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Tag: shanghai

Shanghai

Last weekend our Valpo group visited Shanghai. To say our two and a half day exploration, ‘scratched the surface’ might be a bit of an exaggeration. Shanghai as the biggest city in the world (by some measurements).

I’ve gotten used to being swallowed by cities here, so Shanghai wasn’t a surprise. The hour-long high-speed train ride from Hangzhou to Shanghai never really got made it out to the countryside, we’d zip by an apartment complex at least every few minutes.

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While it was a nice weekend, most of us were feeling windswept by the recent Midterms, Thanksgiving dinner, and the rapid approach of our December departure. So we weren’t quite on our sightseeing game.

Public transport is big in China. And when I say ‘big in China,’ remember that China is already huge. I wonder if one couldn’t measure a slight bit of the earth’s curvature in the train station corridors.

We used Shanghai’s extensive subway system during our stay which I quickly became a fan of. The stations can end up being the size of malls meaning paying attention to the extensive signage is crucial. Stations are everywhere and trains are regular and quick. And if I’m going to be squished (an small downside to public transit) I’d take the subway over Hangzhou’s jerky buses any day.

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A bit of lunch on Friday.

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Downtown Shanghai, near government buildings

Our first stop was the Shanghai History Museum which shared a lot of similarities both in layout and content to the history museum we visited in Xi’an in August. The exhibits are almost exclusively relics (either replicas or originals, it is impossible to tell), accompanied by captions. While the ornate pieces of jade, coins, weapons, jewelry, pottery and clothing are very impressive I always come away wanting more. The exhibits provide no storyline, no explanation of how the artifacts were created, and no ceremonial details.

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I think China (at least the government) is eager to highlight the beauty and craftsmanship in their history. Arguably their approach to history is much the same as their approach to current government—”we will show you all the great things we’ve done but not actually tell you how our government works.”

From the museum we strolled along a broad pedestrian boulevard towards The Bund, a fancy name for the Shanghai waterfront. The strip is a commercial showcase from M&M to Apple to Forever 21 to Omega. Postmodern and classic architectural structure clash behind a smattering of giant blazing billboards. Meanwhile sly street vendors try to interest us in cheapie strap-on “roller skates,” fake Rolexes or ‘massages’—aka, prostitutes.

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I actually visited the waterfront twice the first evening we were in Shanghai. The first time was before dusk so the famous city lights weren’t on—hence the return later that evening. Of course there were throngs of people, but that is almost a given in China, especially Shanghai.

The riverfront had been entirely cemented and I guessed it was high tide (and tidal). Organic flotsam and trash floated along in the grey water while two lanes of ships moved up and down the river. Using the passing 40’ shipping containers on one barge I estimated the largest ships—bulk freighters, were up to 250’ long. The bulk freighters, filled with sand or gravel, travelled upriver with the deck only a few feet above the waterline. It took a few minutes to realize that the big boats heading downstream were the same freighters as those going upstream. But being empty they rose dramatically 15-20’ feet out of the the water almost entirely exposing their bulbous bow, and making them look exponentially larger than their loaded brethren. As an engineer and Alaskan dock worker I found the watercraft particularly interesting.

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Saturday morning we we visited the Yu Garden. Hundreds of years old the garden was made up of primarily water features, craggy rock formations and halls. It was pretty neat.

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The rest of the day was spent exploring various touristy shopping markets. First we explored a crowded market/mall selling everything from jewelry to sportswear to Christmas decorations. We then ventured to the upscale ‘French Quarter,’ we wondered through the maze of alleys passing numerous bars and artsy shops. A much better place for window shopping in my opinion.

That evening I strolled through the neighborhood around our hotel with a few classmates. The streets of Shanghai definitely carry a different vibe than Hangzhou. The sidewalks were much emptier—fewer pedestrians, cyclists, and mopeds. It seems that Shanghai’s extensive subway system has dramatically changed transit patterns from the multi-use streets of Hangzhou. Secondly, in Hangzhou we’ve become accustom to walking in traffic—seriously the number of times I could touch the side of moving cars and buses is almost scary. In Hangzhou the drivers are great, but in Shanghai the vehicles rule the road and one better stay out of their way.

That night a thunderstorm swept through Shanghai providing an mystic touch to the sprawl outside our twelfth floor hotel room.

Sunday morning we were free to do as we pleased. I contemplated going to the east side of the river to explore the newer financial district with the big skyscrapers but instead I opted for a simpler route. I took the elevated train to the Zhongshan Park station. I had no clue what Zhongshan Park was, but I really like greenspaces so I figured it was worth the adventure. It turned out to be a lovely spacious park in a nice part of town. Children played, young couples took wedding photos, elderly gentlemen flew kites, a few countyfair-style rides had a taker or two, and old folks practiced tai-chi in the more secluded sections. I will miss the parks here, they are well maintained, landscaped and often contain a vibrant spectrum of society.

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Travel back to campus ended up being more interesting than we had expected as two of us (including me) got separated from the group at one subway stop. Luckily we had phones and no trouble reaching the train station—except that the other group ended up on the opposite side of the cavernous station so we had to do a bit of extra walking.

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Once we got back to Hangzhou we again split up to take a combo of metro, bus, and taxi back to campus through the rainy rush hour. The metro to taxi was the best option as the bus took forever and taxis were hard to get at the train station.

Fun in the sun

I’ve just returned to my dorm after a longgg day of traveling. Today, starting from about 11AM, I took three taxis, two ferry rides, one bus ride, one train and one bullet train to get back to sweet Hangzhou, ringing up 9 hours of traveling. “Wait, going back to Hangzhou?” you may ask (or may not, but just play along). Well, these past few days,  Zhejiang University students were fortunate enough to have a week-long break from their harsh days of studying. H-23 quickly took advantage of this break to travel to take a five day vacation to Shanghai/Xiushan Island.

I can confidently say that I absolutely love Shanghai. I think part of it is the fact that it really is a sister city of Chicago- just the feeling of being surrounding by tall buildings and city lights was amazing. However, as much as I love Chicago, Shanghai definitely has one feature that beats Chicago: the Bund. The bund is basically many historical buildings lined up along the river. What makes it special is simply how gorgeous the area is at night time. It really was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen- I don’t know why, but I’ve always been in love with city lights and skylines. At night, the colorful lights from the buildings across the bund reflect off of the water and create an amazing sight. In addition, different boats with bright lights pass by and add even more color to the dark night. Hundreds of people gather in the bund area to view the breathtaking scenery, and I stood with them that night. Honestly, I could have stayed there for hours. Pictures won’t do the sight justice, but it doesn’t hurt to share.

The gorgeous sight at night.

The next night, we went to the Shanghai Acrobatic Show: ERA. I had high expectations walking into the show, and my expectations were definitely exceeded. I won’t spoil it for you because it really is something you should see in person, but I will say that there are just so many moments of pure thrill and awe. There were actually moments when I had to hide my eyes behind my hands because it seemed like they were pushing the “thrill limit”.  However, overall, it was definitely an enjoyable show. No pictures were allowed, so unfortunately I can’t share any with you..but if anything, that should be more encouragement to go see the show! If you are ever in Shanghai, please check it out! You definitely will not regret it.

So after Shanghai, H-23 split up into two mini groups: half of the group headed back to Hangzhou to relax, and another group headed to Xiushan Islands. I, of course, headed to the island for some fun in the sun. It was actually slightly nerve wrecking, as this was our first trip that we were planning completely on our own without depending on our professor. He headed back with the other half of H-23, so the rest of us four planned our own mini-vacation. There were a few bumps in the road- we took a ferry from Shanghai to Daishan island and planned to take another ferry to Xiushan, however we missed the last one, so we had to stay a night on Daishan. And though it wasn’t planned, I’m sure glad it happened. We had some delicious sea food by the water, surrounded by locals enjoying the cool night breeze. The next day, we headed for Xiushan island…and once we arrived to the island, we realized something: people on the island actually speak a different dialect than the standard 普通话 (Putonghua)/Mandarin Chinese that we have been learning. It was slightly difficult communicating with the island natives, but in the end, we got by just fine. Other than that, everything else seemed to be great. Our hotel was beautiful- it really went for the tourist “island feel”, with white and wooden decorated rooms. Little tropical like flowers were scattered as decoration throughout the hotel. And only a few steps away was the beach! Since China’s waters are not exactly the cleanest, we didn’t quite go swimming or anything like that. But we took lots of pictures, admired the beautiful scenery and played around in the sand (I even learned how to skip rocks!).


Valpo and H-23's mark on Xiushan island

Having fun at the beach!

 

The view from our hotel entrance

So this morning marked our last day on the island. We had a delicious meal, enjoying the island’s fresh seafood. Afterwards, we lazed about the beach one last time and enjoyed our last moment of relaxation. And its a good thing we did…because once we left, we didn’t realize just how much time it would take to get back to Hangzhou! All in all, we had a great mini-vacation for our break here in China.

Did you all check out the Mid-Autumn Festival back in VU? In China, people celebrate the occasion by attending festivals and celebrating with friends and family. Unfortunately I didn’t do anything big to celebrate it here, though I did eat a mooncake! Yummy. Anyway, if you didn’t check it out this year, definitely go next year! I always enjoy myself at the event VU holds, enjoying Chinese music and snacks. It’s a good way to become more familiar with the culture as well.

The 9 hours of travel are starting to weigh me down. Time for bed! Talk to you guys soon.

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