After a presentation by the Chinese Consul of the United States, informing us about what to expect in China and the current attitudes toward Americans, we were off to the streets of Shanghai. We had a couple hours until we had an excursion planned with one of our professors, so we exchange money and stopped in at a local restaurant. We feasted on dumplings, spring rolls, lemon and cashew chicken, and sweet and sour pork, all washed down with local beer (fortunately for us you can’t drink the tap water in China, so its much safer to drink the beer ;) ). Not only was it delicious, but it was cheap! China is so inexpensive. We each had our meal for about $7. After lunch, we went back to the boat to leave on our excursion. Our first stop was the Maglev Train, the fastest train in the world. In the five minute trip we took, we reached the max speed on the train which was 261 miles per hour. It felt like we had taken off on an airplane. A trained passed us on the other side of the tracks, and when this happens our tour guide told us that the speed appears to double. It was quite a feeling, your entire body shakes and it feels as if your heart drops into your stomach.
After the train, we went to the top of Jinmao Tower, the third largest tower in the world. The elevator goes 9 meters a second, and we were at the 88th floor in 45 seconds. The view was spectacular. Although it was a sunny day in Shanghai, it appeared still hazy and cloudy because the pollution is so terrible. In fact, I have yet to see the sun perfectly in China.
You could see our boat from the tower:
When we got back to the boat, a group of four us set off to Nanjing Road, which is known as the best shopping street in China. The street was packed with thousands of people. There were hundreds of vendors, huge billboards, and tons of flashing lights. We were approached by a Chinese man in the street with a distressed pamphlet that had pictured iphones, Nike shoes, and Louis Vuitton purses. After being told by some other students to follow him to get some good deals, we accepted his offer and he took us on quite an adventure. He wound us through the creepy back alleys of Shanghai taking us through tons of twists and turns, to end up at a decrepit door that led into a Mecca for counterfeit items. Chanel, Prada, Burberry, and LongChamp purses lines the shelves, along with Rolex watches, and designer sunglasses. I was in bootleg heaven, until I got a little bit closer and realized the labels were off center, and the material saying leather was obviously polyester. He took us to about half a dozen stores like this. The best part was the DVDs, I bought the Season 1 and Season 2 of True Blood, Up in the Air, Invictus, and New Moon for less that $20. All DVDs that have yet to be released in America and that are excellent quality. I love China.
Here is a picture of one of the places that sold Nike knockoffs. My friend bought a pair for about $10.
When we were done doing our illegal shopping, we went back to the boat to prepare for the night. We went out with a group of nine to a bar called Cloud 9, which was at the very top of the tower we had previously went to that day. It was the tallest bar in the world. The view at night was even more breathtaking. The lights of Shanghai are amazing. Every building is lit up with multicolored lights that move in elaborate designs. All the highways are lit up with neon blue lights underneath. It looks like a huge, modern circus.
After enjoying a drink at the top of the tower we went to a restaurant, known as the “best casual restaurant in China”. I couldn’t agree more. For the equivalent of $15 in America, we had all you can eat food, drink and fun. We met up with a few students who some of our friends knew that were studying abroad in Shanghai from Cornell and Brown. They spoke excellent Chinese, so we had a constant flow of sushi and saki. They put us off on a taxi to a local club. Tons of Semester at Sea students were already there, and it was a fun time. However, in the dark corners of the club were 50 yr old men lounging with extremely young Chinese girls. This was a little disconcerting. After about an hour we went back to the boat to prepare for our trip 6 day trip to Xion, Beijing, and Hong Kong the next day.
Annecdote
BEWARE OF CHINESE BABIES
2/16/2010: The first day I was in China I noticed a child walking around with her pants split in the back. I felt bad for the poor 2 year old walking around in the 30 degree weather with her bare bum out. Then over the next few days, I saw dozens of children with the same problem. I couldn’t believe their parents would let them walk around like that! Finally, I asked our tour guide about the split pants phenomenon and he explained that all pants for children are made with no stitching in the bottom for easy accessibility to the bathroom. My friend on the trip told me she saw many children in the middle of the street decrementing on newspapers. Thank goodness for Pampers in the US.
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