Saturday Tour of Shanghai

This post will be dedicated to the tour we took as a large group to Shanghai's downtown area.  First, we went to the Yuyuan Gardens and the surrounding shopping area, which is a more traditional Chinese area.  Next, we went to the top of the World Financial Center, the tallest building in Shanghai.  After this, we went to Nanjing road, where my group went into the Shanghai First Foodhall.  At night, we went on a boat cruise down the Huangpu river.  Exciting, eventful, tiring, and (naturally) delicious day.

Yuyuan Gardens:

Pretty cool, and hard to describe in words.  I don't have a lot of words, but I do have pictures, and those are supposed to be worth 1000 words, right?

Furniture made out of the roots of ancient trees. 

After this, we went to the shops nearby, and we were hungry, so we went to not one, but two restaurants.  The first was a famous restaurant for steamed buns in Shanghai.  Steamed buns is a dish that Shanghai is very famous for.  As opposed to meat or vegetables, these steamed buns are filled completely with soup.  You literally take a straw, puncture the bun in the center, drink, and it's delicious.

Next, we went to a Japanese style sushi place.  They had a ton of little dishes rotating around the restaurant on a conveyor belt.  Most of the dishes were either sushi or desserts.  I was careful about raw or shellfish because of sanitary reasons, which made it difficult.  Good thing I like dessert.  I tried some new kind of dessert.  Hard to describe and I did not think to take a picture of it, but it's like a jelly like bun, and when you bite into it, there is ice cream inside.  The outside, however, is like a gelatinous dough.  I laughed at it because it was unlike anything I'd ever tasted, but it was great.

World Financial Center:

We zig zagged across town to get here.  Literally, since the bus driver was new to Shanghai, and decided to play guessing games with directions.  He did not know what direction to go in to get to the tallest building in the city.  Anyways, we finally arrived at the World Financial Center (WFC), and it towers everything else.  Some of the buildings around it are really tall as well, but the WFC is big, it's wide, and it fills the space.  The building looks like a bottle opener.  Interestingly enough, the original design had the rectangle at the top as a circle.  The design firm was Japanese, and given the history between the Japanese and Chinese, the design was changed so that it did not look like a Japanese flag at the top of the tallest building in Shanghai.

We went down into the basement, where we were grouped into a kind of hurry up and wait ordeal for a little while before getting into the elevator and going to the bottom of the observation center, which is at the bottom of the hole at the top.  from there, we took an escalator and elevator to get all the way to the observation deck, right at the top of the opening.  I had to swallow consistently going up the first elevator since it moved so fast and the pressure changed quickly.

Pictures?  Pictures:

From this Picture, you can get a sense of the size of Shanghai before it fades into the haze.  Well, at least half of it.

Construction next to the WFC, slated to take over as Shanghai's tallest building in 2014

Row after row of blue apartment buildings

Proof that I made it with the Pearl tower in the background

Proof that I almost fell off.  Or that I was having too much fun.

View through the glass panels on the floor of the observation deck.

Bottom Left: Once the Tallest Building in Shanghai.  Right: World Financial Center, the current tallest building in Shanghai. Top Left: Shanghai Tower under construction, which will be the 2nd tallest building in the world upon completion.

After leaving the behemoth building district, we headed over towards the China Expo from the World's fair in  2010.  Unfortunately, the museum closed 5 minutes before we arrived (our bus driver got lost again).  Just for kicks here is a picture from the outside:

Nanjing Road:

After we were rejected from the China Expo, we headed to Nanjing Road for dinner, where we went to the Shanghai First Foodhall.  It was kind of like a mall dedicated only to food.  In other words, heaven.  We went to a restaurant on the third floor for noodles and dumplings, and afterwards went to an ice cream place and then downstairs to the markets, where I bought a very curious looking candy.

Your photogenic food picture of the day.

More steamed buns, what Shanghai is famous for.  These are small than the one above, and are filled with soup and meat.  You pick them up with chopsticks, take a tiny bite in the dough, suck out the soup, then eat the rest.

Green Tea Ice Cream

Nope, not bb gun pellets.  These are candy.  I shared them with the rest of the group.  Inappropriate balls jokes ensued.

After Nanjing Road, we made a bee line (again, sort of) for the Huangpu River where we were able had our boat cruise.  We were able to see both sides of the river lit up.  Unfortunately it was around this point where the battery in my camera ran out.  Fortunately, I've made friends.  Proof?  Proof:

The Pudong area with the Oriental Pearl Tower behind me while I am on the boat cruise.
Yes, I also realize that I am trying to prove that I have friends by showing a photo of myself alone.

All in all, it was a 14 hour tour of the city.  Some people also went clubbing also.  In keeping with the proving things theme of this post, I proved that I was human and decided to go back and go to back to campus and to bed instead.  There will be plenty of time for nightlife fun.

OT (Off topic): Jabrill Peppers, the #2 ranked football prospect in the country who is being compared to Charles Woodson is set to announce his college choice at 5:15 today and it is airing on ESPNU.  A lot of "experts" are predicting he will choose Michigan, but who knows.  Something to look out for today and GO BLUE!

That's all.  Someone asked me for more pictures. Happy now?

The "Fine Arts" of Shanghai

Let me make a disclaimer about what I mean by "Fine Arts."  I am not the art museum sort of person.  However, I do enjoy the arts.  Whether a painting is on a rock or a canvas, it doesn't matter to me.  "Fine Arts"  has a rough definition, and those who truly know me best, probably can see what's coming in this post: food.  Have patience, friends, and I promise I will get to the good stuff.  No stinky tofu this time.

Peking Opera:

On Wednesday, we had our first field trip for the Chinese Culture class, and we went downtown to a rehearsal of the Peking Opera.  This was, to be very precise, a "loud rehersal,"  meaning all sounds are supposed to be exactly what they should be for the real performance.  However, we did not get to see them in full outfits, and they wear elaborate costumes and makeup.  It looked very much like a high school band practice room:

Woo Panorama Camera Function!

The opera, titled "The Royal Scholar Banquet," was about some scholar who gets kidnapped.  The whole thing was in Chinese so I could not understand any more of the plot, but the sounds were cool.  Side note:  at one point, I could swear I heard one of the actors say "Sacagawea."  The main actress was Peiyu Wang (nickname "Boss Yu") who is one of the most famous actresses in Chinese Opera.  Here is a video from the opera.  Take a listen; unfortunately I did not have a great view, but the instruments are very different.

Unfortunately only one of the videos will load, so watch out for the second two.  Hopefully I can get them up later, but with this internet, it takes a while to upload.

Afterwards there was a Q/A period, and our teacher went to ask a question.  After talking for about 15 seconds, something very strange happened.  The teacher mentioned Jiao Tong (our university in China), then instantly a fleet of cameras from the front rows turned 180 degrees and started taking pictures of us.  I just sat there laughing because I didn't know what else to do.  What I really should have done is take my camera out, stand on my chair, and start snapping pictures back at them.  Our teacher was asking if we could come up and learn Opera from the master, and Boss Yu happily agreed.  We learned a short dance and an incantation.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this part.

Moving onto the rougher part of "Fine Arts"

There is a walkway near our dorm that we use to get to class everyday (or in my case, just Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  Unexpectedly, it is filled with graffiti  and most of it is pretty cool/artsy.  Thought I would show some pictures of it here:

Moving onto, of course, the good stuff, the food.

I think I am finally getting used to it.  Either that, or I am learning which foods are good and which foods are not.  For this blog, should I save the best food for last?  I think not!

Today for "Dinner" we went to one of the canteens on campus.  Most of the canteens have a bunch of stations serving food from different regions of China.  The station I went to tonight had some sort of Crepe dish, with a very large and thin dough, probably 20 inches in diameter.  The cook would put some sort of food inside, but I was lucky; I had a chocolate paste inside of mine.  Each corner of the crepe like substance was folded into the center and it was then pan fried for a few minutes.  The cook either put egg or butter on the crepe while it was cooking.  Based on the taste of it, I am pretty sure it was butter, but there might have been some sort of egg as well.  Then, it is cut into 16 squares.

Shanghai has been called the Paris of China/Asia.  Let me make one quick probable overstatement: Paris ain't got nothing on these crepes.  Granted, the closest i've been to having a crepe in Paris is spending a hectic two hours in Paris' airport.  These crepe like food object thingys were awesome.  The chocolate blended into the pastry, forming a rich, crunchy, buttery, oozing substance that looked like this:

Go ahead, I give you permission to be jealous.

Let me make one disclaimer.  We have just learned about Yin and Yang in our Chinese culture class.  Yin is generally light foods, like lettuce, fruits, and foods prepared by boiling, or without oil.  Yang are heavier, darker foods- candies, heavy meats, fried foods, sweets, ect.  The Chinese diet is supposed to have a balance of Yin and Yang.  After eating these crepe-like delicious pieces of food, I might need to have a purely Yin diet for a year to balance my diet.

Onto delicious food number two.  I think I've described these before on these blogs.  It's basically a pancake/pita type of bread with a small envelope containing egg cooked inside.  This is used as the bread for a sandwich for meat and vegetables.  It's crazy good.  Still a little heavy on the Yang.  Porn is illegal in China, but you know whats not?  Food Porn!  I leave you with a parting GIF(t).

Karaoke and (Oh yeah that) Class

Fun Weekend.  Went downtown Friday night and although I did not go into the details about it on the last blog post, I assure you, it was quite the interesting night.  I want to hear from everyone, so please ask me about it if you want more details!  Either message me on Facebook or add me on skype (jonathanmorof).

On Sunday we had our welcome party.  We played all sorts of Chinese games and tried Shanghai style dumplings.  I even tried a peach flavored drink which was pink and delicious.  There was also a rose flavored drink, which some people thought tasted like soap, but I liked it because my flavor profile is more refined than everyone else (sarcasm).  

We then went to a Karaoke club on Sunday night (my class on Monday was cancelled).  The club was in Minhang, which is the district near our campus.  The club was around a five minute cab ride away.  There were around 20 of us and we got a room for 4 hours.  It was really cheap, 30 RMB per person, which is like $5 per person.  Some snacks and refreshments were also provided, but there was also a convenience store downstairs where you could buy additional snacks and refreshments.

We started off with regular karaoke songs (The usual Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Queen).  Then someone decided to play "Levels" by Avicii, which does not really have any words.  At that point it turned into more of a fist pumping-jump arounding dance fest than basic karaoke.  Lots of fun and a very good night.  I have a good feeling we'll be back.

CLASSES:

Oh yeah, I'm actually here to take classes.  There is a point where I get to that reality, and it is starting to hit right now.  After a four day weekend of mostly settling down and being fairly lazy, classes return (for me) tomorrow.  I do not have class on either Tuesday or Thursday, and my one class on Monday is cancelled, which was really nice.

I am taking two classes here: VE 280 which is Computer Programming, and VZ 102, which is Chinese Culture.  I will have to put some effort into Computer Programming, but given the fact that the class is very project based and the fact that I will have a lot of free time (and a lot to do), I should be just fine.  Chinese culture should be a fun class.  It has already been interesting, and we are taking a field trip to see a rehearsal of the Peking Opera. Should be cool/fun/different and I will be sure to report it here along with pictures.

Pictures? Pictures you ask, I have a few extra and nowhere else to put em, so here you go.  First two are around campus, and last ones are from downtown.

This is kinda what campus looks like

This is also kinda what campus looks like

Guess where?  Egypt?  Nope: The Bund

The rain forests of South America?  Nope, it's Peoples Square

From last summer in Italy?  Nope, it's from Downtown.

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit tired and therefore my sense of humor is a bit...altered.  Thanks for reading.  It's been an incredible 11 days so far and I am excited for the rest of it!

Daily Life + The Bund

This post will be split into two sections: Daily Life in Shanghai, and The Bund, which is an area in downtown Shanghai.

Daily Life:
I don't exactly know where to start.  It's basically like daily life in America, but there are differences, and I will focus on these differences.  First of all, between being a student here and at UM, I am taking about half the course load that I am taking at Michigan, so I do not have any classes on Tuesday or Thursday.  It's nice to have those days to explore the city or do other things near campus.

The dorm is fairly nice, albeit the room is a bit smaller than I am used to, but this is fine.  The bathrooms are squatter toilets in the dorms, which are essentially a hole in the ground and you squat.  Although we might consider it weird, to Chinese people, this is actually considered more sanitary since you don't actually need to touch the toilet seat.  You also need to carry around toilet paper, which come in small packets like you can see on the picture to the right.

Air Conditioning Unit: Very Important

It is very hot in Shanghai.  Certain days, it gets up to 90 Fahrenheit and is very muggy.  The good news is we have an air conditioning unit in the dorm, which makes life a lot more pleasant.  For a couple of days, we could not figure out how to turn it on, but once we did, it was instantly set to 17 Celsius which is like 60 Fahrenheit.  Our room is on the 5th floor, and we have to use the stairs as there is no elevator.  However, in a way, this is a good thing since there are fewer mosquitoes on the 5th floor.  We were provided with a bug net to wade off mosquitoes but I never used mine because from my experience at camp, bug nets are useless.

Yes, these really are Chicken flavored
Cheetos and you can be jealous of
me starting right now.

FOOD!!!

If there is one major adjustment that I had to make, it is with the food.  Some of it is really delicious, and some of it is, shall we say, not for me. (See the stinky tofu incident in one of my previous posts)  One of the best foods I've had here is an egg pancake.  Basically, what it is is a grilled pita like bread, then the cut a hole in the center of it to form an envelope and put egg in the hole.  Then they flip the pita.  The fold it in half and add any number of ingredients including chicken, bacon, or vegetables in the middle.  If anyone at Michigan opens a shop serving these, please let me know!

Other very common foods include rice and noodles in some sort of soup or broth.  These are generally very safe and good options.  The rice is usually served with everything, especially more traditional Chinese food and it is sticky, so it is very easy to eat with chopsticks.  I have become very good at using chopsticks, and I think they make a lot of sense for certain foods.

American food here is also different.  It's kind of like how our Chinese food is very different from what food actually is here.  For example, they have something called New Orleans Chicken, which is served Chinese style with a not very spicy Chinese/Creole spice.  I suppose it is their version of General Tso's Chicken.

The Bund:

View of Pudong (The area across the river from the Bund) including the Pearl Tower during a misty night in Shanghai.  You cannot even see the World Financial Center, which is the tallest building in Shanghai, because of the Mist.

When we arrived at the Bund last night walking from Nanjing Street, the first thing I noticed was the stunning view of Pudong, shown above.  The second thing I noticed on the street was a beautiful new red Ferrari passing by.  In this time, I apparently missed a Chinese model walking by with 5 photographers   Go figure, I'm a sucker for amazing views of big cities and fancy cars.

This is the glitz of the Bund; it's crazy.  It's also a very Western influenced area, and most of the buildings look like they could come directly out of early 20th century Europe or US, partially because they did.  In terms of people, it seems like at least half of the people walking the Bund are not Chinese, probably from France, Germany, UK, Australia, The U.S. or elsewhere.  It results in a strange mix of European and Chinese culture.  There are plenty of fancy hotels and bars for every type of patron willing to dish out at least couple hundred RMB ($30 USD), and some are much more expensive. I've been to many cities and downtown areas, and the style of the Bund leaves everything else behind.

Settling into Life in Shanghai

The first thing that struck me about the campus is how green it is.  Tons of trees, bushes, and even forests everywhere with a couple of lakes and rivers too.  The buildings, for the most part, are very modern.  The dorms look like they were built in the 80’s or 90’s, and most of the classrooms look very new.  There is also a new library which is very nice.  (It puts the UGLI, or even the Dude to shame).

I had my first class on Monday.  It was VE280, which is equivalent to EECS 280, a class on computer programming.  I arrived a couple of minutes early with other friends from the Joint Institute, and almost every seat was taken.  All of the Chinese students were early.  A few minutes into the class two more girls on the JI walked in and there was a raucous.  Originally, I thought it was because they were late to class and that was forbidden, so I made a note to myself about that.  In reality, there was a first wave of shock among the Chinese Male students that white girls were in the class, and everyone laughed because of the first “OMG” sounding noise from the Chinese men.

Then I met my Joint Institute buddies, John and Zhao, and I went grocery shopping with them.  I bought a  bunch of necessities as well as this Chinese which tastes kind of like a rice cake with a salty frosting.  It’s pretty good, and I have  been snacking on them for breakfast, but I’m not quite sure if that’s what they’re meant for. 

On Tuesday, I do not have class, so I went with a group of people down to the French Concession area in Downtown Shanghai.  This is the area where the French settlers came to Shanghai, and you can see it in some of the architecture and buildings.  Lots of fancy fences.  We ate at a French restaurant, but each restaurant in the city seems to have some sort of Chinese flair, specifically in the culture.  Usually, the dishes will not be brought out all at the same time, so it is not unusual to be finished with your dish before others get their food.

We use the metro to get around Shanghai.  There is a station that's a 15 minute walk from our dorms, and after one transfer, you can be in the heart of the city in around an hour, which is not bad considering the true size of the entire city of Shanghai.  This is a picture of the map of the metro.  It's huge and very tangled.

Then, we went back near People’s Square and Nanjing Road, which is a bit like Time Square in its form/function.  However, People’s Square is more of a park.  It has a ton of greenery, some old architecture, and some ponds.  We sat there and relaxed for a little while before heading to the fake market on Nanjing Road.  The fake market is simply huge; it has 5 or 6 floors of pure boutiques with pushy salespeople willing to bargain.  Nothing should really cost more than 60 RMB, or 10 USD, except maybe some brands of watches.  A lot of the stores are almost identical, selling purses, watches, clothing, i-phone cases, and knock off beats headphones which are apparently really low quality.  Other shops will sell more extreme items like knives, lasers, and even Tasers.  It’s kind of scary how accessible these things are, but violent crime in Shanghai is essentially zero.

Right now I am dead tired from a day traveling around Shanghai.  I have class early tomorrow morning, so I should go to sleep soon, especially since you have to get to class extra early for good seats.  Good night/afternoon/morning!

First Post From the Other Side of the World

Today is my second day in Shanghai, and I am starting to love it.  My flight was 13 hours, and it felt that long.  I was not able to sleep, so I watched 5 movies to pass the time.  It was an interesting combination of Americans and Chinese on the flight.  A huge mix in culture.  There were probably 10-15 students on the Joint Institute on the flight, and it was nice to have people to travel and go through customs with.

We were picked up from the airport and shuttled back from city to country, it was a little bit rural, although not completely.  There were a ton of farms, and rows upon rows of greenhouses.  There were tons of 4 story apartment like buildings.  As we moved closer to the city, the farms and greenhouses disappeared and there were grids of identical high rises lining each side of the highway, answering questions about where Shanghai’s 23 million people live.

Finally, I got to the dorms and unpacked.  Here is what my dorm room looks like:

The bed is essentially a wooden plank with a very thin mattress pad.  It’s not comfortable, but the room is air conditioned, so I cannot complain because that is a huge luxury here.

I went with my roommate and his Chinese Buddy in the Joint Institute program to Dinner at one of the canteens on campus.  It is cafeteria style, with a selection of small dishes you can take and put on your tray.  You also take a bowl of rice.  Staying safe, I decided to take a tofu dish.  As I took my first bite of tofu, it was one of the foulest things I have ever eaten.  It had a bit of a porky taste, but very salty, and at the same time, nothing like bacon.  As I resorted back to my bowl of rice, and was about halfway through, I realize that I had taken, what is called in America “Stinky Tofu.”  It is very geared towards Chinese taste buds.  The rice was good, and after a day of traveling, that was all I needed before going to bed and sleeping for 11 hours.

(Area near campus on the way to the Train Station)

After a bit of a rough Friday arriving, Saturday was simply awesome.  I woke up at 7am (after going to bed at 8), and went shopping for simple groceries like bottled water and toilet paper.  I got a new Chinese phone, one of those old Nokia brick phones, which was very cheap.  Then, we gathered a large group and ventured 15 minutes to the metro station where we took trains into downtown Shanghai.  Overall, the journey took about an hour and a half, but through people watching seemed to go by faster.  Through a series of train doors closing in front of people, our original huge group dwindled down to 7, and other groups became similar sizes too, but I think each group had at least one Chinese speaker.

Finally, we arrived in People’s Square in the center of Downtown Shanghai.  By the way the square was set up, I kind of got my first sense of how sprawling the city really is.  Shanghai has the highest concentration of 100 story buildings in the world, but they seemed to be a little bit spread out.  We ventured into a shopping plaza and ate at a popular noodle bar, which was really good (although the servers were really slow).  We then explored East Nanjing Road, which is essentially a larger, spread out Times Square, as you can see in the picture. 

We then explored West Nanjing Road, which is a little bit less glitzy than its Eastern counterpart.  It had more coffee shops and restaurants and fewer shops.  We went into a fake market, with floor after floor of anything and everything to bargain for.  I bought a button down to wear in case we went to a club.  Even though it was pretty cheap, I probably could have gotten it for cheaper.  The negotiation skills will come with time.

We then went to Xintiandi, which is a more affluent area of the city with some bars and expensive shopping.  There are also a ton of awesome cars in that area.  In one day in Shanghai, I spotted a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, and Audi R8. After spending some time in Xintiandi and having dinner, we made our way back to campus.  It was simply awesome to be in the city and experience Shanghai.

On the cab ride back, we went through the Bund a little bit, which is the area with fancy hotels on the riverfront and a phenomenal view.  It was nice seeing a little different part of the city by taxi, one which I will certainly be back to, and as the taxi rolled out of downtown Shanghai, one by one each of us in the back of the taxi rolled our heads back and promptly passed out.  What a long day, but what an awesome one.

Before I Leave

Hi Everyone,

I have created this blog to share my experiences in Shanghai and the rest of China.  Really this blog serves two purposes: to keep everyone in the loop with my summer and to help me remember my experiences.

I am currently deep into packing-almost done.  I just need to organize my carry on.  I am also starting (probably too late) to learn simple words and phrases.  The language is really really tough to learn.  For any given word, each intonation can mean many different things.  Either way,  I am glad Shanghai is such an international city and from what I hear, most of the people speak English.  In addition, I will have classmates who know Chinese and are happy to translate.  Worst comes to worse, I can use an application on my phone that translates very well.

It truly does not seem real that I am going to enter another world tomorrow.  I have heard that the first couple days are supposed to be awesome, followed by a heaping dose of culture shock, but you get over it eventually.  I plan to combat this by getting out as much as I possibly can so that I can explore Shanghai and meet new friends.  The city is HUGE, like 2-3 times bigger than New York City by population.  Apparently there is so much to do and I am excited to see as much as I can, which should be a good portion in 13 weeks.  I am also planning to go to other places in China like Beijing, Hong Kong, and maybe other places. I have no idea.

I will miss everyone back home a lot, but please understand if communication is limited.  Please add my on skype because I will be using that a lot.  My name is jonathanmorof on skype.  I only get 10 MB of data per week, so communication might be tough.  We'll see.

Anyways, I've got to get going.

再见了！

Jonathan