Adventures in Shanghai

We took another overnight train from Xi’an to Shanghai, which was over 16 hours long!! We had relatively nice places to sleep compared to some others, with 2 bunks in each little room with a small TV. Two of the guys in our group helped me some with learning Chinese. I hope a year from now I will be able to carry on a conversation in Mandarin.




We arrived around noon in Shanghai and had a little bit of free time so we went to a local market. It is kind of fun now to go to these places and bargain the price for things. Sammy and I each got real pearls for less than $2 USD each! It’s been pretty fun, but it’s really annoying when you are walking through the place and every person is motioning you to come in their store or they will take you by the arm to show you their product. That evening we went on a short cruise ship on Huangpu River and looked at the city. I absolutely love it here at night because all the buildings are lit up with lots of different colors!





Well today we met with the other 170 students here from Purdue and went to the World Expo here in Shanghai. The Expo consists of each of the 192 countries pavilions highlighting their own country. Some of the exhibits are really high-tech and popular to go to, which the wait to get in is about 3 hours. So we didn’t end up seeing any of those, but we went to some smaller ones like Peru, Columbia, and one about each of the provinces in China. So today for lunch we had Papa John’s…I almost forgot what American food was like, but it was a nice
break from always having rice and noodles.




Tomorrow we will have another full day in the Expo, so I hope to see some of the bigger ones like the U.S.A., Japan, Italy or even Saudi Arabia. To conclude the day, there was a banquet for all the Purdue and SJTU (university in Shanghai) students.

Adventures in Xi'an

From Beijing we took an overnight train to Xi’an. One of the highlights in Xi’an was visiting the Xi’an City Wall. When we got there we rented bikes and it took a little over an hour to ride around the whole city.




Sammy and I chose the tandem bike, which may seem easier because there are two of us, but we still did the same amount of work believe it or not.


The day and a half we were here we visited The Shaanxi Museum, The Great Mosque, The Big Wild Goose Pagoda and Terra-cotta Army. In 1974, local farmers were drilling a well in search of water when some pottery fragments were discovered.


More than 6,000 terra-cotta Warriors and horses have been found in Pit 1, it is the largest and measures 230 meters long from east to west and 62 meters wide from north to south.



The warriors were really neat to see, but I’m not going to lie…sometimes all this history stuff is not very interesting. So occasionally Sammy and I will wander off and have our own adventures!


Dumplings here are very famous, so we had a dumpling dinner and watched the Tang Dynasty Show.



Xi’an has been all of our favorite city hands down. It’s too bad we were only here for a day and a half.

Let the "study" part begin!

Hello again...it's been a busy past few days. Yesterday we climbed 1,930 steps up to the highest point we could of the Great Wall...yes I did count every one of those steps. LOL. Well of course I was too out of breath going up, so I counted them on the way down. The Great Wall is split up into sections and the part we went up was Badaling. When we reached the top there was another study abroad group from Purdue, so we got a group picture. Even though it was hot and tiring...it was well worth it! I hope everyone has the chance to climb it someday :)






The same day we visited Changling, one of the Ming Tombs where 13 emperors were buried in Ming Dynasty. On our way back to the hotel we drove by where the Beijing 2008 Olympics were held. Some pictures I took was the 'water cube' which is where all the swimming events took place. Also, there was the 'birds nest' where all the track and field events were.


I also got to see some friends from Purdue! They just happened to be in Beijing the same time we were there, so I met up with them for a little bit.



Today we went to the imperial palace, which is also known as the "Forbidden City" that symbolizes the imperial and traditional China. Then we went on to Summer Palace, which was a royal garden and a temporary palace for emperors of Qing Dynasty. We had some time before the show so we got to go shopping at Pearl Market...this was my first chance to bargain with the people. It's amazing how the workers will rip you off if you pay their asking price. We were told that whatever price they give us to reduce it by 1/3 and stick the price. If they ask for more you are just to walk off, and more than likely they will go after you and eventually go down to the price you chose as long as you don't give in. LOL

Besides the Great Wall, the Kungfu Show has been my favorite!!! I wish I could have recorded it. The most impressive thing I thought was these boys and men would do backhand springs, but instead of using the hands as they flip back...they used their heads! Wow...I'm still amazed! After the show we had a Peking Duck dinner.

Well that's it for now. Six hours from now we will be leaving Beijing and going to Tianjin. Tomorrow night we will take an overnight sleeper train to Xi'an where we will stay a couple of days before heading to Shanghai.

And the adventures continue...

Ni hao,

Tuesday morning Liya took Yi and me downtown to the shopping mall and a park. In the park were many older people who would dance, do tai chi which is a slow motion routine and practice calligraphy.

I wish I had pictures to describe the traffic here...all I can say is I have never seen so many cars, people, buses, mopeds, bicycles and so much honking in my life! No one here follows the law and if they want to drive down a one way street or cut some one off they will. The crazy part is no one ever gets a ticket....even when police are flashing their lights, no one lets them through.

That evening we drove to Nanjing where Yi's grandfather lives. It was a great experience getting to stay in their home (which is actually an apartment to us).

Early the next morning we got up early and were out on the street by 6:30am to get breakfast. One of my favorite dishes here are steamed vegetable buns. For breakfast I also love what we would call porridge with a little bit of sugar. All it consists of is white rice that cooks for awhile until its a big mushy. That evening we had dinner with everyone including Yi and her dad Ming, aunt, uncle, cousin and grandfather.

Around midnight last night I got on the train and rode overnight to Beijing. I really didn't know what to expect because I was the only American aboard. Ming made sure I got on with all my luggage and even asked some young men if they would help me get to a taxi when we arrived. I did meet a girl who spoke very little English, so I wasn't completely alone. They were all so kind and even helped carry my bags. The first taxi I got up to to take me to the hotel shook his head and drove off...at this point I started to worry. Then this little old man who knew just a bit of English said he would make sure to get me to the hotel and then would go home from there. He was so kind and insisted to pay for the taxi fee.

Last night I met the rest of our group from Purdue for dinner. Today we will be going to visit a university in Beijing and see the Temple of Heaven.

Zai jian!

Here and already having a GREAT time!

Ni hao!

My flight here was great! I met a girl named Claire at the airport who is a
student at Purdue and she is from Shanghai. While we both had a layover in
Detroit, we had lunch together and spent a few hours talking.




After landing in Shanghai, Yi, her dad Ming, and a couple others were there waiting for me. They even had some Pizza Hut pizza waiting for me and said this will be the last time you have American food while you are here...I laughed!



The last 3 nights we have stayed in a hotel in Jiangyin. Hotels here are a bit
different because instead of there being 2 double beds, there are 2 twin size
beds. Also, to have electricity you must put your room key in a slot on the
wall. Which actually makes it nice because we haven't lost our key yet!

The first full day we went to Suzhou and went to a Garden. It was here a
discover what Yi calls a "sqatty potty"....the picture explains it all! Oh and
you have to bring your own toilet paper and soap everywhere you go because the only places that have it are nice restaurants and hotels that I have seen.




That evening we went out to dinner which was banquet style. The first picture is our appetizers. Most of the food we had was seafood because we are near a river and it was all caught that morning. After eating a certain dish, we were told it is an exotic fish that is poisonous. The chef must carefully take out the poison and then take a bite of it. If after 30 minutes if he is okay, then he can serve it to his guests.






Yesterday we went to Hanzhou. Both Suzhou and Hanzhou are known for there scenery in China. There is a saying that goes "In the sky you have heaven and down on Earth you have Suzhou and Hanzhou."




It was rainy while walking around, but it was still enjoyable. We took a boat around West Lake and there was some older women who saw me and were wanting to take a picture with me but were very shy. Ming overheard them talking in Chinese so he told them I would love to take a picture with them. They were so ecstatic!



We ended the night having dinner with three other families who are friends of Ming (Yi's dad). We met Liya (Leah) and Chen Chen (little girl...who is left-handed!) Liya will be taking us out shopping this morning downtown Jiangyin. Well I'm heading to breakfast now.



Wan an
(goodnight)