The work is done. The customer is happy. I'm blowing and coughing less. I'm also less worn out.

I went back and put the map pins for Shenzhen in more relevant locations. I got a map of the city from the hotel last night and figured out where I'm staying, where I entered, where I'm working. It's no longer just a mass of traffic and high rises whizzing past as I go from hotel to work. I have some orientation. So the first Shenzhen pin is at the entry point at Lo Wu (or Lo Hu on the Chinese side) bridge and the train station with the pictures. The second Shenzhen pin is right on the roof of the hotel. Today's I'll put right on the office.

So the general opinion is that Shenzhen doesn't have much to offer in the way of good tourism. That's pretty universally accompanied by the statement that Shenzhen is "new." Shenzhen was pretty much built to be a border commercial and industrial town, a bridge from Hong Kong to the booming new Chinese economy. China has lots of special designations, exceptions to the rules as it were, for their territories. Hong Kong and Macau are "special administrative regions," almost like autonomous countries. My hotel is in the Futian Bonded Area also known as the Futian Free Trade Zone, a burgeoning commercial sector near the Lok Ma Chau border crossing (through which incidentally I'll return tomorrow because it's closer to the hotel). And so on.

This will probably be a long entry. I've been withholding observations on Shenzhen while I got healthier and started to feel the rhythm of the place.

First of all, this morning's cab ride was interesting. Despite stopping to ask the folks at the front lobby where he was going and despite my having had it written out in Chinese already by the hotel staff, the driver went the wrong way and had to call the office to straighten it out. I suspect it was a bit of a dialect problem. He thought we were supposed to be on Furong Rd instead of Fuzhong Rd (and by the way, the "zh" is pronounced like an English "j"). Even though they were speaking Chinese at the hotel lobby, I could hear the difference and was pretty sure he didn't get it. Then he turned the wrong way and I knew it was heading down hill. However, it's hard to get much across when the language gap is so huge. In some ways I don't blame him. Looking at the map quickly I see Futian, Furong, Fulin, Fuzhong, Fumin, and Fuqiang, and that's not all of the Fu-somethin-somethin-n's. I got there. The ride was a little more expensive (still under $5). I got to see a little more of the city. My contacts were still later because of a Halloween party and a late conference call to the States.

Speaking of Halloween, the Chinese are embracing it. They had their first Halloween party at the office. I was invited but needed more recovery. I had the dinner buffet at one of the restaurants in the hotel. The entire serving staff was dressed in costume. Sometimes the elements of them were a little off (for example, why did the witch hostess have bat wings and sexy go-go boots?), but they certainly had the spirit. The buffet had things like blood mousse (strawberry mousse with blood-red berry gelatin on top) and an assortment of other thematically named variants on their normal dishes. Talking to one of the servers, he said that lots of companies are having Halloween parties this year. I don't think trick-or-treating has gotten here yet. In fact, one of the guys at the office basically said that he didn't get it but it was a fun excuse for a party.

Traffic is quite the free-for-all here. Imagine New York City without as much yelling and finger raising, but with a pushier yet calmer assertiveness. In busy traffic every road has about 50% more cars across than there are lanes. There's lots of flashing of brights. And then there are the extra aspects. Sidewalks have been deemed unnecessary on a lot of major roads, so it's not uncomon to have walkers and bikes calmly making their way down the right lane. This happens even on things we might call freeways. And then for some reason I don't understand yet, bikes seem comfortable going against traffic in the left lane on a one-way road. And the bikes on both sides can be carrying everything from a pedestrian to a potted tree, bookcases, or huge bundles of goods for sale. But the bundled goods don't have the bamboo cages holding them together like the bikes and mopeds in Bali. They're just stacked and tied.

Well, that's enough for now. It's an interesting place and tomorrow I'll venture out into it a little.

Oh, and I'm told that the weather was blue sky, dry and sunny until about the time I got here. All the gray overcast and rain is not pollution, just good old weather patterns.