First Week in China

Well, it’s been nearly a week since we landed in Shanghai, and what a week it’s been.  I hardly know where to begin! I’m writing you while flying to Chengdu from Shanghai. We will be at Southwest University for Nationalities very soon!

There were five of us on the group flight to Shanghai. Finding the transferring flights was a breeze and going through customs in China was quite painless and easy. Once we got through customs, we were greeted by the USAC coordinator for Shanghai, You Sha. From the airport we took a private van to the Shanghai University campus. I didn’t see much driving into Shanghai since it was an overcast day and the windows were pretty fogged up. We pulled up in front of the Shanghai University hotel, which is where we stayed for the majority of our time in Shanghai.

I was told the campus we were staying on was one of three. It looked pretty similar to any other university campus in the US, tree lined side-walks and brick buildings. The hotel was nicer than I was expecting. The beds were pretty hard, but that seems to be pretty common here. In every hotel we’ve been in there have been little boxes with toothbrushes and tiny bottles of toothpaste, which I think is a great idea instead of just the normal shower cap and shampoo.

We all had roommates while we toured Shanghai. Mine was Hannah from UNLV, who is super nice and a great roommate. I am kind of sad that we won’t have roommates in Chengdu, hopefully it won’t be too lonely. I chose to stay in the dorms rather than a shared apartment, so we’ll see how that goes. The apartments are a 15min walk to class, I hear. But you get a kitchen, more space, and roommates.

Anyway, after we got settled into our rooms, a group of Shanghai students and Chengdu students were going to the store to buy cell phones and other supplies. I was pretty jet lagged by this point (I got 4 hours of sleep on the plane), but I needed to stay awake and I wanted to see more of Shanghai.

The store was not that far away. Crossing the street, we got our first experience with traffic in China. Getting hit by a car or motorcycle in China is a real possibility, so you have to pay attention. We were told the best way to cross the street was to not hesitate. Once you’ve decided it’s safe to cross, don’t look back, and don’t look at the cars coming towards you. Any sign of hesitation is a sign of weakness.

Once we got to the store, we went upstairs to the phone section. I found out that it was a better idea to buy a phone in Chengdu so I wouldn’t have a Shanghai number when I got there.  So instead I bought a 5L bottle of water and some peanut mochi. You cannot drink the tap water in China without boiling it first, so that’s why I decided to get such a large bottle. It was pretty cheap, only 7 yuan (divide by 6 to get a rough estimate of USD). China is much cheaper than the US, but Shanghai tends to be a bit more expensive. For example, some students went out for drinks along the Bund one night (a very touristy area) and paid something like 100yuan for a drink. You can haggle in many (if not most) places to get a better price, but it takes a while to figure out what a good price should be.

After we got everything together and went back to the hotel, it was nearly time for dinner. We ate at a Sichuanese-style restaurant, so the food was spicy. I liked everything I tried, it was really delicious. We ate family style, with a big lazy-Susan type of thing in the middle of the table with all the dishes on it. One student told everyone to use the opposite end of your chopsticks to get food out of the dishes and put it on your plate, which didn’t sound right. It’s not. Do not do that or Chinese people will laugh at you.

The restaurant was pretty classy. After dinner, some of the students decided to but a round of shots. We had heard that a drink called ‘bai jiu’ (pronounced like: bye Joe), which is equivalent to tequila in America. It’s pretty strong and smelled…interesting. Some of the students ate numbing peppers before drinking it, which I can’t imagine made it any better. Numbing peppers are a whole different kind of spicy. It feels like electricity in your mouth. They aren’t painful, but they are HOT. I’m going to try to bring some back to America for people back home to try because they are kind of hard to describe.                                              

After dinner we headed back to our hotel to go to bed. Unfortunately when I’m jet lagged, it sometimes makes it hard for me to fall asleep and stay asleep. I ended up waking up at 5:00am the next morning, which wasn’t ideal, but I survived.

USAC (the program I am studying with) did a great job at fitting a lot into the short time we were in Shanghai. We began our day at the Bund. The Bund is a famous river running through the city and separating New Shanghai from Old Shanghai. For much of Shanghai’s history, it has been a colony belonging to Britain. Because of this, there has always been a  large European presence there. The buildings along the Bund are all built in a European style. It really feels as if you were suddenly transported to a street in France. On the other side of the Bund, you see the Pearl Tower. Everything in this area across the river is less than 20 years old. The Pearl tower is easily the most recognizable landmark along the horizon. It’s an impressive building.

                                                         

After spending some time along the Bund, we drove to the Pearl Tower. The area surrounding the tower was very beautiful and festive, with colorful flags lining the plaza and giant lanterns hung from tall archways.                                                              

Well… I have to go to bed, so I’ll finish this post soon! Sorry for the wait!