The 10-hour train ride to Shanghai was not as bad as it sounded. We splurged for first class tickets, so we enjoyed lots of leg room, pillows and seats that reclined heavily. Aside from making instant noodles, I slept most of the time.
Sherry, Annie’s Chinese Holland Fellows partner, greeted us with a huge smile at the train station in Shanghai. P.A. and Jesse departed in a cab for their hostel, and Sherry helped me book a train ticket for the return for Beijing. I will be spending three nights at Sherry and her father’s apartment and three days in Shanghai, China’s most largest metropolis and the sight of the 2010 World Expo.
We took a cab to Sherry’s apartment, and the first thing I noticed about Shanghai was how much cleaner it looked than Beijing. This is mainly due to cleaning efforts because of the Expo, much like how Beijing was treated during the 2008 Summer Olympics. There were “Expo 2010” signs and Haibo (‘the official mascot of the 2010 Expo’) charicatures everywhere I looked. We got to Sherry’s apartment, which has a small entrance way and two bedrooms. Sherry set up two places to sleep on the ground, one of which was mine. It was actually more comfortable than my bed at the apartment in Beijing, so I had no trouble sleeping that night.
The one downside of staying at Sherry’s place was that her bathtub had formed a leak the day before we arrived, so to take a shower, we had to walk about five minutes to her grandmother’s apartment. In the hot Shanghai weather, I was sweating again by the time I finished my shower and walked back to Sherry’s the next morning. I also could not communicate directly to Sherry’s father, who only speaks Mandarin and Shanghainese, nor her grandmother, who only speaks Shanghainese.
Sherry’s father provided breakfast every morning – steamed buns filled with meat – which I grew to love and even bought for myself twice in Shanghai. He also is a great cook and made a lot of the food that we had for lunch that day, which Neo joined us for. The four of us had fun catching up and talking about the adventures in the States that we were all about to embark on. Annie will graduate in December and try to roadtrip to Canada in the winter before leaving for Ecuador. I will graduate in May and see where the journalism job market takes me. Neo will spend a semester away from China at Rice University in Texas. Sherry will have the biggest change when she leaves China on the same day as me for SUNY Buffalo to participate in a 5-year Ph.D. program.
After lunch, I set out on my own on a bus to the Oriental Pearl Tower. This is a huge tower that was erected in 1994 and resembles the Space Needle, but shines pink during the day and sparkles at night. I didn’t go up the tower even though it has a glass floor in the second “ball” because of a two-hour wait. Instead, I took pictures and did what I have grown to know best in China – shopping. Uniqlo, a Japanese store similar to H&M, was having a sale, so I bought some shirts and a pair of very Chinese pants.
From there, I hopped on the subway to the Expo. Originally I planned to meet up with Victoria, a fellow Tar Heel who did UNC B-school’s Globe Program with my friend Caitlyn and had been interning in Beijing the whole summer, but it turned out we were there at different times. I’m really glad I waited until the afternoon to visit the Expo, though. I avoided a lot of the lines, crowds and heat.
Because of these differences, the Expo was a lot better than people had told me. I had a lot of fun and actually would go back to see more pavilions. The first pavilion (besides China, which needed a reservation to even line up) to catch my eye was India. I waited for a mere 15 minutes, during which I got to use my portable chair that I bought in the train station a week ago for 10 yuan. Other pavilions that I visited included Sri Lanka, Vietnam, DPR Korea, Iran, Lebanon, Ireland, Ukraine, Canada, Australia, and the Czech Republic. I also got a Hogaarden beer at the Belgium Pavilion and a Dutch veal croquette and fries at the Netherlands Pavilion. I won’t go into detail about these pavilions, but some were definitely better than others. I’d have to say that my favorite was the Netherlands. I was disappointed that some of the Central and South America pavilions were closed by the time I reached them at 10:30 p.m., so I left the expo on a subway home.
The next morning, after another lunch cooked by Sherry’s father, I contacted Victoria and we made a plan to meet up at an art district with cafes and stores like Nanlougu Xiang in Beijing. We walked around there for a bit but didn’t buy anything. Our next stop was People’s Square, a park which is popular among locals and tourists. To escape the heat and learn a little more about Shanghai and China, we went to the Shanghai Museum. The museum was shaped like a ding, a Chinese food vessel, and was laid out in a way that made it very easy to see anything and everything you wanted to. I especially liked the mask, jade and painting, and ceramics exhibits. Best of all, it was free and air conditioned!
We made our way over to Nanjing Street, which is very similar to Wafujing in Beijing. It is a huge walking street full of clothing stores, outdoor entertainment and different food venues. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant that was tucked away and we would not have noticed had it not been for Vicctoria being able to read Chinese (her parents are Taiwanese) and my keen sense of smell for vinegar (read: dumplings!!!). The dumplings and spicy noodles that I got hit the spot. I said goodbye to Victoria and rounded out the day with a trip to Yu Gardens, another tourist attraction. There is a garden that you can pay to enter, a lake and several streets of souvenir shopping. I enjoyed just strolling down the streets as the sun went down and the bright lights and neon signs came up. Every place I went this day was packed with Chinese and foreign tourists visiting Shanghai’s other attractions after or before a day at the Expo. I felt a bit clostrophobic at times, but enjoyed myself nonetheless.
I woke up early the next day and met Victoria at the train station to purchase tickets to Suzhou. This is a relatively small city outside of Shanghai that is suggested as a day trip in all of the guide books as a way to see ‘scenic gardens.’ The train was only about an hour long, but Suzhou was HOT (35 degrees C) when we arrived. We felt a bit lost at first, not really planning much past the return train ride before arriving. Once we got a hold of a proper map, we took our own advice from the day before and started out with a free and air conditioned tour of the Suzhou Museum. Many of the things on display were similar to the items in the Shanghai Museum, so we spent the bulk of the time touring the outdoor courtyards and pavilions, which seemed like a clever maze, stumping us at times.
We checked out the details of two gardens before deciding on which one to spend our money on. We chose the smaller and cheaper one, which was both good and bad. First of all, the Chinese don’t think of “gardens” the same way we do – instead of flowers, bushes and bright colors, Chinese gardens are characterized by pagodas, courtyards, fake rock formations , manmade lakes and general landscaping. This came as a surprise, as did the immense number of Chinese tourists who made the same cheaper decision as we did. Feeling claustrophobic, we left the garden and headed toward the commercial district for a bite to eat. We both got smoothies, which we had been craving since we met in Shanghai. Not feeling like shopping, we walked farther south to Suzhou Park, which was free and open to the public. It was similar to all the parks I’ve been to in Beijing – old people synchronized dancing, men fishing in non-fishing areas and beautiful lotuses. After failing to get closet to the Twin Pagodas (it was closed early for some reason), we took a bus back to the train station, had a steamed meat bun, and took a train back to Shanghai. We could only get standing tickets, but luckily, I had my handy Expo seat with me, and the train was air conditioned and only lasted about 35 minutes.
We were back in no time, but the sun had gone down in the process, so I decided to go to the Bund. This is an area that overlooks a river and the Shanghai skyline. It was a great view, but filled with way too many sweaty tourists, so I didn’t stay too long before heading back to Sherry’s for an early night’s sleep before returning “home” to Beijing.
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