Introduction and Flight on AA
Google Maps in China
Sheraton Changzhou Xinbei Review
Changzhou Summary
Intro to China High Speed Rail (CSR)
Cantonese Food and Ramen in Shanghai
Intercontinental Shanghai Puxi Review
Nanjing (City Wall, Nanjing Massacre Memorial, Purple Mountain)
Suzhou (Tiger Hill, Humble Administrator’s Garden)
Changzhou Tianning Temple
Hangzhou (West Lake, Leifeng Pagoda, Longjing tea)
Flight Home and After Thoughts

 To support some of the engineering activity in my department, I was sent to Changzhou to train some of the engineers there and also go to Baoying to visit our manufacturing facility. Changzhou is very easy to get to by high speed train but Baoying is only accessible by car so I would be booking a car to go to Baoying. Initially, I was not familiar with the high speed train system so I took a car from Shanghai to Changzhou. After talking with other Americans at our Changzhou and Baoying facility, I looked up the train system and figured it out. A later blog post will cover this topic.

I spent some time in Shanghai as we had a sales office there and I had a few meetings there and spent the extended weekend in Shanghai. The following weekends were spent going to Nanjing and Suzhou and exploring Tianming Temple. Before I left, I went for a day trip down to Hangzhou from Shanghai.

Flight:

The flight was on American, BOS-ORD-PVG. I managed to get the bulkhead seat so it was much more comfortable. I got into PVG and took the maglev to the metro to get to Intercontinental Puxi.

It was a recommended hotel and the admin in Changzhou booked it for me. I got there Sunday to give e a day to rest before being in the office for 7 straight days. I flew in late March and this coincides with Tomb Sweeping Holiday on 4-4-12 and that year, the China working schedule was to work all week, including Saturday and Sunday, and then have the following three days off for tomb sweeping holiday.

The hotel was a bit hard to get to with luggage. It was about a 15 minute walk with some stairs to get to the overpass. However, it is about the same distance from the metro as Shanghai Railway Station, so it makes it very convenient to go from Shanghai to Changzhou.

Below is the view of the train station and the overpass below the hotel. This was taken at our company office adjacent to the hotel.

The first thing I looked for was a China Construction Bank as I can withdraw from my BOA checking account for free. It was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. I also stopped by a cell phone shop to get a sim card for my unlocked Nexus One. I then walked around the area looking for food and other stores. I then went down to People’s Square to see the sights and also get something to eat as nothing was really open on the weekend near Shanghai Railway Station.