Today on the 14th of September we gather for the trip to Shanghai. Jelle and me are not planning to walk the same road back due to the broken wheels of my suitcase and the missing wheels of Jelle. Taking a taxi proves the solution, but we just need to find one and hope that there is no traffic jam.
20 units and some extra grey hair later we have arrived at the station. We hobbled inside really needing a breakfast which we found and looked like a French toast. Today Philips is on the program, but before it is time we need to wait a little. Playing cards!!!
This time we did not have a high speed train and the speed was `only’ 250km/h. In the train I dared to play a game of Chinese chess. In the beginning the prospect was depressing, but with some well thought convulsions the game ended dignified due to a lack of time.
At 11:30 we arrived in Shanghai. The subway is very busy every time, and it is not customary to first let the people exit before entering. So if you really need to exit the subway with your suitcase you should walk self-assertive and it is possible that along the road you will take a couple of Chinese people with you whom rather stayed inside.
Only when we arrived at the hotel we started to realize how luxurious this will be. The first two days we are at this hotel to relax a little. And our first impression was that this will be easily realized. The hotel lobby was spacious, a lot of marble, free coffee and a mac. Bart and Maarten arranged the check-in and we where able to quickly suit-up for our visit to Philips. Our rooms where in order, good matrasses, a rain shower, flat screen TV (for the Chinese talent shows of course) and a beautiful view.
We traveled to Philips via subway. For the subway we got a local public transport card from SPOCK with 20 units. Martijn and Robert did not find it necessary to bring this card with them what resulted in a slight delay. The whole group already was inside the subway and the doors started to close. Friendly as we are Jelle and me squeezed between the doors and hold them open by brute force. Bart stayed with the laggards and ran towards the subway with his two pursuers. Bart and Robert where relatively on time, Martijn however ran in full speed towards the closing door and made a graceful jump into the arms of the group when the doors closed behind him.
At Philips the CTO, Frans, talked to us in Dutch. After a brief introduction and coffee we got a tour, the first demonstration was on the research department where ideas where transformed to proof of concepts. The demonstration room looked like a hotel room to test different lighting techniques and we already found the controller and changed the room to a high-tech disco. The second demonstration was a simple presentation about the workings of a human eye, the perception of light an LED techniques which didn’t where more difficult than secondary school levels. We continued our road towards the healthcare-department where two beautiful Chinese ladies which where passing by said something what Xiaoying eagerly translated to: `handsome men’! So that is in the pocket.
A little while later we spotted the RnD lab and, curious as we are, we went inside. Our tour guide followed our example and was very enthusiastic that we found the lab awesome and let us walk through the lab. We already suspected that this was not the intention and quickly we took some photo’s and walked on with our hands in our pockets. The group went back an we, as stranglers, had a talk with a person working in the lab whom we quickly asked some questions. Quickly some employees came to us alarmed to ask who we where and to what group we belonged. We where friendly requested to leave and in the passing by we heard a Dutch employee remarking that it was absolutely not intended that people where walking unsupervised. Besides a couple of nice pictures the result was that we lost the other part of the group without having any idea where the next stop of the tour would be. We did found the other part of the group just at the end of the tour.
The hotel rooms in the SSAW hotel where awesome. De bed where heavenly and the shower cabin almost translucent. We went out for dinner and the dinner was good. We among others ordered a shawarma roll which Tom explicitly ordered as not spicy (with a lot of nonverbal violence), what the waitress unfortunately misunderstand and she gave us one of the most spicy sandwiches of the whole trip, thanks Tom ;). Thereafter Jelle and me have bought a suitcase, this because our suitcases where broken. After enjoying a free beer with a view on the skyline of Shanghai we went to bar 88 for a drink. In front of the door you think: “Huh, what?”, then you walk up a stairs and you think: “Huh, what is this?” and after the first hallway you think : “Huh, what the fuck super awesome is this!” A huge dance-café which is mainly good for the labor supply of the Shanghai people. There even are people constantly walking around and wiping the floor! Add a couple of hundred guests and you have a social busy environment. Good music, and beer (250ml) for 55 units (comparison: the record is 3 units for 600ml).
From nowhere suddenly two beautiful intelligent half naked dancers emerge together with a negro which looks like he has escaped from a low budget Bollywood austin powers rip-off. They preform a cool openings act. After this introduction the show goes downhill very fast because the negro got the microphone witch he abuses with his voice. Not only the microphone, but also the whole audio installation sighs under the screams of the low ranking singstar n00b. This all results in a battle between our eardrums and the moving surrounding air. With restrained lips and we try to ignore this and try to focus on the nice dancers. After we watched this show we went back to the hotel and we hailed a taxi. End yes, bummer, the first one doesn’t take 5 passengers. This is illegal in the Netherlands so also in China. Here it is more strange because taxis don’t have seatbelts anyway. Eventually we found a taxi which could take us to the hotel for 30 units for 5 persons. Halfway the ride we of course see the police and the drivers asks Labrinus to hide so the police officer won’t see him, when we arrived at the hotel Labrinus can unhide again. Via an astonished Mc Donalds deliverer and the 4th floor (where the bar was closed of course) we went to bed. All with our own beep in our ears…
Ingo Stijntjes