Friday, November 18, 2011

The Silk Road - 4

It’s a long way to office – a 45 minutes ride thanks to the Metro. It’s a small place like the Graphisoft Park in Budapest. SAP stands with other companies like HTC, Olympus and ICBC Bank. There is a small man-made lake in the midst.


And then, there are the mosquitoes…Too many of them in office.

Nobody wants the lunch served over here. Subash didn’t like the smell. The others didn’t like the taste. So, we bring lunch. But still, Subash wants to know why they need to pay to have lunch at the office.

To the east of People’s Square runs East (not surprisingly) Nanjing Road – a boulevard of lights. It’s an out and out walking street with a few tram-like contraptions thrown in for the benefit of people like Pragati who cannot walk the whole way. There are huge shopping malls – from the Shanghai No. 1 Department Store at one end to the huge iphone store at the other. At night, it is truly a splash of colour. On this road, there are always people singing and dancing, and then there are those trying to sell you iphones, bags, clothing and sex massages

About 500 m ahead, is the famous Bund on the Huangpo River. Thursday was a rainy night and the umbrellas were out. We had two ourselves. Across the river, the lights of Pudong shone brightly. A mist was slowly descending. The highest pearl of the Oriental Pearl Tower kept playing hide and seek. The massive Shanghai World Financial Centre and the Jinmao Tower were lost in the mist. On the Shanghai side, the beautiful old buildings blazed in various colors. We stood braving the rain until the lights were switched off.

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