Wuxi Woes and the Tao of Shanghai

Just back from Wuxi. Mat had to visit the factory and I made a run to Walmart. Nothing to report from Wuxi, it is a dead town. The commute is the pits. Poor Mat--I can't believe he is going to have to brave the train station chaos every week. Chinese train stations are INSANE. Imagine Penn Station in NYC on a Friday afternoon at rush hour but with 5 times as many people, all Chinese, half of whom have giant plaid oil cloth shopping bags strapped to their backs and the other half are jogging at a brisk pace while screaming "wei? wei?" (hello?hello?) on their cell phone. When I lived in NYC, little Chinese women on the subway trains would amaze me. Although they were barely 5 feet tall and hunched over, sure enough, they would expertly dart through the crowd and claim a seat before I'd even entered the train car. Well, now I know why.

There are no rules when entering the train station or boarding the trains in China. Every wo/man for themselves. First of all you have to buy the train tickets OUTSIDE the station at these huge tent like structures. The line is about 50 people deep, but it moves quickly, mainly because the soup nazi's long lost Chinese cousin is in charge of tickets. If you don't know exactly what train you want and cash in hand, she'll abruptly shout out "mei no", which means no, and shove you away. Brilliant husband that I have, Mat typed his request on his blackberry and avoided the confusion. Once we got our tickets, we followed the rest of the salmon upstream to the security check where people literally throw their bags over your head onto the x-ray conveyor belt. Miraculously, we grabbed our bags and the crowd literally carried us up the escalators into the waiting area which smelled of KFC and roasted chestnuts. Kind of made us hungry, but there is no time to eat because the flashing neon billboard is announcing our train is on the platform. Faster than a herd of antelope, all the passengers gallop to the platform. Surprisingly, all is calm once you are on the platform. Each ticket has a specific door that you must enter the train from as well as a seat assignment. When given structure, the Chinese are very rule abiding. Everyone waits patiently and files into their seats neatly. The trains are FANCY--much nicer than the commuter trains to NYC or Boston. German designed bullet trains that are spacious, quiet and even have filtered hot water dispensers in case you want a cup of instant noodles on your trip. Mat chatted with a German guy from Siemens while I slept.

We arrived in Shanghai in about an hour, and were spitted onto the sidewalk of the metro station with a bit more civility than which we had entered by--but it was still a daunting exit. Luckily our apartment is just a few stops from Shanghai railway station and we were at the bar having Tapas and beer in no time. El Willy is an awesome Spanish restaurant that is literally next door. I have a feeling it is going to be "our place". It is recessed from the street and has a lovely garden area. It is there that we finally found peace, and Tao.

Tao is my first link into the ad world in Shanghai. An Aussie who's been in Shanghai for 2 years, he owns a video production company and works with all the major ad agencies in China, mainly on TV commercials. Better yet, he lives in my building! He gave me the low down on all the creative shops in town--it was like a Soap Opera. Agency A has a really good creative ECD but is run by the Taiwanese so they won't work with Agency B....so and so doesn't pay their bills...so and so works with the Mafia....Agency C works 7 days a week and gets crapped on by their US and European offices. Shoots are usually done in low cost no union areas like the Philippines or Malaysia. How cool is that? It was truly fascinating and Mat did notice my eyes were gleaming by the end of our conversation. It's been nice living the life of leisure, but I may need to eventually get my feet wet in the ad world of Shanghai...