The route to Macau

My job in China is done. I woke up this morning and checked out of my hotel and when I walked outside, I was greeted by the warmest sunshine and bright blue sky since I arrived here. I am not sad to leave China despite the closeness of the racing and the fact that the WTCC championship has been turned upside down. It will all be decided in Macau again. Macau is TOTALLY UNPREDICTABLE due to the race track, the amount of cars which will be racing and possibly even the weather. Add that to the drivers urge to win and I know it will be a good race.
The Shanghai circuit facilities are great but the organization is useless. When the first race started and cars were due to come into the pitlane, I have never seen so many spectators stood out in the pitlane even though they had passes to be in the garage area. The pit lane marshals were just blowing their whistles and nobody was moving. It was left to the individual members of the teams to force everyone to movebefore the damaged cars came in. This is just another case of the very poor circuit management.
On the Sunday evening, the teams were forced to use forklifts to move everything from the garages and into their containers. To do this in the dark, with many cars and other vehicles moving around just seemed to be madness and the fact that no accidents happened does not mean that this process should be repeated if we are return here again.

MAGLEV arriving at Longyang station, Shanghai

Shanghai traffic is very busy so I decided to take a 15 minute taxi to the Maglev Train Station. Then I can experience a 400kmh train journey to the airport and arrive in about 10 minutes. I noticed the windsreen of the train was badly damaged when I was waiting to get on. Maybe a bird or some other object had hit the train but it certainly makes you realise just how fast this train goes. I believe the chinese bought the train system from Japan and despite the Japanese sugessting a maximum operating speed, the chinese just seem to ignore it and use it to its maximum potential.



                            But I do recommend you try it for yourself as it is awesome!

The Maglev windscreen damage

The security and immigration checks at Pudong     airport took me almost an hour to get through. It is easier to get into China than it is to leave it. When the plane was ready for boarding, we were put on a bus and taken to the plane. The chinese passengers were off the bus and swarming around the stairs to the plane as though it was going to leave without them. I do not know if many of them were new to airplane travel but it was funny to watch them, pushing and shoving each other.
When the plane touched down in Macau, 2 hours later, alot of them had undone their seatbelts and were getting their bags from the overhead lockers, whilst the pilot was still slowing the aircraft down. Multiple mobile phones were in use, despite the warnings not to turn them on and the cabin crew seemed powerless to stop them. The immigration at Macau airport was completed in 10 minutes and I am now free for a few days, to enjoy everything that Macau has to offer.
The containers are due here at the weekend, as long as the trucks complete the 1800km journey from Shanghai, safely and the Macau customs do not cause any unnecessary problems.

The race to get on the plane at Shanghai airport