Stayed up late, got up early – very tired today. It's a bit warmer and more humid but sunny and bearable. I think we’ve really lucked out with the weather this week – sunny and 70’s (as opposed to rainy and 90’s in Jakarta!). One more day of translated Chinese presentations – it’s going to be tough. The first stop was Shanghai Airlines. It’s May Day, a holiday here so the business is officially closed. The office is out a ways from downtown and is much older than others we’ve seen. After climbing four floors we were led into a very nice conference room decorated in authentic Chinese décor. The second presentation was in the same room and given by CIEC, a Chinese consulting firm. After lunch, the third and last presentation was given by the Xie Tang Group – a big Chinese conglomerate into everything from textiles to electronics to hotels. Our group was very tired of long Chinese speeches in hot conference rooms. People amused themselves with games of hangman, wheel of fortune, paper golf and Kevein’s "guess whose hair?" game. The speaker was actually very good – just saddled with a bad time slot.

Got done early today and Adam, Kevin and I took the subway from the hotel to the Peoples Square. The subway was very clean and modern and only cost a quarter (two yuan). We walked around the park and saw the new opera building and the Shanghai Museum. Lots of people were flying kites in the park and some were way up high in the sky. Grabbed a Big Mac at McDonald’s (ah, American food!). The place was packed. Over 300 seats and not one was available. We had to wait for someone to leave to before we could sit down. Next, we walked around a bit more and took the subway back to the hotel. My throat hurt from breathing all that pollution – even for just a short time. Can’t wait to get back to LA and clean air! Everywhere you look there’s a new office tower being built. I think I heard that there are over 70 buildings under construction and that 1/5th of the world’s cranes are in Shanghai right now – amazing! We played some cards and then went out to the Cotton Club, a jazz and blues club. It was very nice with an American band plying Stevey Ray Vaughn songs and old blues tunes to a mostly American and European crowd. I went home with the first group (around 1:00am) because I had a stomachache. I think it was from the Big Mac. It figures, all this weird food I’ve eaten and I get sick from a Big Mac!