I met my group at 7:00am to come up with questions for our first stop, Shanghai Automotive Industry Group. We are doing our project on the Chinese auto industry. We loaded onto the bus at 8:15 and headed out. We had a nice reception and presentation at SAIC and got a lot of good information for our project. Next, we crossed the street to China International Travel Service. Another informative presentation but the room was hot and the chairs were uncomfortable. Good lunch in their café and back on the bus to Want Want Holdings, a food processing company. We had the best presentation yet here and each got a big bag of Lovely Puffs on the way out. I read all about the symbolism of their logo, "Hot-Kid" – pretty hilarious, actually. "Outstretched arms represent endless opportunity", "Big smile signifies number one customer satisfaction!", etc. Back on the bus to China Eastern Airlines - everything translated here - had to drink several cups of tea to stay awake – a long day of presentations.

Back at the hotel, we got a in couple games of euchre in before dinner. We decided to go to a restaurant but realized once we got there that none of us spoke Chinese and they didn't speak any English (no English menus either). The group split up, half going bowling and Adam, Randy, Antonio, Jim, and I walked down the street to a bar called Mars that had a pretty good cover band playing American songs. Ordered food and beer and all of a sudden five Chinese chicks sat at our table. We hung out for a while, played a Chinese dice game and danced a bit. Then I got kind of worried about what these women were up to. Turns out they were just like the Disco girls and scamming free food and drinks (although it looked like they worked there or something). Anyway, I took off by myself just to avoid any trouble (Jim and Antonio were haggling with the manager over something - perhaps negotiating some companionship?). On the way home I realized that I was by myself in a cab in Shanghai and don’t speak a word of Chinese. Hmmm, where did that term “I got Shanghai’d come from again…” I decided to watch the meter – I knew our hotel was less than a 20 yuan ride. Got home for 16 yuan and had no problem.