Wheels & Heels (TM)

What do you get when you combine sheet metal, sequins, rubber, palm trees, overpriced food and thousands of camera-toting people? You get the Guangzhou Auto Show

I spent a day this week visiting the 7th annual event held in China's southern Guangdong province. Thankfully, unlike the shows I have visited in Shanghai and Beijing, Guangzhou's crowd was surprisingly light. My colleague and I wandered from hall to hall kicking tires and checking out the latest from both Chinese and global manufacturers. I continue to be encouraged by the amount of effort being poured into battery technology and new energy solutions.

As with other shows, the Guangzhou show was as much about hype as it is about substance. The female models always seem to attract more attention than the car variety ... and my theory continues to hold true that the amount of clothing the model wears is inversely proportional to the quality of the car they are draped across.



And speaking of Guangzhou, I was pretty impressed with city itself. Though we didn't get any time to play tourist, the view from taxi window was pretty impressive ... new buildings everywhere, relatively uncongested streets and palm trees dotting the landscape. Its food is known throughout the country as being among the best, so I was glad to sample what it had to offer before we returned to Shanghai.