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= Welcome to my China Journey Wiki! =

It is in the middle of the night, Shanghai time, but nearly noon on Wednesday California time. I just woke up and can't sleep, so thought I'd begin my blog.

My biggest issue right now is that I have a cold, caught during my trip to Key West (or thereabouts), and I only brought a limited amount of Alka-Seltzer Plus. So I'm worried about being a nusiance to my colleagues, a H1N1 threat to the locals, and that I will lose my voice. Right now I'm talking in a stuffed up, low tone. I'm popping Hall's Vitamin C and drinking lots of water.

The flight over was lovely. I shared a row with Kristen and Natalie, and we sprang for the Economy Plus seats so we had lots of room (six more inches, to be exact). Angela, a colleague from HSS, had a full row to herself back by the middle bathroom, so we all hung out there as the 13 hours passed. Tried to get some Chinese beer but it was too popular on the plane. A lovely view from the window revealed Alaska. . . snow-capped mountains. . . ice floes. . . the Bering Straight. As Jenny quipped, "we could all see Sarah Palin!"



We landed in Shanghai and were met by Lisa and Lucy. Lisa is our CSUF buddy and our new Fudan buddy.

Our first impressions of Shanghai - it looks like any other wonderful city - clean, beautiful freeways - lovely people - and the traffic was light this Wednesday evening. Light rain - actually windy enough for most of the women to pull their sweaters tightly around them as we moved from bus to building.

They whisked us off to dinner where we must have eaten 25 different and delightful dishes served family style. My favorite - this lovely veggie - love the display! My least favorite - the "green bean" Kristen and I grabbed and bit into which turned out to be a reasonably hot pepper!

Strangest food: Lotus root with sticky rice, a Shanghai classes of Jiangxi cousine. Sweet but bland. Below is the best pic I could find on the web (since I was busy eating) plus the raw root. Pretty cool, huh?



I'm joined by buds Natalie and Kristen - but no pics of the trio at this time. Kristen took one of us at dinner but she went straight to bed in the hotel (as did I too), and I couldn't get the pic nor my converter - so I'm operating on battery for phone and laptop. Probably for the best, since my last arrival in Asia was accompanied by a plug too many and shorting out the floor of the building.

Room is very nice - bed is very very firm but really okay, comfy cuddly blanket and I brought my own pillow this time! I fear my phone will be dead by my 7 am wake-up plan but i do have an old-fashioned battery operated alarm clock, so no fears.

We've been grouped into fours for our shopping and sight-seeing, which begins tomorrow. So more pics to come!

Two books I read in preparation for my journey. Both were really good.

**Don't Cry, Tai Lake (Qui Xiaolong)** Qiu Xiaolong, a poet, novelist, and former native of Shanghai, presents a compelling portrait of the far-ranging effects of chemical dumping into bodies of water. Tai Lake, an actual lake in the Delta Plain, famous for its succulent fish and clear waters, is now covered by toxic, blue-green algae. Chief Inspector Chen Cao, of the Special Case Squad in the Shanghai Police Department, is given a reward. A party dignitary who can’t take his scheduled vacation at the resort bordering Tai Lake insists that Chen go in his place. Chen is disturbed by the fetid condition of the lake and concerned by what a young woman, an environmental protection engineer he meets at a local fish stand, tells him about the effects of toxic dumping. Further, he is within miles of a director of one of the lakeside factories when the director is murdered. Chen’s friend, the environmental protection engineer, is the prime suspect because of her criticism of the dumping, and Chen must solve the mystery without incurring wrath from party higher-ups. Despite the grim subject matter, the novel is filled with beautiful descriptions and poetry (Chen is poet as well as detective) that the beauty that is being polluted and lost.

After her magazine career craters, Isabelle Lee leaves New York to reconnect with her family roots in China. Her familiarity with the language and culture limited to kitchen Chinese, Isabelle lands a job at a magazine for the expatriate community in Beijing and finds a circle of friends. Isabelle's Beijing immersion, coupled with her chick lit arc, provides a refreshing and fun narrative, helped along by a fantastic heroine whose insights into modern China and the expatriate experience will intrigue readers.
 * [[image:kitchen.jpg width="143" height="198"]] Kitchen Chinese (Ann Mah)**