Venice of the East

Hey everyone.  It's been a busy past few days getting ready for and experiencing the aftermath of my exam.  (Note that I cannot recall what actually happened during the exam.  I happened to "forget.")

Moving FORWARD, and onto more fruitful topics.  This weekend I am going with the rest of the program (or most of the people at least) to a bunch of really cool places.  I also am planning other cool trips. My culture class just ended, so I only need to do EECS 280 stuff, leaving a lot of time for travel(!) In case you want to stalk me:


Day 107.45 Bus leaves campus to Li Yang City11.30 Arrive at Li Yang and lunch12.30 Nashan Bamboo Sea16.30 Dinner17.30 Hotspring22.00 Leave from hotspring to hostel Day 208.00 Breakfast08.45 Bus leaves from hostel to Tianmu Lake09.00 Tianmu Lake13.00 Lunch 14.00 Get back to Shanghai

Seems cool. After this, I will probably spend a week on my coding project for EECS 280 (It might take that long), and then I have more fun stuff in the works.

July 4th weekend: Maybe Xi'an.  I would say 20 percent chance.  Otherwise, it will be a fun weekend in Shanghai
July 12-16: Hong Kong.  No major details yet, but I am too excited for this.
July 19-21: Yellow Mountains with the rest of the program.
July 27th weekend: maybe Beijing?
August 5th: EECS 280 final
August 11th: Flight back to Michigan will induce the longest "day" of my life.

Now that I am done writing a guide about how to stalk me, which would be completely legal here, I will move on.

Zhujiajiao

Tuesday, I went with my friend Eric and his daughter to visit his hometown on the outsides of Shanghai.  His hometown, Zhujiajiao, is known as the Venice of the East because of its bridges and canals.  Built in the Ming dynasty, probably around 500 years ago, this still looks like a traditional village, which is quite cool.  We began with a boat ride through the main canal and into one of the smaller canals, 

A view from the top of the bridge of the main canal.

The main bridge in the town. It's amazing that it's still in basically perfect condition after 500 years.

We stopped near a building which happened to be his old high school.  Now it is a museum showcasing what it originally was, a mansion for the richest family in the village.  In fact, it sprawls over several acres and was quite beautiful:

We then walked around the town through a variety of narrow streets and by a plethora of vendors.  We stopped for a while for afternoon tea.  Eric and I switched stereotypical drinks, as I chose green tea and he chose coffee.  The tea was really god, but it was loose in my cup, making it a little difficult to drink without getting some leaves in your mouth.

We continued walking around and finally went to have dinner.  We sat by the river with a nice view of the main bridge.  There were a multitude of dishes from a simple chicken dish to a whole cooked fish.  There was a dish with snails and one that seemed like zucchini, which was really great.  There was also a soup with fish and tofu, which was also delicious.  Unfortunately, I don't have any food pics from the meal, so I'll leave another one from Qingdao: 

As the meal was coming to a close, it began raining a little bit, so we hurried out.  By the time we reached the car it was definitely raining, but by the time we left the town it was absolutely pouring.  The new Shanghai infrastructure was tested, for sure, and although it fared better in torrential downpour than Phoenix, there were definitely some large puddles covering the highway.

Today, I had my final paper and presentation for Culture. It all went pretty well.