September 1, 2008

Mabel met us at the domestic terminal in Shanghai. Very pleasant and capable. Visited a garden built by a wealthy Chinese businessman that was beautiful. Went from there to a museum dedicated to Jews who had been in Shanghai. Many Jews fled Nazi Germany and Austria and landed in Shanghai because of the munificence of a Chinese diplomat. Hitler told the Japanese to kill all the Jews in Shanghai but the Japanese refused to carry out the order. From there went to a bookstore carrying books in English. Purchased numerous books about Chinese law, including one on the Chinese Constitution, which states in part that
Article 2
All power in the PRC belongs to the people.
Article 5
No organization or individual is privileged to be beyond the Constitution or the law.

Shanghai turns out to be more accessible than Beijing. It is split in half by the Yangtze, but the subway is very good. We took it to meet a friend of my wife at a huge building which housed one of the largest malls I have ever seen. Every name brand and some great local Chinese brands were represented in the mall. We then went to the Grand Hyatt with its lobby on the 54th floor. The lower floors were offices. The view was spectacular at night. I said to my wife’s friend that it is not enough to copy what the US and other countries have done and do it better and cheaper. What China must now do to take a leadership position in the world is be creative and come up with something new and then the world will come even more to its door step rather just seeing a huge market where western goods and services can be sold. What happened to the China that invented gunpowder and the magnetic compass among other things?