I was only in Shanghai for one full day but I noticed three very noteworthy points about Shanghai, Chinese living, and the general Chinese culture.
Most of you probably did not know this but Semester at Sea happened to be in China during a large duration of the Chinese New Year. Be jealous. From fireworks going off every second of the day to insane crowds of people it was one of the cooler things I have ever witnessed. A lot of stores close down during Chinese New Year however the main bargain markets, street vendors, and restaurants stay open. I had the privilege of being taken around Shanghai by Miss Amy Burkhoff, a Cornell student (Rachel’s friend) studying abroad in Shanghai this semester. The first thing I noticed about China is that it was very hard to get around without knowing Chinese. Luckily Amy acted as a translator, guide, bargainer, and savior all at once. Side note: it’s a small world- one of Amy’s best friends from home is in my sorority at Michigan. I definitely believe in the six degrees of separation idea.
Six of us met her at the Yu Yuan Gardens after finally being allowed off the ship. The gardens consist of lots of street shops and vendors, food, a mall type structure, a Buddhist temple, and actual gardens that expand for miles. The place was packed. Lots of Chinese families were out celebrating the New Year. We were legitimate sardines and pushed left and right. After a while I decided to go full out Chinese and walked/charged toward any said destination with my elbows out. When necessary I can push just as well as anyone. In pre-port (where we get told about all the cultural, current, and logistical information about China) we were told not to eat the food off the street and obviously not to drink the water. Amy insisted that the street food was safe to eat: rule number one was broken with the first hour. I had soup-pork dumplings off the street and these weird caramelized strawberry kabob type things.
Lunch was an adventure in itself because after walking in and out of countless restaurants we were finally able to find a place where all seven of us could sit down. The cool thing about the restaurants in Yu Yuan gardens is that all the food is being cooked outside it for wanders to admire. I did not take part in ordering any of the food though I ate, tried, and enjoyed a lot of it (minus the seafood dishes). Our table was packed with food- dumplings, soup dumplings, sticky rice noodles, desserts, etc. Honestly I think we would have starved or resorted to McDonald’s if Amy had not been there to order.
Post lunch we went to the Buddhist temple and were able to witness a lot of Chinese praying (with fire sticks- I’m not sure of what the actual term for this is). There was a large Buddha and fire pit in the middle of the courtyard. Most Chinese are atheists (communism values believing man rather than in God) however religion is present. Religion is allowed but frowned upon. It was weird to me that tourists, vendors, anyone could walk into a temple and observe people praying. I can only imagine having Chinese come to Temple Emanuel on Yom Kippur to watch us fast…
The actual garden part of the Yu Yuan gardens was beautiful. It was really big and I’m pretty sure we only made it through one fourth of its entirety. There were fish, bridges, streams, and random art exhibits dispersed randomly throughout it. It was interesting to see such a serene and quiet setting in the heart of the loud chaos surrounding the gardens.
We went to an old bazaar type market after leaving Yu Yuan. It consisted of a lot of knockoff products and actually sold a lot of antiques. I luckily captured a hysterical video of Rachel bargaining with a Chinese man… hopefully I’ll be able to post it. Up to this part in the day I was very cold. Thinking the rest of the trip would only get colder as we went further into China I made the wise decision to buy some fake uggs which I have dubbed fuggs. $20 US dollars later my feet were happy for the remainder of the trip. The cool thing about China is that you literally bargain for everything… more to come about that when I recall the Pearl Market in Beijing.
That night we went to Cloud Nine, the highest bar in the world located at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Despite feeling cool already for pretending to be a big deal and having cocktails on top of the world it actually was pretty amazing. NYC inspired U2’s song “City of Blinding Lights.” After being in Shanghai I disagree with U2… if there is any city in the world (that I have been to) that has blinding lights, Shanghai is the winner. Looking down and out at the city from the bar you really felt like you were illuminated. Lights adorned every skyscraper, every boat, and every store- basically they were on everything. Though all the lights turn off at 10 PM each night (China is trying to conserve energy) prior to 10 PM the skyline is completely lit. Seeing the fireworks go off everywhere definitely added to the allure of Shanghai. I know it’s weird to call Shanghai the city of blinding lights when all the lights turn off at 10 PM each night but I thought they were THAT amazing when they were on that it earns the title.
After Cloud Nine we went to meet up with Amy and some of her abroad friends at this all you can eat, all you can drink restaurant. Since we got there after they had already ordered their food we had to hastily order ours- being optimistic I pointed to chicken fingers and French fries and hoped for the best. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it my fries came, my sake and beer came, but my chicken fingers did not… minimal food, not so minimal alcohol. Don’t worry Dad I was fine. We then went to this club where a lot of SASers were, called Bar Rouge. Though some people do not like hanging out with a majority of Americans in foreign countries I actually enjoy it. I like being with people I know and it is fun to see everyone off the boat and in another atmosphere. 2:45 AM, my trip to Xi’an and Beijing was leaving six hours later and I still had not packed… since I am amazing I was able to completely pack (I forgot my hairbrush though but no bd) the following morning and make it to the bus on time.
3. Driving
SAS warned us that the most dangerous thing we would encounter in China was the driving. Though we all believe that “Asians can’t drive,” in China they definitely can. Not only does the pedestrian not have the right of way, they really don’t have any rights at all. When you are in the cabs it is a legit race course. Kind of fun, kind of scary. The cool thing about cabs in China is that unlike Japan everything is cheap. A very long cab ride usually amounted to a mere $2 per person. The bargaining and the cabs definitely made me aware of the first exchange rate discrepancies that I would encounter. Yuan to US Dollar is 7:1.
I wish I had more time in Shanghai to explore it more. The reality of Semester at Sea is that we are on constant overdrive when in port and can never do it all as much as we may want to. Recapping the Shanghai experience these were valuable points I learned: In crowds with Chinese you will get pushed so push back, Shanghai is the city of blinding lights, and cab drivers are crazy. On a more serious note I took Shanghai as being a city of two worlds. On the outside it is a very industrialized place however moving a step away from a skyscraper one can find the complete opposite. It is a city that was developed at an extremely fast rate but I think they skipped some key things along the way, one of those things being sanitation. There is still room for improvement to allow Shanghai to match any other global power city not just in looks and industrialization but in environmental, social, and sanitary realms as well. I’m excited for Shanghai to host the world expo in May because since the past week I have learned firsthand that China’s time has come.
By the way, it is the year of the tiger.
No comments:
Post a Comment