Ni hao

I just realized it’s been exactly one month since we embarked. I really don’t believe it—time is flying by way too fast.
Shanghai is an insane city. What a difference from Japan! I think as soon as we arrived everyone automatically compared it to Japan which is neat, orderly, and pretty high-tech, but China was just pure chaos. Without much time to research or make plans between the two countries, we just decided to go out and explore the city on our first day. First of all, our ship is docked in the most amazing spot possible. Surrounding the entire ship is pure city skyline with incredible buildings of all different shapes and at night they all light up in flashing colors. Right outside me and allyn’s window is the Pearl Tower (the needle point tower you’ll see in every picture of Shanghai) and the 2 tallest buildings in China. So the first morning me, Allyn, Lauren, Margalit, and Erin set out having no idea where we’re going…. we thought we had to take a ferry across the river to the Bund area and Nanjing Road (the main shopping road) so we finally found the ferry, got lost, got on a bus, then a metro, and somehow made it to a section of Nanjing road. Later we realized we could have easily walked over the bridge and been right there, or taken a cab which costs less than $2 to go about anywhere. But we were exploring. So of course the section of Nanjing Road we first come to is the area blocked off just for pedestrians, and it was literally just a solid mass of moving Chinese people. What a first impression of the most populous country in the world… you could literally not walk and just be pushed along. What is so different about Chinese people from Japanese is how aggressive and pushy they are! It’s just common and not considered rude to shove people and get elbowed and pushed around. And cars do not stop for anyone, even when you have a walking sign to cross the street. Drivers are crazy! Anyway, it was cool seeing all the shops and markets along the main street but the people were overwhelming! This was a typical Tuesday and it was WAY worse than any shopping mall the day after Christmas. We went in a department store and I think all I saw were sweaters, just lining the walls on every floor. So then we wandered into this hot pot restaurant which turned out to be the highlight of our day. We weren’t exactly sure what hot pots were or what to order, but it turned out that everyone orders their own soup boiling over a flame, and then, following what the waitresses recommended, we ordered raw shrimp dumplings, chicken wah, balls of beef, mushrooms, noodles, a huge plate of greens, fish wah, and tofu, and you cook it all in your hot pot and dip it in a sauce you make yourself out of all these varieties. It was soo delicious! It sounds like a ton of food but you just order a bunch of small plates and share them all. I was worried because I felt like we ordered a lot and it was a pretty fancy restaurant, but the bill was only like $6 a person! That’s when we realized things are a bit cheaper in China.  So after that fulfilling experience we continued wandering with the worst map we possibly could have had, found People’s Square which is a big park in the middle of Nanjing Road, and then continued down the road to the west end where the higher end shopping is. After walking forever in the bitterrrly cold air, we found this temple that Margalit wanted to find, and decided to take a cab back which we found to be ridiculously cheap. It was only about 8:00 but we were so overwhelmed and exhausted from the day. So chaotic! You can definitely tell you’re in a city of 20 million people.
The next day was quite a different experience. Allyn and I had a field trip called “Tasting the daily life of a Shanghai citizen” so first we got on a bus and rode all throughout the city. Driving along the highway the high rises just never end- there’s over 5,000 of them and each one is unique and of different architecture. Everyone lives in high rise apartments, most of which looked pretty run down, and rent is only about $2!! We stopped and spent some time at a community center for the elderly where Allyn danced with an old man who got mad at her for not knowing the steps. We then went to a local market where all the fresh meat and produce is sold. And let me tell you, they eat some strange things. We saw every kind of raw fish, seafood, including live eels and things I’ve neverrrr seen before, raw eggs of all kinds, whole pig carcasses, geese hanging from the ceiling, mushrooms and veggies galore, whole sugarcanes, nuts, teas, and women cooking fresh spring rolls and wontons. I was walking along in awe at everything and ran into a bucket, which I looked down to find full of bloody fish heads. This is their typical grocery shopping… a bit different than ours. After the market we went to visit our host families who spent hours cooking an authentic meal for us with all the fresh food from the market! Allyn and I and 5 others went into a lower-middle class woman’s apartment where we found a feast already set for us on the table. The apartment was tiny and she had been cooking all morning. We had to take turns going into the kitchen to watch her cook because it hardly fit 3 people! She was soo kind and kept bringing out more and more dishes! We started out with pork, tofu, duck, eggrolls, balls of beef, quail eggs, tomatoes, radishes, and bamboo shoots….. and then she brought out real kung pao chicken, egg and meat dumplings, a sweet dessert rice, and thennn we went in to help her cook a shrimp and celery dish and then a beef and onions dish. She was the most fantastic cook ever—it all tasted so fresh and authentic. And to top it off she brought out homemade wonton soup! Talk about a filling meal. They obviously don’t feast like this every day but she said since it’s the Chinese New Year they make elaborate dishes like this one. We got to talk through an interpreter with the woman for a while who said she works at a convenience store and her husband is a cab driver. They both work 24 hour shifts and then get a day off! I can’t imagine being a citizen of Shanghai and living in one of a million tiny apartments in one of a thousand apartment high-rises. Our host mother was so sweet though and so happy to be cooking for us. It was definitely a real view of their culture. After saying goodbye we walked through the French concession, which was strange because all the buildings were western-colonial type. It’s like the opposite of “Chinatown” in every other country—instead they have French town.
We got back to the ship after an amazing day and were ready to go out and see the city at night. We had heard about Cloud 9, one of the highest bars in the world on the 87th floor of the Jin Mao tower (which we discovered was one of the giant skyscrapers out our window). So me, Allyn, Lawrence, and Margalit went to check it out, found our way to the 87th floor and got a table in the Sky Lounge, by far the classiest place I have ever been. Windows lined the entire lounge with the most incredible view of the city lights. We towered over every other skyscraper in the city. We ordered some chocolate fondue and spent a long time just sitting in disbelief at our typical Wednesday night in the Sky Lounge of the 2nd highest building in China towering over an entire city of flashing lights. And then to top it off, it’s the Chinese New Year so at one point fireworks began going off below us from different points throughout the city. I’ve never seen fireworks from above before! They were shooting up right at us, and everywhere you looked in the distance you could see more clusters of them. It was truly magical… we just sat there in awe. I wanted to take a picture but it would not come close to capturing the moment that it was. So after feeling like the luckiest people in the world, we went home to our ship to get ready for our final day in Shanghai.
On this morning Allyn left for Beijing for her Great Wall trip. I hope she comes back--  It’s supposed to be freeeezing and they’re spending 2 nights sleeping on the Great Wall! I almost froze in Shanghai (which is way south of Beijing) so I’m somewhat glad to be taking the ship to warmer Hong Kong. So on my last day I went back to Nanjing Road with my friends Margalit, Jess, and Alyssa and we did some shopping and went to the Shanghai museum. There are these huge malls full of booths of fake and illegal things like northfaces, uggs, ipods, and pirated dvds which you can bargain down to nothing! I got the first 5 seasons of the office for $3 which I was skeptical to buy but it plays perfectly. The vendors are extremely annoying though and will chase you down the hall shouting lower and lower prices. That entire road is just an insane madhouse- on the part sectioned off for pedestrians there are these mini trains driving around every which way and they will literally run you over, and you can’t see them coming until they are right behind you because all you can see is a solid mass of people!
Although I had no expectations for China, it definitely lives up to being the most populated country in the world and I don’t know how much I could handle. Their culture is very unique and surely different than anything I’ve seen but a bit too hectic for me personally. I think Hong Kong will be a sight to see and very different, and I can’t wait to be warm again! Now it’s two days on the ship for me, my first real break to relax and finally get homework done. It’ll be good to catch up, cause a day after Hong Kong we’re in Vietnam!!  My life is unreal, I love it :)
-Michele