July 21, 2010 - Shanghai, China

"The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history."
~Mao Zedong

Through my travels, I've found one of the determining factors of whether a country is still developing or developed is how they preserve culture and art within their national museums. The Shanghai Museum is rockin' a we-are-a-developed-country anthem. The Shanghai Museum features historical Chinese calligraphy, ceramics, paintings, jades, and much more. However, it was the coin collection that captured my attention. Having read and learned about Chinggis (Genghis) Khan's Silk Road gold coins, the Shanghai Museum has the largest, most beautiful, and well preserved Khan currency I have ever seen.

At lunch the Imperialistic Americans took over a local six table side-street restaurant to consume a ridiculous amount of Shanghai's famous crab, pork, and chicken dumplings. Although it felt strange for 17 Americans to be in the local joint, our desire for authentic Chinese food was satisfied. We're a little tired of the banquet meal served at both lunch and dinner... everyday... for weeks.

Since we're in China, we had to investigate a local factory. Baosteel produces the 3rd largest amount of rolled-steel in the world, even though it is the largest factory of it's kind... in the world. They are ranked closely behind a factory in India (#1) and another factory in China. Baosteel vows to be the largest producer in future years. Although close to 100 degrees F outside, we put on hardhats to watch steel heated to temperatures necessary to make it almost liquid.

This steel is...

+ mined from Australia

+ made from burning dirty coal

+ 90% of the finished product will stay in China for automobiles, appliances, shipbuilding, and construction

I did see a small truck full of recycled steel to be melted down and reused. When asked what percentages comes from recycled steel, we were told less than 1%. 


Some food for thought - many believe there is more metal resources in landfills, than in nature. Maybe it's time to start mining the local garbage dump.


Final thought - China's stimulus package for the current recession is grounded in developing info-structure.  There is so much construction, nation-wide, that the next national bird is the Construction Crane.