taken to the police station for questioning. Traffic police launched a citywide campaign in the middle of this month to address lingering traffic problems, particularly jaywalking. The city's General Team of Traffic Police has told officers they must ticket jaywalkers instead of just giving out warnings. More than 2,100 pedestrians and nearly 5,500 cyclists were ticketed since the campaign started. But police say their experience from the past two weeks shows it usually takes three to four traffic officers about 15 minutes on average to deal with an uncooperative jaywalker. One woman is currently spending 10 days in police custody for abusing police after they tried to fine her for jaywalking last Thursday. The woman's tirade was captured on video by TV reporters who were doing a story on the traffic campaign at the time, and broadcast on the evening news. She was so embarrassed by the situation that she resigned from her job with an education consulting company yesterday. More jaywalkers could find themselves facing public humiliation if the Municipal Office for Promoting Cultural and Ethical Progress has its way. The office wants to set up billboards in busy downtown locations to post photos of jaywalkers in an attempt to shame people out of the practice.

China Tour 2006

Whew! It’s been a tornado of activity here in China over the last few weeks. The 12-person shopping maelstrom, also known as our family, blew into town last week, sweeping up every possible knick-knack in sight, from pashmina scarves to lacquered screens to some statuette known only as “pee-pee boy”. Their determination was relentless, and their selection indiscriminate; they left in their wake a swirl of dust where knock-off bags once sat, and crowds of grinning, waving Chinese shopkeepers. China is assured of yet another year of double-digit GDP growth...

Tiffany and I flew up to Xi’an for Easter weekend (note the side picture of the live Easter chick/bunny/duckling exhibit in our hotel-bird flu anyone?) to meet up with the tour, and it was great to see our parents and family for the first time since we left the States. On Saturday, we saw the legendary Terra Cotta Warriors, the 2200 year old clay army of an ancient emperor. It turns out that some of the live soldiers were actually “put to sleep” and baked in clay, but that practice stopped as the emperor watched his army dwindle. Out of the estimated 66 tombs that were mentioned in ancient writing, only about 4 or so have been discovered so far. The most impressive one is about the size of two football fields. We then saw an old Buddhist temple, followed by an endless dumpling dinner (maybe 15 different courses of dumplings?) and a colorful dancing show.

The day was long, and as the lights went down for the dancing show, some of our tour took the opportunity to catnap.

While Tiffany and I had to leave Sunday to get back to Shanghai, the tour, which had already hit Beijing, moved on to southern China and the beautiful rivers of Guilin. Apparently the list of purchased items was about thaaat close to including a time share holiday home in Guilin, if that’s any indication of how much they enjoyed themselves!

Last Monday, Tiffany and I met up with another contingent of my family, the Jangs, who were in Shanghai on a separate China tour.

Then on Wednesday our parents et al. arrived in Shanghai, and Tiffany traveled with the crew to Suzhou on Thursday, where the local silk inventory was decimated by our hardy shoppers, and then Tiffany took charge of the tour on Friday, leading our family through Shanghai’s finest collection of fake goods and Chairman Mao watches.

It all wrapped up with a big end-of-the-tour party at our apartment Friday night. Tiffany’s friend, Stacey, set us up with an amazing caterer, and we thoroughly enjoyed an 18-course Chinese meal cooked up in our kitchen by an ex-Peace Hotel chef (a famous old hotel in Shanghai on the Bund). We also threw in an order of 5 extra large pizzas, as everyone had been eating Chinese food 3 meals a day for the entire tour. The pizzas barely hit the table before being enthusiastically wolfed down as well!

We also invited some of our good friends from Shanghai, so our family got a chance to meet some of our friends and got a glimpse of our lives here in China. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the total cost of Chinese food for 25 people and in-home cooking services of the caterer? $80.

On the right you can see Stacey, Vanessa and Tara, three of our fun, young friends. They are all like 21 and either make us feel really young or really old, I'm not quite sure.

In the end, we stuffed ourselves to contentment and traded war stories about China: near-death traffic experiences, favorite bargaining battles, and overall culture comparisons as West met East. It was a satisfying end to a whirlwind visit.

It was so great to see our parents and family, and to get to show them a little bit of our lives abroad. As much as we can describe to them on the phone and in our blog about what it is like to live in China, I think they now have a whole new understanding of the fun and craziness of our day-to-day existence out here! The China 2006 Tour was a big success, and we look forward to the reunion tour………

We LOVE Visitors!

April is an exciting month as we gear up for lots of visitors! Our friends from Boulder, Megan and Greg, kicked off the month with a visit to China. They started in Beijing, and did a great job navigating the city on their own. They arrived in Shanghai with lots of fun stories and observations, but a bit low on their main source of food, power bars. Zach and I used this as an excuse to take them out to lots of fun meals, all of which included cocktails and desserts.





We also had a great time showing them around our home and taking them to favorite places like the fabric market and the crowded streets of Shanghai. Don't they look great in their fabric market purchases?






















They were filled with adventurous spirit and embraced everything Shanghai. We had to bribe Megan with dumplings to get her off the outdoor gym equipment!

By the end of the trip, they were practically locals, pointing out new things we had yet to

discover in our neighborhood. They even discovered a cool park with gorgeous cherry blossoms that remind us of DC!

We were sad to see them go, but are getting excited for the next few rounds of visitors, which include both sets of parents, Zach's sister and brother-in-law, and lots of Zach's aunts, uncles and cousins, including the Jang family! Thanks, Greg and Megan for making the trip!!!!