Day 11 -- Back to School & Work

Wednesday, December 17, 2008. Wednesday was our last working day of the trip. Our first stop was Fudan University. We have now visited the top 3 universities in the nation. After a walking tour, of the campus, we stopped for a lecture and discussion with a professor of the Center for American Studies at Fudan.

The two hours we spent in class with this professor were the most enlightening look at US/China relations that we have had during our visit. The professor was honest and frank and he answered many of the questions that our other hosts have been unable or unwilling to answer. I don’t think everyone in our group agreed with all of his responses, but it was refreshing to hear someone speaking so freely.

Our afternoon meeting was with members of a large Chinese law firm.



The firm is about the same size as my law firm, so it was interesting to learn about their practice and the Chinese legal system. I asked specifically about pro bono and was pleased to find out that pro bono work is mandatory in China and lawyers provide direct legal services to the poor in a variety of different ways.

We had a brief break before our evening banquet, which was with leaders of the Shanghai municipal government.

After the banquet we returned to the hotel for a holiday party of sorts. Although 95% of China identifies as atheist or non-religious, Christmas is a really big deal here. The people and especially businesses have embraced the secular celebration of the holiday.



Every hotel we stayed in had huge Christmas displays, including enormous trees and life-size gingerbread houses made of real gingerbread.



Every office building and restaurant was decorated to the max, Christmas carols were piped into every elevator and lobby and employees were often dressed as elves or Santa.

Over the course of our two weeks many of our delegation accumulated gifts from our hosts and souvenirs, or we still had gifts from our home states that did not get distributed to our hosts. We decided to have a White Elephant gift exchange (a.k.a. Yankee Swap or Dirty Santa).



I ended up with this stunning handmade silk picture of two Pekingese dogs. I can't for the life of me figure out why my fellow delegate would want to part with such an exceptional piece of artwork, but his loss is clearly my gain!

Our Chinese hosts participated in the celebration and seemed to have a great time. We sang a couple of Christmas carols, including the 12 days of Christmas and Silent Night (which appears to be the most popular Christmas carol by a long shot in China).

We finished the night with a foot massage in the Hotel. I heard that a Chinese foot massage was one of those things I must do while visiting and I'm glad I did. The foot massage was about an hour long and actually included some neck and shoulder massaging as well. The women performing the massages were quite strong, so the experience was part pleasure and part torture. I'm pretty sure I still have some bruises from the experience. As a whole, however, I would highly recommend the experience.