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Background: For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.

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By 2metersplus
October 11th 2009

Holiday in Shanghai Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

Shanghai New and Old

The chinese national holiday is October 1st. You may have seen the impressive parade in Beijing. I saw it on TV. The next day October 2nd we boarded the plane for Shanghai to start a week holiday. I will never complain about a plane flight again. To begin with the airplane seats are closer together, some of you may be wondering if this is possible. Trust me it is. My knee was jammed into the back of the seat in front of me for the whole trip. Has anyone ever watched the home shopping network? How about for an hour straight? [View Full Entry]

By Mcsmigly
May 30th 2009

Alumni Reception Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

Cool statue outside an art exhibit

The first GT Alumni Reception (gathering/meeting) ever in China was held today and any interested SSP students (from the LBAT students to the Graduate dual major students) could attend as long as they RSVP'd. I, expecting free food, of course decided to attend and it was well worth it! I chose this over doing Nanjing right after our Suzhou day trip. It was held in the "Two Cities Gallery" at the M50 Art District, a pretty explore-worthy looking place. Though I don't remember exactly how to get there...we just took a taxi, the subway's a bit far from the stop. The [View Full Entry]

By Mcsmigly
May 28th 2009

Dragonboat Festival! Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

The Entrance to the main viewing area

Dragonboat Festival was today! That means Dragonboat Races (as long as I found the location) and getting to eat with and share a cultural experience with a local family! The only source I could find said that there would be a dragonboat race and festival around 1pm near Zhongtan Subway Station...however I have to get back by 3:10pm to not be late meeting up with our volunteer student host who will take her to her house. I took Line 1 to People's Square and then hopped on Line 3 at the exchange (where my ticket worked, pay attention) and had [View Full Entry]

By Mcsmigly
May 27th 2009

Shanghai Railway Station Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

Man...I really need to start trusting my own instincts more, and the guards here. Ted and I left for the South Railway Station with the desire to buy two tickets round trip for a one day excursion on Friday to Suzhou. We took the the metro, got there and found the station after only 5-10 minutes of walking, then called Ethan and Sam who were supposedly already there, but were actually in the subway station still. Therefore, when we couldn't see them we decided we were in the wrong place and then spent about an hour trying to find a different [View Full Entry]

By Brandon and Betty
May 11th 2009

Shanghai, Shaolin & Xi'an Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

Shanghai

We flew into Shanghai from Chengdu, only a few hours flight, but what made this journey unique was that after our flight we boarded the MagLev Train; a magnetic levitation train that is the fastest in the world. It’s top speed is 430 kmph, but since we were traveling in the middle of the day it only could go 300. The trip only took eight minutes! Our hotel was located right on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, which is the city’s most famous and crowded, shopping street, so we used our first day to explore and become familiar with the area since [View Full Entry]

By aimsey and roelie
May 7th 2009

Pingyao: Raise the Red Lanterns! Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

When in Rome!

Hi all, Well, it was May Day…and the Chinese Government’s cutting of the traditional one-week holiday into long weekends posed a dilemma: what to do for only May 1-3? Then colleagues returning from a weekend getaway showed us their pictures of Pingyao--a walled city from the Ming and Qing Dynasty eras--and their enthusiasm for this so-called “China’s hidden gem” was intriguing. The truth of that phrase was immediately apparent, when in response to queries for more info most responses were, like, Pingyao? Huh? Even our bible, the Lonely Planet (herewith refer [View Full Entry]

By Chucker
April 11th 2009

Party Night In Shanghai Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

What an unexpected surprise! We went from one western bar to another in Shanghai, and to be honest, we weren't really impressed. We had a great time. Gus was pretty loaded. But then we met some really nice Chinese guys partying. I guess they could tell we were tourists, and we begged them to take us somewhere a little more China. We ended up at a bar in the middle of nowhere. It was packed. The name of the bar was "Bar". Haha.. I'm not joking. There was probably about 100 people in the place. Maybe two or three white guys, [View Full Entry]

By chinasojourn
February 7th 2009

Spring Festival Tour Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

Hiking on the Wall

Have been savouring the spring festival holiday: home on Jan. 9th, visit with family and friends, off to Black Mountain, and finally back to Shenzhen for the start of a 3 city tour of China. Jerry and I first went to Shanghai, billed as China's most liveable city, then Beijing, hiked 10 km on the wall :), and lastly Xi'an and the terracotta warriors. Shanghai is a wonderful blend of old and modern, surreal architecture juxtaposed against the old, classy buildings on the Bund. Our hotel was a restored 80 year old building which, like Shanghai, blended the old with the [View Full Entry]

By aimsey and roelie
November 1st 2008

Waiting for the yin's return... Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

Passing time at

Hey all, Well, as the title suggests...it's been very yangy around here of late. But then after living here for over a year now, you'd think we'd be used to that. However, after a succession of yang (bad?) happenings: losing our internet, getting locked out of our apartment, and then discovering Roel's bike was stolen -- we were hoping for the yin (good stuff?) to reappear, because after all bad things come in three's we thought...but we guess that's a western truth, unknown to the eastern gods, since the yang, yin, or whatever you want to call it, keeps coming. For [View Full Entry]

By TomandLucy
October 21st 2008

Bundy Beers Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An

At Shanghai Train Station

67 days after beers in the Black Lion we arrived in Shanghai on a warm afternoon and were met by the friendly faces of Helen and Orlando at the chaos of Shanghai railway station. Before we knew it we had dropped off our bags and were enjoying cold Tsing Tao and fresh sandwiches(without the usual chinese sweet bread) looking out over sunset from about the 15th floor! Afterwards we regailed travelling stories around Shanghai's buzzing bar scene, which included some rather bizarre serbian music and dancing in a French Concession bar. The next day feeling rather hungover, we relaxed around Jin [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An