An Impromptu Trip to Shanghai

I was asked (told) on Friday morning whether I had time to go on a client development trip to Shanghai on Monday of this week.  I was a bit nervous about going because I knew the trip would require a lot of time and I was worried about my studying time for the OLQE.  But I kind of figured that studying and procrastinating take up all available time allotted to it, so I would go.

I do like Shanghai.  Unfortunately this time I barely had any time to see or do anything.

I kicked off my trip with a pit stop at the noodle bar in Cathay's Cabin lounge at the airport:

 Their spicy dandan noodles are not very spicy but very creamy and full of peanut flavor.

 Their char siu bao and liu sa bao are actually pretty good.

 My dish of lamb chops on Dragonair was actually surprisingly tasty, one of my better Cathay meals of late.

 I was whisked directly to my hotel, the Ritz Carlton in Pudong.  The hotel was very nice.  It had the typical Chinese set up where the lobby was on the 52nd floor and the hotel rooms were below.  I find the set up a little annoying because every time you want to go down you have to go up first.  I stayed on the 40th floor.

 My door was a glittery shiny thing.

 I had a very nice view of the bund.

 With the Pearl Tower right next door, out the side of my window:

 My room was very luxurious, with a bathtub that looked a bit like a throne:

 This was a very spacious bathroom:

 A nice sitting area I didn't really use:

 A bed that I found strangely uncomfortable:

 The bund in the morning:

The trip overall was pretty tiring, with my not seeing very much except the airports, the hotel room, the Shanghai office, the interior of a few cars, and the offices of the client we were visiting.  I did have one very interesting conversation with my first driver who drove me to my hotel from Pudong Airport, but that post will come when I have a bit more time to parse my thoughts.

Back to studying...