Life As Usual in Shanghai
Posted by Trevor in Summer 2008, Shanghai, China
Yesterday I met up with Spencer and we went to the YuYuan Garden (City Temple). I had already been there last year but I figured I would tag along anyways. We went with two other people from his language school, Kristen and Will. Will is a cool guy who just got his MBA from Carnegie-Melon and is moving to NYC to work for a financial research services company. We talked for a while and had a good conversation about ibanking. I also met two cool people my age at the hostel. One guy named Grant and a girl named Sophie who is a senior at Columbia in NYC. They are on a program to study ocean science with the NSF and are getting to tour China on the program’s paycheck.
Yesterday I had some really good Korean food in People’s Square. Since my trip last summer I’ve been in love with Korean food and prefer it to Chinese! I think Korean food is overall healthier (more vegetables and less oily, more lean meat without the skin) and it is usually spicy.
For breakfast today I went to this really local (if you know what I mean) restaurant. There were a ton of people eating there (including the police which is a good sign) and the lady was cooking a humongous wok of rice outside. Rice is way better in China than in the US, you can actually taste a dramatic difference. They gave me way more than I could eat for 90 cents. I’ll probably eat at this place again before I leave.
The hostel I am at is really close to People’s Square which is now my favorite area of the city (way more interesting than the Bund or Pudong IMO). There’s a cool exhibit at the Shangai Museum about the ancient olympics, might go see that or to a Chinese movie called Kung Fu Hip-Hop. I am also going to try and go to the Qipu Market to get some counterfeit designer goods, because I’m worried when I get to Beijing the government will shut down these markets in prep for the Olympics.
Tonight Spencer and I are going to celebrate the 4th at the Bund Brewery where it’s $14 for all you can drink beer of different varieties brewed right at the place. I love my country!
Tomorrow I fly two hours to Xi’an and my friend Mengmeng has like 20 things planned for us to do, I’ll keep you guys updated!
Popularity: 27% [?]
First Day Back in Shanghai
Posted by Trevor in Summer 2008, Shanghai, China
The first time I came to Shanghai (last summer) I had culture shock pretty bad, and it lasted for about 24 hours of being out of my mind. This time around is drastically different, I don’t even feel like I am in a foreign country. Also, I must be my recent trip navigating NYC, because this time in Shanghai it’s way easier for me to find my way around on a map, take the subway, etc.
Right now I am staying at the People’s Square Youth Hostel in the downtown area of Shanghai. Not a bad place but a little pricey for what I expected. (RMB 230 or $33 per night for the single room) The room is nice with it’s own bathroom, there’s free wifi and a sweet commons room with a bar (beer), pool table, and couches. Honestly, the accommodations are better than the two hotels I stayed at last year, with the exception the hostel doesn’t have the overpriced half-decent restaurant.
Basically I am having a kick-ass time in China.
Of course almost no trip is free of hassles: when I went to get on my flight in Boston I was forced to buy my return ticket in order to get on the plane (I hadn’t bought it because there were a lot of factors going into when I was going to go home, ie. if Devin and I had found an apartment in NYC, if I had to go back to Ames to ship my CampusBike’s, etc). Of course the ticket is going to be expensive because I can’t go through one of the discount websites ($1400 vs $900), so to get the fully refundable ticket I had to pay $2500. The woman told me I could get my refund at the United Airlines ticket counter in Shanghai or Beijing, so I planned to get my refund the second I touched down. But when I landed the ticket counter (and the supervisor as well) told me I have to get the refund from airport I bought it. (which is a load of BS as it’s impossible) I’ll be calling the customer service today to really give them a hard time and I’m going to expect to get something to make up for it.I was planning to leave Friday for Xi’an to visit Mengmeng, but since it is the 4th of July I am thinking about staying in Shanghai for some of the many expat events going on (SmartShanghai.com is a cool website to find stuff like this). I found out I can book a flight from Shanghai to Xi’an for less than the price of the train on CTRIP.com. So to save 18 hours I think I will do so.
Last night I met up with a friend from China who is doing her internship at a hospital in Shanghai’s Pudong area and we went out to the JZ Club bar. In China, medical school students never party, so we had a lot of fun.
That’s all for now.
Popularity: 26% [?]
My Father’s Birthday in Shanghai
Posted by Trevor in Journal, Shanghai, China
This past Saturday, July 21st was my father’s birthday.
We arrived at the hotel in Shanghai at about 2pm on Saturday. This time around we stayed at the HengSheng Peninsula International Hotel, it is much nicer than the other hotel we stayed at and had a great location (about 100m from the Bund and 200m from Nanjing Road). We were able to get the rooms for $63 a night (their 7-day rate) through the discount website www.wotif.com. I would recommend this hotel if you ever stay in Shanghai.
After getting to our rooms my dad wanted to sleep for a little bit, so Allen and I decided to check out Qi Pu road (which was only about a 5 minute walk from the hotel). Shanghai has the best quality and newest imitation and knock-off items in the world, and Qi Pu road is the biggest marketplace for imitation and knock-off items. Louis Vutton
Popularity: 98% [?]
First Time in China
Posted by Trevor in Journal, Shanghai, China
Ni Hao (Hello),
Wo hen xihuan Zhongguo (I like China very much).
Sorry I haven’t had the time to write to everyone until now, I have been in China for 6 days and have been too busy to get on the net until now. I am actually at a small restaurant/bar in downtown Nantong right now that has WiFi. The gym is just up the street so I stopped in here on my way back (I’ll tell you more about the gym later).
So far I’ve learned a lot, met a lot of people, and had a good time in the few days I have been here. I’ve written down most of the things I have done, but I’ll start off by just telling you about my first day in Shanghai…
Popularity: 70% [?]