Adventures in China : Shanghai and Beyond

Shanghai was so much fun! It is such a cool city with so much to see and do. We set out Thursday night for our 8PM flight and which was the emptiest flight I had ever been on. Texie and I were the only two in our row so she laid down and slept in the row behind us and I slept in ours and many others were simply empty – the airline lost a lot of money on that flight! Flying into the city was cool we could see all the ports, some city lights, and so many bridges. It looked huge! When we got there we had to take a cab because we narrowly missed the last airport bus by two minutes, the subway was closed, as was the bullet train (the second fastest train in China!) Our cab ride was ridiculously expensive. We had heard that Shanghai was expensive but we didn’t expect it to be that bad. Our cab ride, about half an hour and 40km away, cost us about 275 RNB ($44) which would cost about 100-125 RNB at the most in Chengdu ($15 to $20). When we got there our friend Jake was waiting outside our hotel. While we had enjoyed a 2.5 hour plane ride, he decided to take a 28 hour train ride on a hard seat in order to save money so that he could buy another suit or two while in Shanghai. The room and hotel were actually pretty nice. We had hoped to get another blanket or two from the front desk since there were 5 of us and only two full beds, but they wouldn’t give it to us. So instead we had to push the two beds together and someone had to sleep on the crack every night. The bathroom was nice but instead of having walls it had frosted glass which we quickly learned was actually see through. So when showering and changing we had to be strategic to keep our towel on as long as we could to prevent everyone else from seeing. One of the guys learned that the hard way but it was funny.

Friday we got up and at ‘em bright and early. Cheap good food was tough to find while we were there so we had some weird wraps from a coffee place for breakfast and then walked for a while to find the tailor street. Our hotel was right on the bund, the European street across the river from the city skyline. It was beautiful and really cool to see. The city is so westernized and is the second largest city municipality wise in the world, the largest in China (I think Tokyo is first.) However when we were walking to the Tailoring building we saw some random side streets and were taken right back into China. There were small streets with live animals waiting for customers, small fabric shops, and little shops. After a long walk and asking many people how to get to the market we finally found it! It was a bustling shop full of mostly westerners there to shop and get hand tailored suits, jackets, pants, etc. It was hard to pick the best shop but we went to the one with the most people and who were the nicest and gave us the best deal, making sure they could get it done in two days. I got a suit for the boyfriend after giving them his measurements he had sent and then after my roommate was looking at a cute coat, I ordered myself a navy blue jacket that actually turned out really well! That afternoon it started pouring out; sort of like Seattle… we just didn’t need an ark like you guys have the last few days. We took a few subways lines, there are 12 of them to try to navigate, and made our way to Nanjing Road – the big shopping road in Shanghai. It is a large street with people trying to constantly trying to sell you fake handbags and take you to their shops in small sketchy allies. We found a bargain market that we had thought was the famous one in Shanghai, but we quickly figured out it wasn’t. We all got some slight shopping done though. It was fun to go out and explore. After that we went back to the hotel to rest and try to figure out what we wanted to eat. We had hoped to go to the Hardrock Café but it had closed back in February. So then we went to a small jazz bar for happy hour by our hotel but they were extremely rude and we had the impression they wanted us to leave so we ate quickly and left. They were expensive and had really small portion sizes. After that we were still so hungry! So we walked the bund at night and saw the skyline which was beautiful, even though it was foggy and not super clearly visible. We walked along the waterfront and found a monument that looked like a miniature Washington Monument. It looked really cool with the skyline in the background but we never figured out what it was actually for. Then we found two of our boys at a pub down the street where we got more dinner since we were all hungry and watched badminton. None of us had ever been so involved and interested in a badminton match as we were that night. There was our group and two French men in the bar and that’s it, so of course the 5 of us crazy Americans were yelling at the screen and cheering away, making a scene as always. It was fun and we all got a good laugh out of it, including the two French guys.

Saturday was our shopping and exploration day and boy did we nail it. We went to the Pearl Market, the large bargaining market full of tea, knock off brands and all sorts of knick knacks and spent 3.5 hours shopping away. We bargained through with the stubborn Chinese to get the cheap prices we wanted! We could get any team’s jersey one woman had in stock for 100CNY or about $15 or $16, Purses for 150CNY or $24, tea, and all sorts of odds and ends. It was a bit overwhelming at times and annoying getting nagged by random people as you are walking, but we all got some solid shopping done! We then had to wander all the way back towards our hotel to drop off all of our stuff and then we set out for an adventure again. We took the subway back across the water towards the financial district and wandered around. At the market we all got I <3 (heart) China shirts and wore them around all evening. So we set the camera on timer and took our “album cover American pop band” pictures which provided some great entertainment not only for us, but for people passing by. We walked around the extremely modernized portion of the city to the Financial Tower which has the highest observatory deck in the world, being on the 100^th story. The tower is the one that looks like a bottle opener and provided amazing views of the city. Once we got to the top we waited for 45 minutes for the city lights to come on and boy was it a beautiful site! The Financial Tower overlooks the main lights of the city, The Bund, and the river, which are amazing from 100 floors up! They have a transparent glass-floor walkway down the center of the floor that allows you to see the street down below which to be honest is a little scary. One of the craziest things to me is how far up you are and how small everything looks down below. I was honestly a little scared to walk over the glass for fear of it breaking or something, but I got over it eventually. Another crazy thing is the elevator. It takes a total of 25 or so seconds to go to the top – 474 meters up.

We grabbed some subway, yes more western food, and headed for the second highest bar in the world, which turned out to be much classier than we expected. First of all it’s a maze to get there. One must find the Hyatt hotel, which is in the Jin Mao Tower, take the elevator to the 35^th floor, walk to the other side of the building, take another elevator to the 85^th floor, go down a hallway and take yet another elevator to the 87^th floor. Let me set the scene here for you. Texie and I were both wearing our I <3 China shirts with leggings and boots, the boys wearing jeans and their matching shirts, we were in one of the nicest hotels and buildings in the city, the wait staff were all dressed up, the lights in the bar were dim, candles dimly lit on each table, and everyone talked in a hush – we were not dressed right for this place! We expected it to be more of a fun kind of crazy bar, but boy were we wrong. The cover charge was 100RNB, $16, and included one complimentary drink consisting of tiger beer, rum and coke, white wine or red wine. When we asked to see the drink menu, the waitress kind of snubbed us off and told us they don’t have one and walked away. I think there might have been a lost in translation issue there, but needless to say they weren’t fond of us being there. We all ordered our complimentary drink and enjoyed the site of the city. After we finished our drinks we quickly got out of there, had they been nicer we may have ordered more drinks but since we felt like they didn’t want us there to begin with, we decided not to overstay our welcome. We wandered through the cities after making our way through the maze back down all of the elevators. Even from the ground, the city is beautiful at night! We went to the base of the pearl tower and then walked along the river across from the bund and took in all the lights from the European styled street across the water.

Sunday morning, Jake left bright and early to take his 28 hour train ride back to Chengdu, while the rest of us took the opportunity to sleep in. We finally got all of our lazy selves up prepared for whatever the day had in store. We packed up and left the boys in the room, expecting them to leave right away, while Texie and I went to go checkout. While we were checking out, Matt had the most embarrassing experience since we’ve been in China I think. Before we could officially checkout, the maids had to check the room to make sure that everything was okay, but they boys didn’t expect this, and they all got something that none of them had wanted. Since Matt had been staying in a room with girls for the past few days he always closed the door while going to the bathroom, but since we weren’t there he decided to leave the bathroom door open in order to “feel more free” – his words, not mine. But when he heard the room door opening he jumped up to close the bathroom door, not knowing that it was the maids. The poor maid was met with a 21 year old naked butt and Matt was met with a startled and probably scarred maid. It was a hilarious story to hear about because as soon as Matt said it, we could all picture this scene taking place, plus of all the people to have it happen to, it would be him.

We had the rest of the day free, so the boys decided they wanted to go back to the Pearl Market to finish some shopping they had forgotten about. We went back to the Pearl Market, explored through that area of the city, returned to the suit market, and then went back to the hotel to get all of our bags and went back to the suit market once again to do our final pick up of all of our stuf. It was a big long adventure considering the fact that there are 12 subway lines! We finally got all of our suit stuff figured out and took the subway to the MedLev station – the MedLev being the fastest mode of transportation to the airport, taking only 7 minutes and going 301 km/hour. It was so cool! The airport had no food, only a few expensive restaurants which was quite a letdown so we had peanut M&Ms for dinner as well as some weird plane food. We made it home safe and sound and it was great!

Thanksgiving was so amazing! We were invited to the pastor’s house from church, whose family is from Edmonds by the way! There were about 20 of us with half being college age, 3 little kids under the age of 5, and a few parents. We played the game of Life, kept the little ones entertained, listened to Christmas music and hung out for a few hours. Around 5, we all gathered around the three tables put together to eat all of the Thanksgiving goodies! These goodies included turkey, chicken, rice (of course!), stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, jam, butter, corn bread, fruit Jell-O, green beans, green bean casserole and more! It was soooooo good! And being able to spend Thanksgiving around good friends and family in Christ was amazing, especially half way across the world. The electricity at the people’s house we were out had gone out, so they had to go to a friend’s house to cook all the food! Of all the days it could have gone out, it went out on Thanksgiving! It was such a nice gesture. After dinner we all wrote what we were thankful for on leaves and read them aloud then posted them on the tree, such a cute idea! Then we played Wii cow racing, tennis, and Wii Just Dance! It was so much fun and nice to hang out and spend time with everyone. Oh and there was dessert too! How could I forget? We had cookies, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. J As we were about to leave, we noticed how dirty the place was so we asked if we could help clean up, the parents hesitated but the son was quick to say yes, otherwise he would have been stuck doing all of the dishes. So we took to cleaning up all of the plates, putting things back where they belong and while doing dishes everyone busted out singing Christmas Carols, a perfect way to end the evening. It was such a blessing having Thanksgiving with so many people and being able to celebrate it halfway across the world.

This last week of school has been going well. Classes were pretty easy, I am a little nervous for my Chinese final, but the rest should be fine. Tomorrow I am going to Starbucks to study away. This past weekend was really fun! Friday night was our farewell dinner put on by the School of Overseas Education. People did performances, Texie and I did “You know you’re in China when…” jokes, one girl juggled, a guy did slam poetry, one guy danced, and a few people sang. It was really fun to hang out with everyone, say goodbye, and reminisce, but sad. Afterwards a bunch of us went out to the Shamrock Bar to go dancing. Girls got free drinks for ladies night and it was fun to go out and be with everyone! Saturday we woke up bright and early and went to our friends’ apartment where the boys cooked us breakfast. It was cozy with Christmas Pandora playing on the sound system, the boys cooking pancakes and French toast in the kitchen, and all of us hanging out! It was so nice to have a home cooked meal. After we braved the Lotus Market to get some last minute gifts but Texie and I found it to be way too overwhelming so we left after only an hour and went to the “Ancient Street” instead. We shopped for a little while there to top off our Christmas shopping and came home with the intention of going to Starbucks to study for the evening, but instead got lazy, ordered pizza and watched the Dark Night Rises. It made for a much needed relaxing night which was nice. This morning we went to church which was so nice! I got prayed for twice and Texie, Joel, and I all started crying at the end when everyone prayed for us and we had to say goodbye. The rest of the day flew by; I don’t really know where it all went. I had to work for an hour which turned out to go better than I expected. The kids were really responsive and I only had one class today because my first class was all sick – probably from me.

Prayers would be much appreciated. Monday morning I woke up with a killer fever and sore throat. Monday night I was up from 230-430 throwing up and tossing and turning as I was curled in a ball freezing due to my fever. The fever went away by Thursday morning but I still have fatigue, a stuffy nose, and am coughing a ton. I think I have a sinus infection and am hoping to get in to the doctor before I fly out but China isn’t very efficient so I don’t have very high hopes. I am feeling a bit better but still not 100% which doesn’t make for a fun last week in China, so prayers are much appreciated once again!

Speaking of flying out, I can’t believe I only have another week left! It almost feels like just yesterday I was stepping off the plane. I have had an amazing experience here in China and am so thankful for the opportunity to study here and do all the things I have done. It has made me appreciate so much more in my life and I have done so many things I never would have imagined I’d be doing. I am really starting to miss home though. I want to try to enjoy my last week as best that I can but I am starting to get really anxious to come home which is going to make it slightly difficult. Tomorrow is my last day of work, I have finals Tuesday through Thursday, one class on Friday then I am free! I want to say thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and has been there for support when I feel homesick or stressed. I am so excited to see everyone! My VPN, the thing that allows me to get on Facebook and Google, expires tomorrow, so this is the last blog post until I get home. Prayers for safe travel would be much appreciated as well. I travel from Chengdu to Beijing, Beijing to Vancouver and finally Vancouver to Seattle arriving at around 1:15PM on Sunday the 2^nd. I am a little nervous since I will be traveling by myself and am not fluent in Chinese, so I am hoping everything will just run smoothly on its own. Thanks again! See you all in a week! :D