In one round, contestants had to guess if various food products would keep for 12 or 18 months.

The taxi driver tried to scam me as we paid the fare back to campus. Unwittingly, I handed him twenty kuai after the fare had already been settled by someone else in the cab. At first, he refused to return the money explaining that he thought it was a tip. Then, he returned half and claimed I only gave him twenty kuai.

We argued pretty intensely for a minute or two. While we were arguing I scanned the cab for the other ten kuai he hid. Fortunately, he didn’t hide it very well and I could see it tucked on the left side of his right knee. In the end, I got my money back. Asshole.

And today we visited the Shanghai fabric market. The going rate for a tailored suit is 600 RMB (90 USD), a shirt about 150 RMB (20 USD), and a pair of slacks 250 RMB (30 USD).

Travel time to downtown from campus on the subway is about one hour, including about 30 minutes of walking.

On the one hand, I was curious to know exactly what the Chinese guy was up to. On the other hand, I knew that once he was done talking to this foreigner, he’d be coming after me. When I could see that the conversation was winding up, I started to take off.

The Chinese guy, however, followed me. He was walking behind me, and I could here the change in his pocket clinking around, steadily getting closer. I really didn’t want to talk to this guy.

My phone, the phone I just got, I remembered, has some kind of “fake call” feature. I tried to figure out how to turn on the fake call feature in the few seconds I had left. When I was satisfied I had everything configured I shoved the phone back in my pocket.

Nearly simultaneously—I’m not sure which happened first, the guy introduced himself and my phone went off.

The ruse, however, failed to have the impact intended since I failed to take the phone out of “silent” mode.

Well, I didn’t abandon the plan. I explained to the gentleman how I just got a phone call and made sure to show him the vibrating phone in case he didn’t believe me.

Then I had the second problem. I don’t really know how to have a fake phone call. I don’t think I did very well.

I will be avoiding the fake call feature of my phone in the future.

From the timbre in his delivery, it sounded like this system lacked the eloquence and functionality of standard debit/credit, double-entry accounting. China has since adopted more international accounting principles.

I was informed the pillow I intended to buy wouldn’t last more than a month. This vacuumed packed pillow was the way to go.

The video is here and CEIBS gets mentioned around minute twelve.

According to the sales staff, the bikes take about 10 hours to charge, have a 50 km (31 mile) range, and max out at 30 km/hour (18 mph). The battery weighs between 10 and 20 kilos (depending on how big the bike is) and lifts out for safe keeping when the bike is not in operation.

And they cost around 2500 RMB (368 USD).

Since I was not sure how powerful these things were, I was invited to take the bike for a spin, right through Carrefour. For those not familiar with Carrefour, it’s the French equivalent of Walmart. And it’s packed on Sundays.

I was given a quick introduction to the bike’s operation and sent on my way to maneuver the bike through crowds of Chinese and expats doing their weekly shopping. I was actually able to pick up some speed in one slightly less crowded part of the store.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a foreigner riding an electric bike through a crowded Carrefour didn’t really garner much attention.