This weekend 3 of my friends and I took a trip to Shanghai, the largest city in China, which is a 2.5 hour train ride away from Nanjing. Our train left on Friday morning at 10:30 am (we don't have class on Fridays). As soon as we arrived, we knew we were in a (almost) completely different world. It was interesting to see such a seemingly different side of China—Shanghai was very commercialized and with lots of foreigners and English speakers. We agreed during the trip that at times it didn't even feel like we were in China anymore. We also decided we were extremely thankful that we had chosen to study abroad in Nanjing instead of in Shanghai. In Shanghai, everyone would just speak English to us—which was very different from Nanjing where English speakers are few and far between.
After we arrived, we took the subway to none other but Nanjing Road and wandered around for a bit looking for our hostel, which we eventually found down a side alley. It was an extremely nice hostel and we were very pleased with the accommodations. Afterward, we had a delicious lunch of fried dumplings and headed downtown, to the business district. I was speechless as we walked around, staring up at the skyscrapers looming above us. It's hard to explain, but let me just say that the pictures of Shanghai's skyline doesn't give it justice. I've in
cluded two pictures of Shanghai's most famous buildings—the Shanghai World Financial Center on the left and behind and the Jin Mao Tower on the right in the front. The running joke in China
right now is that the Shanghai World Financial Center is a bottle opener and the Jin Mao Tower is a bottle of beer. Our entire trip we kept referring to the two buildings as "the bottle opener" or the "bottle of beer" because we couldn't remember the names and that was a much more convenient method. We went up to the observation deck of the Jin Mao Tower, which is on the 88th floor, and were all astounded by how Shanghai's buildings stretched out as far as the eye could see.
Afterward, we walked to The Bund, which has remnants of colonial style buildings from the era of the French Concession (when Shanghai was essentially a French colony). W
e finally found a Chinese restaurant and had a delicious dinner. The next day, we walked around another area of town looking for a mosque that we found in our guidebook, but when we got there it turned out that it was under construction, like so many buildings in China are. We caught a
train back at 2:30 pm on Saturday. By the time we got back to Nanjing we were exhausted but happy.
P.s. I can view my blog now since I recently started using an Internet proxy that reassigns my IP address so the government can't block any websites on my computer. No, I don't actually know what that means. So comment if you wish!
Glad to see you had such a good time... and now you know why I thought studying in Nanjing was a good choice.
ReplyDeleteObviously, you will need to make at least one return visit to SHanghai. SOOOOOOOOO much to see.
I'm glad we can comment. It is just great to be able to get a feel for what you are going through. I also love the pictures. Tell your homestay mom that I thank her for taking such good care of you. I love you and miss you alot. Love Mom/Marnie
ReplyDeleteMs. McNulty- we will most definitely be returning-- we didn't even touch the tip of the iceberg. I don't know if that's the right saying. But yeah, we didn't have a lot of time. You're right, Nanjing was a good decision--I'm glad I stumbled upon the CIEE program.
ReplyDeleteMom- first of all, when are you going to get a Gmail account so that you don't have to post as Jim Tynen? Second, when are you going to get an email address so I can email you? you need to get on that asap. Third of all, when are you going to get a Skype account so we can video chat. Call me soon! I got your voicemail before but you never called back.