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!
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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% [?]
Return to China 回来中国 - Summer 2008
Posted by Trevor in Summer 2008, Beijing Olympics, China
I’ll be flying home on the 26th to go to Manhattan with Devin and look for some apartments, next fall I will be attending New York University. After that I will be flying to Shanghai out of Boston on the 1st. I’ll spend two nights partying out in Shanghai and staying with a friend who is studying abroad at Fudan University. Then I will take the train to Xi’an to stay with my friend Mengmeng and her family for about three days before I go to Beijing and begin my six weeks intensive language course.
Xi’an is known as one of the most important cities for China’s cultural history and is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China of China. Xi’an is also famous for being the start of the Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean and for the location of the Terracotta Warriors! I am really grateful to be able to meet the family of a good friend and see this great city.
While in Beijing I will be hitting the books hard to become more proficient at Mandarin. I will be taking class for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. A total of 120 hours of instruction which is about the same as two semesters of Chinese at Iowa State. I am lucky that my Chinese teacher, 李老师， who I have had for the past year lives in Beijing. She is going to show me all of the cool places and restaurants in the city. I’m going to be careful because she’ll probably try and get to me eat something crazy or say something really stupid to some people because of all of the jokes I played on her during the school year.
In addition, my really good friends Yu Pang and Yu Yang will be in Beijing this summer. They are American and grew up in Iowa but when they went to college their parents moved back to Beijing so they are spending the summer there. Having them in the city with me means I am going to have no trouble hitting up many of the bars and enjoying the nightlife. I’m going to have to be careful that they don’t distract me from my studies.
The 2008 Olympics will be taking place in Beijing while I am there, so I am looking forward to seeing what the city will be like during the biggest event in the world in four years. I want to get tickets to the gold medal wrestling matches and a few matches for ping pong. Also, I’m trying to think of something I can sell a million of for $1 to all of the people while they are in the city, if anyone has any ideas let me know!
That’s all for now
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