The Bund & Shanghai Office, Sept 27 & 28

Sept.27th

I went to the office first thing in the morning. Shanghai office is in a building called the Bund Centre which is quite close to the Bund, the water front.

http://www.bundcenter.com/english/index.htm

I met with Ivy from HR. She gave me a bunch of documents to sign. The employment agreement indicated that I would start from Oct. 8th. Ivy didn't want to introduce me to the partners I am going to work with as she said they would ask me to start to work immediately. I actually didn't mind to start earlier. I guessed HR didn't want trouble to change the agreement or maybe the firm didn't want to pay me for the national holiday vacation from Oct. 1st to Oct.7th.

I felt inconvenient without a laptop. Ivy tried to ask IT to set up an account for me, but IT said I still had the system account with Toronto and should be terminated before I got a new account and laptop. Ivy asked me to open a bank account and take ID photo. So I went to Nanjing Road, which is a famous shopping area about 15 minutes walk from the office. The Peace Hotel is an old hotel on the Nanjing Road and famous for its senior jazz band. I opened my account with Bank of China next to it. Bank of China is our client in Toronto, but not a client in Shanghai.

You can find all kinds of luxury stores in Shanghai

There are a lot of tour group of seniors with red vest on the Nanjing Road

A small handbag shop called Story of Shanghai

Sept. 28th

I called partner D who telephone interviewed me when I was in Toronto. She is the leader of GFSI group of Shanghai. She invited me to go for dinner together.

The restaurant is just under the office building. D looks younger than me. She is a very nice lady, smart and open. She thought I started on 9/27. I explained that the agreement was from Oct.8th. She confirmed that I would continue to serve FI clients, most of them would be foreign banks and insurance companies. I asked about the new big win of one of the big four national banks. She said she would prefer to let me help to improve the audit quality which is one of the priorities this year. She thought it would be good for me to start with relevant small and well organized client. I agreed and thought it would be good for me to utilize my knowledge and experience.

We had genuin Shanghainese food ("Benbancai") which was really delicious. The restaurant is called Shanghai Uncle. I promise to bring anyone from Toronto to this good restaurant when he/she comes to visit me.

http://www.bundcenter.com/english/UncleShanghai/pics.jpg

Back to China - Sept. 26, 2006

Sept.19 Last Day in Toronto Office

There were not much people in the office after 7pm when I planed to leave. I walked around on the 13th/F, I found it was so hard to tear myself away from this place where I was with for four years... ...

Sept.26 Shanghai

I arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 3pm on time. There were a lot of people in the arrival hall. However, I couldn't find the driver arranged by the office to meet me. I called and found that he was still at home. I told him I would take a cab.

I couldn't believe the traffic jam was so bad. The airport is just about 50km to my temporary living place. But the transportation took about 2.5hrs. The taxi driver was so frustrated. He told me it was all because that the National Holiday (Oct.1st) and Moon Festival (Oct.5th) would come. People moved around to send gifts and moon cakes to bosses, business partners and relatives. People drove rudely on the road: changing lanes without signals and horning all the time.

Shanghai was still very hot, about 28 degree. There are so many buildings, old and new mixed together. I closed the car window. The driver didn't turn on the air-con. Maybe to save gas or maybe he didn't consider it was hot. The transfer costed RMB166 ($23). I gave RMB180 to the driver. Although normally no tips, I felt sorry for him to spend so long on this single trip.

Shanghai office arranged me to stay at Howard Johnson. You know it is only an economic motel in North America, but a quite luxury place in Shanghai. The direct translation from the Chinese name is "green field luxury living". :D