Category Archives: China

The Barnacle Theory

China

A theory that is not mine but seems to fit reality – or, at least, my picture of reality – very well. Imagine government as a ship. In a democracy, the ship is controlled by the people: in a dictatorship, by the autocrats. But, over time, special interests develop. These special interests are like barnacles. As they attach themselves to the hull of the ship, they make the ship more sluggish, less responsive.What is best for the people in general, is held hostage by the special interests.

So, in the United States, we have the NRA dictating gun policy. We have the delay of the repair of the Bay Bridge for over ten years even though everybody knows the bridge is not safe. We have every special interest known to man, from the Sierra Club to General Motors, holding up the construction of a high speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles. We have no highway through San Francisco. But in Shanghai, where there has not been much time, under the present government, to have the barnacles build up; there is a great subway system and a great road system. It is easy to get around the entire city. There are high speed trains to other parts of China, a hyper-high speed train to the airport, and, count them, two ring roads (an inner and outer) around the city. 

Shanghai Auto Show redux

Cars, China, Travel

We went back to the Auto Show on Sunday. To save time, we took a taxi which are very cheap here, and, as we got close, the crowds got bigger and bigger. Just to get tickets, we had to wait in line for about an half hour. To get in the first time, we went through metal detectors and put our cameras and day packs through a x-ray tunnel. This time the system was overwhelmed. The crowd just walked through the metal detectors, each detector dutiful beeping as each person walked through – but nobody stopped and nobody was actually checked.

This show is huge. The building is V-shaped with five halls in one wing and six in the other wing. Each hall is so big, it is hard to show it's actual size. And each hall is so crowded, it is hard to move around. Most of the time, the crowds are fun – people jumping up and down trying to see the cars or jamming forward to see a show or model with a car -  sometimes, the crowds are annoying – bumping and pushing  into us while we are trying to take a picture or are just standing looking at something – once the crowd got scary – when it got so packed nobody could move, somewhere between the Bentley and Subaru areas (the police and fire department in full gear had to come in to get break up the jam). This pic, taken by Michele by holding her camera over her head, sort of shows it.
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Of the eleven halls, nine are filled with cars, plus there is a large area between the legs of the V for parts vendors a couple who we saw as we walked from the West Halls to the East Halls.

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In short, anybody who expects to be in the car business on the world stage, has to be be here – in force.

The big players even put on various types of shows to drawn attention to their displays (in this case, Chery successfully drew a large part of the crowd from the new 4 door Porsche across the hall):

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and everybody has impossibly beautiful, tall, presenters. 

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The overwhelming, overall, impression we walked away with is that China is a serious player on this stage. China is in it for the long run and is looking towards the future. If you like cars, this is one show you should see at least once in your life.

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It’s a small world

Cars, China

At the Auto Show, everybody had  huge video displays with overwhelmingly loud soundtracks. Almost all of them based on African music (or, more accurately, African music as developed by African slaves brought to the United States and then perfected by African-Americans as freed men and women. Rock. Jazz. Rap.) African music is now World Music – the music played at a Auto Show in China or a concert in England.

All business transactions, in China, in the US, everywhere, involve the numbering system based on the Hindu positional, numeral system developed in India about a thousand years ago.

Why?

Because, in the world today, the most powerful answers become the most dominant answers. It really is becoming a small world.

I write this after watching Jenson Button winning his third F1 victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Michele and I watched the race in a sports bar, The Big Bamboo, in the West Nanjing Road area of Shanghai broadcast on a English language feed from Malaysia. Michele drank a couple of Scotches (neat) and I drank a couple of glasses of red wine from Chile – Michele had a hamburger and I had a Ruben sandwich. The world is small and life can be very sweet.

Buying a genuine fake watch

Cars, China

One of the things I have wanted to do while in China is buy a good fake watch. Not a piece of junk that only looks like the real thing from 30 paces and weighs nothing: but a watch with a real automatic movement (not battery operated quartz) and the heft to feel like the real thing. While still back home, I had read that the best automatic movements for fake watches were made in Japan. But there is a certain paradox in trusting the person selling you the watch – that is fake, after all – is selling you a real Japanese movement that will last much longer than the time it takes to get out of Shanghai.

To make matters even worse, the best watches are supposed to be found only in little shops off back alleys – the kind of place where they run a white slave trade. Walking down the street, about every 15 feet, somebody is trying to sell us a watch and we would walk straight ahead and keep on talking to ignore them. At some point, at about tout 42, I thought, Hey, I want to but a fake watch, I'll say Yes to the next person. And it worked out great! We were lead down a back alley to a little shop.

They had all kinds of cheap watches, but, when I told them I wanted a genuine fake watch with a real Japanese movement, they started bringing out suitcases with all kinds of watches. What do you want, Rolex? Britling? Tag Huer? Patak Philippe? Each suitcase was full of one brand of phony watches. I finally settled on a Patak Philippe that looks and feels real including a glass back so I can see the real, fake movement.

Mission accomplished.