Shanghai

For our second weekend in China, we traveled to Shanghai as a group on Saturday, spent the night, and returned to Hangzhou on Sunday. We took a small bus that we booked through our travel agent. The driving in China is really quite hilarious. The drivers are all so impatient and taxi and bus drivers are always honking. This trip was no different, as our bus driver probably honked anywhere from 150 to 200 times throughout the 3 hour journey. Also, when on the road in the city anything goes. I have seen people drive on the wrong side of the road to make a turn and even drive right at oncoming traffic! It’s a lot different from driving in the states, even in big cities like Chicago.

Shanghai actually reminded me a lot of Chicago, which is where I am from. There is the big city part with all the tall buildings, the skyline on the water, and all of the expensive shops on the street. We walked Nanjing Road, which is similar to Michigan Ave. with regard to the expensive shops. Later that night, we walked around the town and back to the downtown area to see the city lit up at night. The city is very majestic and it looks awesome with lights on all the buildings.

The next day we visited a famous Buddhist temple and saw the

largest jade Buddha in the world! My favorite part of the trip was seeing the skyline and especially the Pearl Tower. Shanghai is definitely a westernized city, with restaurants like McDonalds and Starbucks appearing on the street quite frequently. However, it is still a very Chinese city. It does not take much at all to find an authentic Chinese restaurant on the street to eat at. I would recommend having a plan of what to go and see and do when you arrive in Shanghai because it is easy to get lost and not know what to do in this massive city.

We stayed in the Swan Hotel, which was very nice and western. However, for being such a bustling city it was quite difficult to get wifi in the hotel and out on the street, which surprised me. I also noticed that the prices in Shanghai for food and souvenirs were much higher than in Hangzhou, which is similar to prices in the U.S. increasing in big cities. Shanghai was very fun and offered a different picture of China than seen in Hangzhou. I would most definitely want to go back and see more of the city!

Tom Abbott