“…anything is possible, but nothing is easy…”

My eyes open in bed at about 6 am. Thank God for a full night’s sleep.

But what day is it?

Where am I today and what do I have to do?

The pace of this trip and the number of obligations makes it impossible for my brain to keep up. I hate to admit it, but without our guides and the faculty telling me where to be and when, I’m completely lost. I breathe deep and try to get my wife on the line via Skype.

She doesn’t sound like herself. I miss her something awful, but the pace of this thing has made it tough to notice that the last couple days. I feel another bout of guilt that I couldn’t bring her along. Not to Beijing. She would’ve wanted to leave it sooner than I had. But Shanghai she’d enjoy. She helps me realize how turned around I am when she points out I’m running late for being in the shower. I’m off by an hour thanks to not having reset my laptop’s time. We say a begrudged goodbye and agree to catch up later.

I make it down to the bus in time, having to blow off any chance at breakfast. But at least I’m feeling better. I’m starting to get some of the pollution out of my lungs (use your imagination, and let that be a warning to you).

Our first stop today is Walmart in Shanghai. When we started taking names of companies to visit out here, that was top on my list. I’ve never visited a Walmart in the states; never had occasion to. But this is a rare chance. How does the most excoriated capitalist company operate in an environment that is still, in name, communist?

Some of us find this funny. We came all this way to see a place we can see at home? Right away, though, the happy workers at Walmart give us a greeting we haven’t seen before.



We’re taken to the back of the store where we get a brief walk through of Walmart’s China operations. More than 100 stores now bear the Walmart name in China, serving 7 million customers a week. Out of $374 billion in sales, $90 billion came from the company’s international operations alone.

How did they get so many customers and grow the company in such a small bit of time? They brought return policies and money-back, satisfaction guarantees – concepts we take for granted, but that the Chinese hadn’t had before.

Walking through the store is both fun and eye-opening. So, here’s a look at some of the more memorable bits of merchandise.











This may all seem insane to our Western eyes. We would never think to pick through an open bin of meat or eat half of these meat options. But, let me do something to my wife’s chagrin here, and defend Walmart a bit. Walmart is merely offering these items in a way that is appealing to their core audience in China – middle aged, female, middle income. This is the way they want to shop, and Walmart can provide it more consistently, and with a more consistent standard, than they might find in other, more local, stores. Seen through that lens, Walmart is offering a market improvement.

Lunch along the harbor at the Seagull’s Nest offers a chance to snap a few more photographs, this time by day.

We then head out an hour’s drive (Anyone? Pattern? Anyone?) to visit Air Products, a leading provider of gases for manufacturing processes. My bus (we have 2 now) visits the warehouse first, as our group has to split into two. Then, we head to HQ where we get a much bigger picture of the company’s operations.

Heading back into town, we scramble to secure a reservation at the Grand Hyatt Hotel’s restaurant on the 56th floor. It is a great place to get a panoramic view of the city at night, and the food is supposedly pretty good, too. The restaurant squeezes us in, after a little maneuvering by Dr. Wang.



This place is pretty swank. It is based in the world’s highest hotel. Rooms here at the Grand Hyatt start on the 57th floor and go up to the 88th floor. The rest of the building is business space.

We have a nice dinner, and afterwards, a handful of us head for Xintiandi, a pedestrian sort of mall designed to cater to Westerners. We take a short walk around and settle into a wine bar for a drink.

Across the way, a place called Rendezvous seems to be jumping, maybe too much for us at this point. I want to party, badly – but I can’t shake the miles. I am worn out. And the prospect of one more city ahead between now and our return to the States is enough to depress me. Our schedule is aggressive, perhaps too aggressive. We are given little more than our evenings to catch our breath. As we traveled to the other side of the planet, that seems like a lot to ask of us. We were originally supposed to get a break tomorrow morning, but no more. I feel cheated. I am officially at the bottom of the wave.

After a drink, TK, Shannon, Brubaker and I hop into a cab again back to the city. The program offers us cards to get back to the hotel, but it’s just now we realize their fatal flaw. They’re in English. The cabbie looks at it and wonders what the hell he’s supposed to do with this.

“What’s the problem?”

“I think he’d prefer the card in Chinese… After all, he doesn’t speak English.”

We punt, showing him our hotel room keys which show the address in Chinese characters. Once we get out and into the elevator, TK, Shannon and “Bru” decide to hit the bar on the 31st floor, see if the gang is there. I just can’t. I want to, but I just can’t.

Earlier today, we heard that, in China, anything is possible, but, for us Westerners, nothing is easy. I haven’t the will in me to fight for a bender. Riding the wave stinks.