Boating on the Huangpu

This week has passed fairly quickly. Got the results for our experiment through on Thursday and I've been playing around with them making some graphs and the like. As I mentioned before, the results were not quite as useful as I might have liked due to the alteration in the process now used at the factory, but it's been fun either way and we'll see what I come up with. We measured lots of weights at different stages in the process which we can use to calculate thicknesses and things, and also power output of the cells which we can compare to thickness, weight etc.


Today (Saturday), I decided to go on the Huangpu River cruise. There are a few versions, but they boil down to a 1-hour tour that basically covers the Bund for about 60 RMB, or a bumper 3-hour cruise 60km downstream to the mouth of the Yangtze and the Pacific Ocean for 150 RMB. Being a purist and on the advice of my guidebook, I went for the longer one. It was good, and my first view of the ocean not from an aeroplane, but in retrospect I think 3 hours is a bit gruelling - advice for others, go for the shorter cruise! Although it is certainly worth doing that one.


Jack plans revolution with his Bolshy buddies near the pier


Leaving Pudong behind...


The gate to the East

Afterwards wondered Xin Tan Di and Huai Hai Lu with a few others (the nice bits of town!) and restaurented and malled. Developed a game for malls: essentially you need to travel the men's floor without retracing your steps, and return to your initial position (if lift, or the down escalator otherwise). The catch is, if there's a plastic clothes model with it's shirt tucked in, that walkway section is forbidden!


blocked!


China's military will soon be able to take over the World, but like the Americans they appear not quite to have grasped 'soft' power yet. Their attempts at cultural supremecy have so far only won over Alan from 'Two and a half men' and my younger, and far wiser brother.

Tomorrow I'm off dragon boating, and then next week (my last!) is quite action packed, with a visit to a couple of other research institutes in Shanghai and possibly poping over to the other campus in Shanghai Uni to see what goes on over there, and hopefully I'm going to be allowed to sit in on some undergrad lectures (which have just started) and see what they're like over here.