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.