Shanghai Surprises: June 2008

As most of you know, we were not in the country at the time of the devastating earthquake that hit Sichuan, China. Thank you for all of the concerned emails we recieved from our friends. Although some people in tall buildings here in Shanghai felt a slight tremor, the epicenter was quite far from Shanghai. As of today, the death count is up around 80,000 people with millions (yes, about 5 million) people homeless. That is like the equivalent of the entire population of Minnesota being left homeless. The government response here has been tremendous and in a country where donating to charity is a new concept, the entire population has responded by giving what they can. (By the way, Sev's company is matching all employee donations plus some). If anyone out there would like to donate, the best way is to give to the international Red Cross at http://www.ifrc.org/
As of today (June 2nd) the Red Cross is still asking for donations to help the people of Sichuan and you can read about the 3 year recovery plan on their website. Anyway, I know gas prices suck and food prices are going up and all that junk but even $10 goes a long way here in China!

Back in Shanghai! Our vacation was great- almost too good. It really makes it hard to come back to China after spending time with our families. But we are only back for three weeks and then I am going back to the States for 6 weeks with the kids. Look out Jersey, here we come!

This past weekend, we decided to do the stereotypical asian thing and hit a karaoke club. There are two types of "KTV" (short for karaoke TV) in China. The kind with the "happy ending" (think gentleman's club with karaoke) and the family friendly kind. Obviously we hit the family friendly version. It was such a surreal and hilarious experience that I knew right away this was a blog in the making. To begin with, we waited 30 minutes to catch a cab there and after being approached by several men on motorcycles offering us rides- for a fee of course- we finally decided to take a "black cab". Basically, this is an illegal taxi. It's a random guy driving around in his personal car and trying to pick up people who are annoyed by waiting by the legal taxi. The difference is that you get to negotiate your price and as we had already had a few beers, this was looking like a good option! Long story short, we made it to the KTV in one piece even though we paid double a legal cab fee but at $5, still a deal!

On to the KTV...As we entered the lobby, our group of ten white people stood out like a sore thumb. The place was a mob scene- so this is where everyone goes on a Friday night! The lobby was all marble with fountains and a huge spiral staircase leading up three floors. It was nicer and larger than many hotels I've been in. Anyway, we were lead to the third floor and our private room. Each floor had at least 30 rooms and is laid out like a hotel with a buffet restaraunt on each floor. The hallways were also marble with a server assigned to every two rooms. The staff is running up and down the hallway with earpieces in their ears and everything. This is hard core stuff people. They take their karaoke seriously.

Our comfortable room included leather couches, a granite top bar, 3 TV screens, a computer to control our song selections, and a separate elevated stage area- and microphones of course! The staff also provides tambourines and maracas free of charge-cool. Full bar menu and munchies can be delivered to your room with a push of a button. Needless to say, as karaoke is not inbreed into our western culture, we consumed quite a bit of alcohol prior to arriving and we pretty much kept our server on speed dial throughout the night.

I have to tell you, this was one of the most fun nights we've had here in China. The song choices in english were almost entirely from the 1980's & 90's and each song had an accompanying "video" that played with it. The videos were actually the funniest part. Most consisted of a Chinese guy in sunglasses lip syncing along but occasionally a really random video would appear. For example, during "We are the World" there were shots of kids at a petting zoo and a girl milking a cow. "We are the Champions" featured a group of girls white water rafting. During many of the love songs, there were videos of a couple frolicking at the beach with really bad 80's hair. Our playlist included such classics as:

We built this city on Rock and Roll

Wake me up before you go go

Oops, I did it again

I'm Too Sexy

I want your sex

Like a Virgin

YMCA

These Boots are Made for Walking (Nancy Sinatra version)

And many more wonderful hits that I thankfully couldn't remember the next day. After such a fantastic night, we all couldn't help but ponder aloud why this doesn't fly in America? Who knows but this just may be the next big business idea...hmmm.

Anyway, if you plan on coming to visit us in the next year, you'd better get your singing voice tuned up 'cuz the KTV is on the agenda from here on out!