China Trip Part 1: Shanghai

It’s great to get a new perspective on things, to exit your monotonous daily routine and get a fresh outlook. What better remedy than traveling? As a freshman in high school, I was given the incredible opportunity to journey to China for 12 days. I began in Ohio, and 14 hours later, I was in an unfamiliar world.
The first city my group visited was Shanghai, which will be my main focus in this blog. The first night was essentially a blur; I was so exhausted from the plane I could hardly stomach any food, no matter how new and exciting. The only thing on my mind was sleep.
The second day, however, I was up and running, with no time to catch up on jet lag. We visited Cardinal Health, and American company run in China.
We then ate at our first genuine Chinese restaurant. The thing that surprised me the most was that ‘family style’, used commonly when Americans eat “Chinese” food (which is much different then authentic Chinese cuisine), was actually how Chinese people ate in restaurants. There was a rotating glass table that you could spin to acquire one of the countless dishes on the table. One table had about 8 people seated, so it required teamwork and patience, a lot to ask for from high school freshman, apparently. Many fights broke out when the table was spun before someone was ready; it seemed like an unnecessarily dramatic reality show.

Xitang Water Town was the next place on our itinerary. This was one of my favorite locations; its traditional beauty was unmatched to many of the touristy places of China. Much like Oriental Venice, old Chinese houses lined the river we traveled on by boat. The boat was far from speedboats or ships, it was wooden and hand rowed. Unfortunately, it was rainy and windy that day, so it felt as if the boat was going to tip over any second.

We then were given the chance to go shopping through the town. Street vendors lined the pavement, with no space wasted. This is no exaggeration; some of the pathways were so narrow my umbrella could not fit through.

Being my first time communicating with native Chinese people, I did my best to communicate and bargain with them in Mandarin. I was partially successful, although they still ripped me off I’m sure. However, walking around native Chinese people was when I started to notice lots of staring, whispers, and pictures taken in my direction. This was only the beginning; throughout the trip my friends and I would be asked for countless pictures, or even notice natives taking pictures of us without our permission. My teacher hilariously began taking pictures of those trying to take pictures of us, and created a long photo album. For privacy’s sake, I won’t share it with you, but god knows what they are doing with our pictures.
The last place we visited during our first real day in Shanghai was The Bund. For those who don’t know, The Bund is a magnificent waterfront area that features tall, bright buildings such as (in order of tallest to shortest): Shanghai Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center, and the Oriental Pearl Tower, etc.

However, getting to the Bund was quite terrifying, as the law, usually strictly enforced, seemed to be lacking in the traffic arena. Cars went as fast as they pleased, and the law that protects the pedestrian’s right of way in America flew right over Moped drivers’ heads.

Here are the other parts of my blog:
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4