Day 6 in China: Suzhou

On Thursday, we took the bullet train to Suzhou (pop. 10,700,000). Driving would have taken over an hour, but the train only to 15 minutes at 180 mph. The Hongqiao railway station is the largest in Asia; it's also connected to the Hongqaio airport and Shanghai subway. I'm glad it wasn't busy.

We visited one of our suppliers that makes radiators for one of our suppliers. They also gave us a tour of their other plant that builds heat exchangers - Wow! What a cool factory! They make radiators for the bit Caterpillar mining trucks as well as heat exchangers for extreme chemical processing plants. Some of them have stainless steel pipes running through huge blocks of graphite. The biggest one they made was over 80 feet long.

When we got back that evening and explored "The Hub" which is the center of a new metro area. I'm not sure how they do city planning in China, but they do a good job. In this case, the story is that downtown Shanghai is maxed out, so the area immediately west of the Hongqaio airport is being developed as the next high-density metro center.

Day 5 in China: Nantong

Wednesday, we drove north two and a half hours, across the Yangtze River to the city of Nantong (pop. 7,200,000) to visit another factory.  

At lunch, this pitch-black stuff made it around three or four times on the lazy Susan before I got up the nerve to try it. The only thing that it looked remotely close to was deep fried dog poop. I was relieved to find that it was just pitch-black deep fried fish that was as tasty as Mrs. Paul's finest fish stiks. I was told that the black color comes from black sesame. 

This is a typical dining room in a Chinese restaurant. All of the tables are round with a lazy Susan in the middle. Large ones, like this one, are usually self-powered. Servers bring the meal one dish at a time and everyone shares everything on the table. 

Chinese food rule: It's impolite to ask WHAT it is, but perfectly normal (and expected) to ask HOW to eat it.

Also - never use your chopsticks to point.

With the crackdown on pollution and burning coal, all of the currently operating power plants and factories have undergone modifications to curb emissions. Those that didn't step up and conform have been shut down. All up and down the Yangtze River are HUGE industrial plants. I know the sky looks murky here, but it's a thousand times better than the previous two years.

Day 4 in China: Ningbo

On Tuesday, we drove from Hangzhou to Ningbo (pop. 3,500,000) and visited two factories: an investment casting foundry, and the machine shop that machines their parts. The casting factory was top notch, but the machine shop was sketchy. It was one of those places where they were really trying to put on a show, but we could tell that what we were seeing wasn't their normal day-to-day operation. That's why it's so important to visit our suppliers' (and their suppliers') factories.

As usual, lunch was an adventure. The ordering room featured lots of dead fish as well as some live ones.

The Chinese aren't bothered by bones in their food. Most meat dishes are either cooked entire animals (like the fish below), or diced animals. Whereas we tend to separate meat into different cuts and types (steak vs. ribs vs. tripe), in China it's all just chopped into chopstick-manageable cubes. 

After lunch, we drove back to Shanghai across the bridge the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, which is the longest ocean-crossing bridge. Instead of staying downtown Shanghai, we moved our base to the Hotel Intercontinental by the Hongqaio airport. I LOVE 5-star hotels. I can't afford them in the states, but in China, they're under $200 per night.

Day 3 in China - Hangzhou

One of the first things I noticed when we arrived in Shanghai was how clear the air was compared to last year. I actually saw the sunrise from the hotel in Hangzhou (pop. 6,200,000). Last year, I could barely make out the shape of the hills.

This year, China has essentially outlawed coal. As we attempt to spool up coal here, they are working to improve the air there. It was noticeable everywhere we went (except for Nanjing, where they are still burning coal - it was murky and dark). 

We toured two of our supplier's factories in Hangzhou. One of the produces 30% of all the lockwashers used in China. That's a lot of lockwashers! The other factory makes parts for us. This was the third time I have met with them. The old guy that owns the lockwasher factory is quite a character. At dinner he goes around the table with a pitcher of baijiou (Chinese 80-proof white liquor) and does shots with each person at the table. Fortunately, the baijiou shot glasses are very small (about 1/4 of a normal shot).

Day 2 in China: Shanghai to Hangzhou

I Love Shanghai! It's such a fun city to wander through despite a population of 24 million. It's ultra modern along Nanjing Road, but very traditional Chinese just a block off the street. I ventured down an alley and found a luggage shop where I picked up a Tumi backpack for $32.

For lunch, we strolled down to the Bund. 

Later in the day, we drove to Hangzhou. Dinner was at a place with an expansive ordering room. They had live lobsters, crabs, shrimps, salamanders, turtles, fish, and even something that looked like a cross between a shrimp and a trilobite. Eating in China can be like eating at a pet store.

China Day 1: Arrive in Shanghai

Going west, we lost a day. We left Lincoln at 6 AM on Friday and didn't land in Shanghai until 7 PM Saturday night. We made it through immigration and customs in good time, but we had to wait for some guys from another company to show up. It's different waiting for someone there than it is here. No phones, no readable signs, no one to ask for help. We talked with them about the plan before we left, and hoped that we met up on the far side. 

We grabbed a bite and a brew while waiting for our colleagues. At 9:30, we were about to leave when they finally showed up. There were several shady cabbies hassling us to take their cab. They assured us that the train had long stopped running and our only option was to take their cab.

Per my research, the train had not stopped running yet, so we were able to take the MagLev into town. During the day it tuns at 240 mph. At night, only 190 mph. It looks like this one encountered a pigeon on the tracks earlier in the day.

The MagLev only runs halfway from the airport to downtown, so we had to take a subway for the last leg of the journey (and then walk two blocks). We stayed on East Nanjing Road, which is a huge pedestrian mall in the heart of Shanghai.

Busy Travel Month

December was the busiest travel month of my life. In 32 days, I took 14 flights through 10 different airports, visited 14 cities, 8 factories, rode on 5 bullet trains with wheels, one without wheels, and rode around on the Shanghai subway. Needless to say, I was glad when the last trip was complete and I could sleep in my own bed every night. 

The first trip was to China. Lincoln --> Minneapolis --> Los Angles --> Shanghai. When I booked the flight, there was no option for going thru Seattle. The flight from LA is three hours longer due to LA being further south and the fact that we are nearly at war with North Korea, so we had to fly further west in China and basically go right over Beijing. Total flight time: 10 minutes shy of 15 hours. Ugh.

At least all of the flights were scenic. On the way to LA, we flew over the Four Corners region and I got to see Shiprock. On the flight to Shanghai, I saw Yosemite, the coastal volcanoes, and even Denali's summit poking out of the noontime winter twilight.

I love the real-time map and flight information on the bigger planes. With a little bit of geographic knowledge, you know where to look to see some cool landmarks. The photo above is Denali.

X-Mas Tree

After we returned from Illinois, we had a full day to set up all the X-Mas decorations. CP and W helped. 

W the Cat

We went to Lanark for Thanksgiving and brought back W, the diabetic cat, to stay with us for a while. He made himself at home and seems happy, but the other two are out of sorts and slowly coming around.

Concert Schedule

GP's band is playing at Duffy's tonight. It's cool to see them in the event schedules of Lincoln nightlife. Next month they will be performing at The Bourbon! 

Electrical Engineering 101

CP's first group project for his freshman electrical engineering project is to make a vehicle that drives across the room using servos, not motors. A servo is like a motor, but instead of going round and round, it can only turn ±90°. They are using an Arduino microcontroller to tell the servos how to move so that they are synchronized with the crankshaft. One of the kids designed and modeled the chassis and crankshaft and then they 3D printed them in the lab at school. Pretty impressive!! I wish I could get my engineers at work to take this class.

Moving Up

I finally got around to installing my stand-up desk kit. Now I have a high stool and can stand (or sit) at my desk. Still need to figure out something to do with all the wires and cables.

Detroit Rock City

After two days in Virginia, it was off to sunny Michigan for a couple days of overcast in Detroit Rock City. We got to talk with more people about lawnmowers.

We never saw Kid Rock or M&M, but Michael Moore made an appearance at dinner one night. He's in the background to the right of my head.

The flight back from Detroit to Minneapolis was on a huge new 757 that was empty in 1st class. This was the 1st time I've received an upgrade like this. Usually there are 20 people ahead of me on the upgrade list. Let's hope this is the start of a trend.

We flew over the neighborhood on the approach into Lincoln. It's looking pretty green for November.

Staunton, VA

After Kentucky, I was back home for a week and then back on the road to talk with more people about lawnmowers. We went to a cute little town in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. We stayed at the Stonewall Jackson hotel from 1924. We didn't have any time to explore the town during the daylight - I would love to come back sometime with JP to check out all the shops. There is one that is full of plastic models from floor to ceiling.

This shop is full of upright basses.

Friday Night Lights

GP's band played at The Night Owl Friday night. They are really coming together and sounding great!

New Monster Mower

One of the new mowers we introduced at the mower show last week is our new 96" Diesel that one of my teams has been working on for the past five years. It has a 37-hp Yanmar diesel, runs at 12.5 mph, and cuts a lot of grass very quickly. There was a lot of excitement about it at the show despite the $40,000 price tag.

Kentucky Derby

Churchill Downs was only a mile from our hotel in Louisville, so we went there for lunch. There was no racing going on, but it was fun to wander around and see the historic buildings.

I would have got JP a cute race hat, but I couldn't figure out how to get it home on the plane.

The original parts of the complex date from 1875. They are currently adding on more seats. I can't imagine how bustling the place must be on race day.

Land of Meat and Bourbon

I spent a long week in Louisville, the Land of Meat and Bourbon. Everywhere we went, the menu consisted of lots of huge meat dishes and pages and pages of bourbons at $10 to $100 a shot. I'm not much for either; just give me a nice salad and a beer and I'm in heaven.

The meatiest dish of the week was the PBLT (pork belly BLT). It was like a BLT, but the bacon was 3/4" thick and cooked just enough to make it gelatinous. Tasty, but way too much for me.

Dog Sitting

We took care of not only the dogs next door, but also GP's girlfriend's dogs for the weekend. They all get along well with each other and the cats. We had FIVE dogs all scratching at the door, snuggling, and begging for goodies. 

Anyone want a treat?

Captain JP

JP's Husker shirt this year is very Star Trekkie. 

Deck Repair

We noticed a funny spot on the handrail of the deck. Closer inspection revealed that a knothole had started rotting. It took out the handrail and started into the post.

I thought cedar wouldn't rot...

$40 of new cedar from Home Depot and a couple hours and we're back in business. 

Butterfly Season

The butterflies have been swarming all over, trying to fuel up on the last flowers of summer.

Honored, Again

GP made the honor roll, again. He's kicking butt again this year.