My first day in Shanghai and assigned tasks

My 1st morning in Shanghai I woke up to heavy drilling and hammering noises. It was 7 am. My room was on the 3rd floor and turned out the building next door was getting renovated to be a service apartment. Similar to preps on Beijing Olympics, Shanghai construction work would have to stop by 1st quarter of 2010 before the Shanghai World Expo's opening in May. A friend later on told me she's awaken at dawn each day with the construction site next door - so I guess an extra hour is a blessing.

Just days before snow storm had hit Beijing pretty hard for the first time last year. No snow in Shanghai but it was very cold to me; about 10 degree Celsius during day, dropping to a few degrees at night. I had been away from cold countries for a long time and not acceptable to low temperature any more.

I studied the map Kevin had drawn for me the night before and headed out of the hotel. I was so happy to discover a Coffee Bean just around the corner and couldn't resist getting a Grande Cappuccino - just like I would do on any work morning in Hong Kong. This also became my daily routine in Shanghai. The coffee costs 29 Yuan vs HKD 31 from Pacific Coffee.

Office was just 15 minutes away by foot. The walk was ok, with lots of little local shops around on the way, mostly sold clothing, food, hair salons, massage parlous... and quite a few convenient stores. I had to cross one major intersection and suddenly my pollution index went up ten times which really reminded me of Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila.

The office was situated inside an old building. I walked 3 flights up to find the company sign next to a tinted glass door guarded by a security code system. Behind this glass door was what you would expect from a typical creative agency - client logos hanging on the side of the reception hall; inside small partitioned units, desktops or laptops on every desk surrounded by piles of files and documents.

I met up with my ex-boss and was told my first task was to develop processes for the company to transform from a web development company into a digital marketing company.