The Olson's Asian Adventure

Our First day at the newest Disney park in the system…  Shanghai Disney.  This was a fun, quick free day off with the family.  The kid’s teachers had a work day, so we took the American-school day off in China while the Chinese students stayed in school.  This provides the best chance at reasonable lines in the land of 24 million people.  Disney was cool.  It basically followed the same script as Orlando with two big awesome differences.  First, space mountain has been upgraded and renamed “Tron”.  This ride looks like the movie and instead of riding in a normal roller coaster, you jump on a motorcycle… yes a motorcycle roller coaster.  Secondly, the Pirates of the Caribbean got a major face lift.  Big time improvement.  They turned it into a 4D ride that splits between under and above water. Best part was spending time together… it was a fun, spontaneous, China payday for the family.   Picture ...

When Marco Polo was doing his thing, he found Suzhou and loved it.  It was one of his favorite locations and he called it the Venice of the east.  Suzhou has some charm.  It has been wealthy for thousands of years, stayed away from much of the war time destruction, and was left mostly in tact during the Golden Revolution and the China’s recent industrial revolution.  They found a way to preserve most of China’s old charm while modernizing other areas. Suzhou is also a location that I visit a lot.  We have a Technical / Innovation center and plant in Suzhou.  I am responsible for that office and, therefore, work from there 1-2 times a week (when I’m not travelling).  I never get to see the charm of Suzhou because I stay in the industrial center on the east side of town.  So, we had a free weekend and decided to take a day trip.  It is pretty close to the house (25 miles), but as it often occurs in China traffic happened and i...

Marco Polo called Suzhou the Venice of the east primarily because it (and many others) were built around a series of canals just like Venice.  Unfortunately, many of those areas have been lost to “progress”.  China has a rather repugnant reputation when it comes to preserving history.  It started during the Cultural Revolution in the 70’s but followed during the Industrial revolution.  I can’t really blame them for much… If getting 1billion people out of poverty means that you lose a bit of history, then so be it.  You certainly don’t hear the 1billion complaining and I am in no place to challenge the strategy.  There is no question that china’s pace of change has been remarkable and that they will emerge again as a global power…  It is just a matter of time. Still though, many places have been preserved; like, Ju Jai Jiou.  Ju Jai Jiou is a water town and has maintained the classical style, despite the extra costs, due its proximity to ...