Dan's China diary - day 13

In May 2006, silicon.com senior reporter Dan Ilett travelled to China, seeking to get behind some of today's most interesting tech and business stories. This is his warts-and-all diary, which appears daily this month. For in-depth coverage of this fact-finding trip inside China, including analysis and exclusive stories, click here.

Thursday 18 May, Shanghai

Pouring with rain in the morning. Cyclists wearing plastic bags. Traffic is almost at a standstill, which makes me very late for my first interview of the day. To top things off the taxi driver decides to drive down the wrong side of the road at oncoming traffic. No one even beeps a horn at him!

Feeling surprisingly sprightly given late finish to yesterday. Meeting two land developers today who are building a software park halfway between Shanghai and Nanjing. Shanghai has 12 huge software parks but it's getting more expensive to hire labour here so some companies are moving out. Nanjing, a couple of hundred miles west of Shanghai, itself is becoming a popular spot - telecoms equipment giant Huawei is setting up another massive complex there.

The guys from the California Technology Park come across very well. While it's still early days for the building of the software park, it's taken a long time for them to negotiate a deal with the government. They're essentially an American company but they've hired John Mei - a native who was schooled in the US to talk to the government.

Now they have the go-ahead to build, the government has already given residents their marching orders. What's surprising is how matter-of-fact all this seems to them. At first I was surprised how many people the government is shunting into the suburbs and countryside to make way for development. Saying that, there are similar measures in the UK (such as compulsory purchase orders) and the US but such action must take much longer than here. Not sure if residents here have any time to negotiate a price for their property.

Still no Baidu, C-trip, Sina.com or Sohu interviews lined up. I make a last ditch attempt to doorstep C-trip.com - a website a bit like Expedia that's doing incredibly well. They're based in Shanghai so I tell the taxi driver (at least I thought I did) to go to the offices. After half an hour in the pouring rain he takes me to what looks like a council estate. Doesn't look like the kind of place a top-notch Chinese internet company would base itself.

I hate to admit defeat. But it's humid, been tipping down with rain and I'm soaked. Plenty of people trying to crack this country - whatever line of work they're in - must get to feeling how I feel right now.

I go for a pint to cool off.

Later meet up with the twin sister of a friend of mine. Melissa's been here for four years. She studied Chinese at university and now works in PR.

We visit some beautiful old buildings in the French Concession. Seeing much more of the expat lifestyle in Shanghai than I did in Beijing. Apparently champagne brunches cost around £35 and the restaurants do a brisk trade in them - these guys live the good life.

Tomorrow: what drives the news media and young American MBAs in China.