Journey Into China: Day 7: China's Wall St., A Living Museum, and the Search for Students Continues. . .

My morning is open.  Today I shall finally go to experience Pudong.

The tallest building in Asia, and it's still being built. . .

Fresh and full from breakfast, I descend into the bowels of the Shanghai Metro.  I travel two stops east underneath the Huangpu River.  I emerge back to the surface underneath the tallest building in Asia.  I raise my eyes to the sky to take in the newest skyline on Earth.  In the span of just 30 years, Mainland China’s Wall St. has taken shape on neglected swampland that was once unreachable for the residents of Shanghai, as there were no bridges.  Today this Lower-Manhattan-sized piece of land houses the CCTV Building in the Pearl Tower, the Shanghai Financial Center, and twenty other buildings that together create a civilization in the sky.  The whole area - with it’s elevated walkways, manicured medians, commissioned sculptures, security and tourist presence - emanates the aura of China’s seat of financial power.  This is a world-class financial center.  

Oriental Pearl Tower, Home of CCTV (Chinese State Television)

I walk to the Pearl Tower, the iconic building with three red pearls at its base, and two pearls suspended high above.  With my relatively expensive ticket (U.S. $30, out of reach for many Chinese), I am corralled by pretty ladies in blazing red stewardess uniforms into an elevator, where I ascend into the sky.  The 360 degree viewing tower gives me the panorama on the city I’ve needed the whole time.  I can now see it all, everywhere I’ve been: Nanjing Rd., People’s Park, the Bund, Pudong, the Shanghai Museum, the Expo Grounds.  I can see forever, and the city goes on forever, in every direction, and it’s growing.  I am awed and overwhelmed by the sheer scale of Shanghai.

Don't look down. . .

Down one level I make a lap around the transparent floor that allows me to feel like I’m about to fall thousands of feet.  The Chinese tourists are mostly terrified at stepping out on the deck.  On my way down I pass a roller-coaster, the world’s highest purportedly, and I jump on for a ride, buoyed by all of the laughing customers before me.  It’s pretty fun, but it’s no Six Flags.

Riding down to the first floor of the Pearl Tower, I step into the Shanghai History Museum. This is a fantastic museum.  With one hundred Madame Tussaud’s style wax mannequins, the museum tells the history of the city, from agricultural peasant enclave to bustling traditional town to neo-colonial Treaty Port to the entertainment capital of the country.  It’s a riveting story, and as I walk through cityscapes and buildings in miniature, peopled always with mannequins, I understand Shanghai history as I never have.  This is one of the best museums I’ve ever seen, because it’s alive.

Wax dolls re-enact the history of Shanghai

I dodge a hundred retail shops on my way out of the tower.  In Chinese retail there are usually too many people working, and employees can be over eager to get the sale when they follow me around the shop.

This visit to the Pearl Tower has helped round out my understanding of Shanghai.  It’s an essential stop for anyone visiting the city.

At 2:30 I meet with Carla, the Rome-based director of USA Boarding Schools International, a virtual agency that matches students to American boarding schools.  Her two Shanghai support staff are with her.  For thirty minutes we exchange ideas, she educating me about the service that she provides my school as part of our relationship with Educatius, and me educating her about the distinctive qualities of Maui Preparatory Academy.  She shares some excellent advice about how to position Maui Prep in the Chinese market, including that visions of paradise, student body diversity, and fields studies in the natural sciences aren’t necessarily deal-clinchers for many Chinese parents.

The afternoon is ripe for work, follow up e-mails, and reading.

At 5 PM we meet for a fast and furious dim sum dinner at the Food Hall across the street.

At 6 PM I enter a third floor conference room where I am to present Maui Preparatory Academy to students and families.  USA Boarding Schools International has worked hard to promote attendance at this event, and the families do trickle in after the start time.

I deliver my presentation in 75% Mandarin (I’m refining my roadshow by this point in the trip), though my flawed Mandarin is then converted into flawless Mandarin by my translator.

The Maui Preparatory Academy roadshow continues. . .

I have a few productive conversations with families afterwards, though one family has a fourth grader and another family is inquiring after a brother who isn’t present.  The business of matching Chinese students to American schools requires adaptability, innovation, and patience.  I am learning all of these.

My Princeton classmate Kit Cutler is in town on business; he works for Apple to manage and optimize relationships with production facilities.  I meet him and two of his colleagues at Xintiandi at a world-class Taiwanese dumplings restaurant called Din Tai Fung.  It’s serendipitous to catch up with him.

My final full day in Shanghai draws to a close at the auspicious Chinese minute of 11:11.