Shanghai in November

It’s finally Fall here in Shanghai. I had a nice visit and dinner last week with some Americans from the Staples home office. It was great to see some familiar faces and have a chance to catch up. We’ve had a nice run of beautiful “Indian” summer weather here. So your silly reporter is out celebrating the change in weather.



Yesterday, there was a major, serious fire in a 28 story high rise in the Jing’An district of Shanghai where I live. At least fifty people died in this fire and over 100 were injured. Here are some quotes from the local paper. “The fire apparatus could not reach to the top of the structure.” This means their ladders are too short to help people at the top. It later was revealed that even though they allow buildings to be 70 meters (225 feet), the locally available equipment can only reach up to 50 meters. I’m also sure many buildings are even higher than that. The next quote was, “Some elderly people were seen looking out of their windows hopelessly.” Definitely brings up some 9/11 images for me. Finally, this one, “Residents were seen on the roof of the building waving at three rescue helicopters but billowing smoke made it impossible for them to get close enough to attempt a rescue.”

I could tell there was a major event going on just from the volume of ambulances and sirens in the local area. The fire began in the afternoon at a part of a building in a section remodeling was being done. The scaffolding caught fire somehow and then there was some insulating foam that fed the fire. Those in Massachusetts will sadly recall the foam fire in Rhode Island and killed over 100 people years ago. Unfortunately, the cause seems to be some sparks from some unlicensed welders work. It is not rare to see welders without eye protection or other shields doing their work in public places very close to pedestrians.

On Sunday, I visited the Shanghai Zoo for the first time. My original plan was to go many months ago but it was a little too warm for me to feel comfortable. Now that the weather is close to perfect, like 65-70 degrees, it’s fun to do almost anything outside. My visit resulted in some images worth sharing. As many of you know, I’m not a big fan of images of captive animals but my challenge is to take them in such a way that the viewer would never know the animals were caged or behind glass. Check out these photos…











Unfortunately, the zoo does suffer from some animal maintenance issues that are obvious. Animals look very skinny, some are quite old, and animal care givers were nowhere to be found, very different from my recent trip to the Panda reserve. The Rhino I saw was eating the leaves that had fallen in its pen. The pen was quite clean but the animal quite hungry. The other issue is the horrible conduct of the locals at the zoo, pounding on the glass to get an animal’s attention, throwing food at them to get them near to them, etc.

Finally a few comments about Staples in Shanghai at work. While we continue to push some key projects to completion a few words about my new business “home”. It’s a six story building where one elevator goes from the first floor to the 4th or 5th with no other stops. The alternative is to take the freight elevator whose door doesn’t close unless you push the button for close and it moves like there’s 20 tons in it whether there is or not. This stops at all six floors making a ride to the fifth quite slow. I know I should be taking the stairs but I think I’m walking plenty. If you ever need to use the restroom during the day, you can go on any floor where the windows are wide open to reduce the stench, the sinks have only cold water and you have to use toilet paper to dry your hands. I’m not a germophobe but this is a training ground for young germs. Of course, you can go down to the 4th floor where you feel like you’ve entered a time warp. (For those who know that, it’s just a jump to the left and then a step to the right, you put your hands on your hips and bring your knees in tight,…) Sorry a moment’s digression but sure to bring a smile to some people’s faces. The 4th floor, aka “the palace”, is like going into a country club’s restroom. Dark wood paneling, very clean stalls, an attendant attendant (not a mistake) plus c-fold towels. Not quite heaven, as the water is as cold as a witches, um, earlobe.

Today, we had a new person join our team. Her name is Brenda Chang. She seems very nice but I can’t say her name or think about her name without quickly flashing back to the, you guessed it, Seinfeld episode where George’s mother, Estelle, was separated from his father and was talked into reconciliation by a mistake phone call from someone named Donna Chang who made several references to Confucius in her conversation. Of course, it got a little messy when Estelle met Donna Chang who wasn’t actually Chinese but a Jewish girl from Long Island whose original name was Changstein before she shortened it. Most people would remember this more for the part of the story where Kramer’s low sperm count convinces him to stop wearing jockey shorts so he transitions to boxers and then goes “commando”.