Eight has historically been considered a lucky number to the Chinese as it is expected to bring prosperity, leading many Chinese to buy houses with an eight in the address or to prefer windows that have eight panels. However, our tour guide in Shanghai informed us that the number eight is falling out of fashion as several unfortunate events, that went unmentioned, occurred on an eight, raising significant skepticism about the inherent merit of this number.

I would say my eighth day in China was pretty lucky – the weather was nice and the day fun. Hangzhou, a nearby town known for its enormous West Lake, which is complete with traditional Chinese gardens, islands, a temple and a pagoda (a tall building on a hill), welcomed me after a short train ride in the morning. Locals shared boat rides with me to the scenic islands where exotic plants and stone structures provide ornate playgrounds from colorful birds.

Lunch was provided by a well known island restaurant named Lou Wai Lou, which demonstrated China’s ability to create effective tourist traps as the acclaimed food did not justify the excessive price points. The restaurant, like many in China, had too many servers. The oversupply of labor appears to result in an abundance of waiters, tripping over each other, miscommunicating, but meaning very well.

The bathrooms were designed for tourists, as demonstrated by the Western style toilets which are not the common form in China. The typical is a hole in the ground with a frame that’s reminiscent of a toilet seat. To operate one of these, one needs to be able to squat low to the ground, finagle their clothing out of the line of fire and maintain their balance – an exercise I carefully avoided.

In an effort to be more accommodating to tourists the country is increasingly incorporating English into its signs, creating a new dialect built upon poor English fundamentals. Subject-verb agreement and run-on sentences are rampant, leaving an opportunity for native speakers to help with translation.

An elevator trip to the sixth floor of the pagoda that rests atop a peak overlooking the West Lake, demonstrated an innovation that I hope will make the journey to America. After accidentally pushing the button for the wrong floor, I found that by pushing the button a second time, I could de-select that floor, saving the time that would have been wasted on the stop. This innovation could foil the ‘push all of the elevator buttons’ prank for children across the country.

I returned to the hotel in Shanghai after riding on the state-of-the-art train that connects the two cities. Surpassing the Acela Express trains that zip between New York and Philadelphia both in quality and comfort, this elegant addition to the regions infrastructure serves to highlight the increasing quality of life in China.