Shanghai

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The last days in Harbin went very quick. Of course, I had to learn for my exams and next to that we had to develop a game as a final assignment. In the mean time, I've tried to realize that many of the things I did for the last time and that I would probably never do them again. Although I really had a very nice time in Harbin, I did not feel bad about leaving at all. The last Friday night, a party was planned by two of my classmates, but because our Chinese classmates could not enter our dorm, we decided to just go to a bar. After diner, we picked them up in a KTV (karaoke) and sang some songs.

Because my flight was really early in the morning, I went home quite early in the night. I had to get up at 5 am (after 2 1/2 hours of sleep) and half an hour later, my other classmates just came home from partying. The taxi was quicker than I thought, so I had some spare (boring) time on the airport. Luckily I was able to sleep during almost the whole flight.

I arrived around 11 am on Pudong airport. From there I - of course - took the Maglev train to the city. The speed of the train at the time slot when I arrived is unfortunately not the maximum of 430 km/h, but only 300 km/h. But it was fun anyway. The route from there to my hostel went very nice and quick. The metro station were I had to depart is so big that it took me 9 minutes from the train to see sun light again. The hostel I've stayed in was located very nice.

I spend the day walking around and wondering about the looks of Shanghai. I don't know why, but what I expected from Beijing I found in Shanghai and what I expected in Shanghai I found in Beijing. There are much more older, lower buildings than I thought. The atmosphere is really good and much more friendly than in Beijing. The funny part about the comparison between the two cities is that it really depends on the person. I've met a lot of people who didn't like Shanghai, but I think I've even met more people that didn't like Beijing. I definitely belong to the second group!

I went to the Shanghai Art Gallery in People's Park, which was a really funny exhibition. After all the walking around the first day, I slept for a couple of hours. Around midnight, one of my classmates joined me (he had decided the day before that he also would go to Shanghai) and we went to a club. It was really nice to hear a good DJ again! After a good night of sleep, we went the next day to the fake clothes market and bought some stuff for almost nothing. Just walking around was really tiring and therefore I decided not to go out again that night.

The next morning, I had to get up early, because I was going to learn how to make sticky rice filled shu mai during my dumpling cooking class. It was really nice to do and with some practice and some experimentation, perhaps a cook book with the description how to make the different shapes, I think I will be able to cook some dumplings now! Unfortunately my camera was out of battery (I actually thought that it was broken) so I couldn't make any pictures. The building the class was in was really beautiful. It was a kind of art place with a lot of different large rooms where there was art everywhere and people working.

The rest of the day I've been to Pudong to look over the river, the Bund. In the beginning of the evening, I went back to the hostel and went to my next destination. I realized that I didn't do any of the touristy things in Shanghai, but still had a great time. At least I will have a big reason to return to Shanghai!

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