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Published: October 7th 2007
Train Station
Soooo many people travel by train it was impossible to even move through this huge waiting area.We have just returned from our week long vacation in Shanghai. Three years ago we had the opportunity to have a one day visit in Shanghai on Asian term. Unfortunately this was the day of the US Presidential election where Bush was reelected. Our advisor, Norm, had a radio tuned in all day on the bus and we arrived in Shanghai only to glance at the surroundings and return to the radio in hopes that Bush was not President again. You can imagine how upsetting it was to hear he'd won so the trip to this magnificent city was tainted. So the seven of us decided, despite the warnings from students, to travel to Shanghai for this week vacation. We took an overnight train from Wuhan to Shanghai. The train departed at 9:50pm and arrived at 8am in Shanghai. It was a great way to travel however I couldnt sleep. It could have been nerves because I was sleeping on the second of three beds, it could have been the smoke, it could have been excitement. Either way we arrived soon enough and made our way through the packed subway to our hostel. We had a great hostel in the area
Train
This was Laura and my train compartment. There were three beds on each side. by the french concession of Shanghai. The hostel was 55 US dollars for six nights. The five of us girls had a dorm type room. There was a nice common area with computer access and a living room with movies. The front desk workers were a great help securing tickets to return home, giving us directions, writing addresses in chinese, and suggesting helpful travel tips.
I should give you some background about Shanghai. Shanghai was given to the East India trading company as a treaty port after the first opium war. Shanghai is a great trading city due to its geography around the mouth of the Yangtse river. The British arrived in late 1800s followed soon by the French and each nation created concessions in this rapidly developing city. Mao and the CCP had the first senate meeting of the CCP in Shanghai. This city has a diverse history and it very modern in comparison to most major cities in China due to its occupation by many western powers. The area of downtown shanghai is split into two sections; the bund and the pudong. The Bund was built by the British and the architecture reflects their occupation. The bund is
Our Hostel
Le Tour de Shanghai separated from the pudong by the HuangPu river. The Pudong is the most modern area with some of the tallest buildings in Asia. The Jin Mao tower is the tallest in Shanghai with 90some stories.
Ok so with that said, our first day in Shanghai was spent finding the TGI Fridays. We really didnt want to have to resort to this however we have all been so sick we just wanted some filling food that our stomachs may recognize. We walked into a restaurant almost empty, minus the 10 Americans and our group. We ate the huge portions and of course we all sick afterward. We spent the rest of the evening walking around the area of the french concession. It was very well kept, the sidewalks were even, the streets were clean. At times we had to remind one another that we were in China. Most all of the signs were written in Chinese and english, which of course was comforting. We then stumbled upon the bar district and searched for Oktoberfest. We found this Munchen bar that had real German beer.
The next day we decided to wonder through the French concession some more. We found that it
Our Hostel
Le Tour de Shanghai was shopping week. There were so many street sales and some of the most expensive western stores. It was swarming with westerners. We passed a Papa Johns and thought we needed some pizza so of course we ate there. It was one of the most fancy pizza places we'd ever seen. We spent the evening wandering around the downtown area toward the Bund. It was then we found the crowded pedestrian street, East Nanjing Rd. This area of mass chaos was sensory overload. Most buildings in all Chinese cities are filled with neon travelling lights but this was more than neon lights. Even the short buildings had lights and lasers and tons of visual stimuli. We moved like cattle with the rest of the Chinese population through this street. We were approached every few feet by people offering to sell us DVD, Bags, Shoes, Watches. I hate the westerners who started buying these things because now the chinese people think all westerners want to buy this. So many times we wanted to yell at people "we're not tourists, we live in China" But it wouldn't have done us any good. We made our way closer to the river and saw
the amazing scenery of the Pudong. Along the way were many individuals selling blow up hammers, bats, crowns, headbands, devil horns and so much more. Alexes and I found a set of fairy wings, headband, and wand and thought "Halloween Costume". So we pranced around the packed street with our wings and wands. This gave the Chinese more of a reason to stare. It made me feel better than when they stare at us without wings on just cause we are americans.
The next morning we rose early and made our way to the Shanghai museum. This museum has lots of historical exhibits and art and minority exhibits. One of the most fascinating areas for me was the bronze area. Chinese used bronze for many ritual ceremonies to contain and serve food or wine. There was also a great exhibit on Porcelein and the ways that China has used porcelein throughout history. My most favorite section was the exhibit dedicated to the 55 minority groups in China. Each area has been taken by "Eastern Expansion" including the western area of Tibet. Many of these groups still try to keep their heritage much to the Han Chinese, majority groups, dismay. This
exhibit had clothing, metal works, ritual masks and boats from most of the minority heritage. It was a great reminder that there is a diverse population within this country too, despite what us westerners see.
We also travelled to the very popular Yu Yuan Gardens. The garden is surrounded by this huge shopping bazaar with food, clothing, souvenir shops. Once we made our way through this maze of people and shops we found the gardens themselves. The Gardens were built in the Ming Dynasty to recreate the rockery of the peaks and caves and gorges of Southern China. The gardens are arranged to make it feel as though the small area in the middle of the city is larger through the use of maze like walls. The first hour was peaceful and empty and then the swarms of tourist groups infiltrated our serene garden. We decided soon after to make our way out. Although some groups were speaking English and we learned some facts it was just too much chaos to enjoy the peace and quiet needed to enjoy a place such as this. We then exited into the bazaar again with about 100000 Chinese and Western tourists. It was
almost enough for me to scream. I was calmed when I saw the puppet theater on the side of the main drag. I pulled Cori and Sarah and Nick with me and we enjoyed a traditional Chinese art. We then moved toward the City of God temple in the Bazaar and saw some of the most touristy places of worship. I feel bad walking through the crowds of tourists past people who came to honor the Buddha and pray to those gods who will protect them. However in speaking to my students and other people we meet they are fascinated with the religious practice of spirituality in America. From most of the students they seem to think that Buddhism is dead. So many of my students say that they dont know anyone who is a practicing Buddhist. This gave me more perspective and helped me not to feel so bad touring this place of worship, it was still strange however.
Our continued quest for western food came to its climax when we decided to dine at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai. This hotel is located in the Jin Mao tower, which I previously mentioned as the tallest building in Shanghai. We
arrived at our restaurant on the 56th floor. This was our first trip to the Pudong and it was great to see the city from the other side. The view was unbelievable. We had a front row seat for the nightly laser show and I even caught the end of some fireworks. We had a great view of every building and the river. We decided that we needed to splurge, we were on vacation. We took our time eating our steak dinners and enjoying our drinks and dessert. 555 Yuan later, 75 US dollars, we decided that it was worth it and we moved on to enjoy more of the city. The lighting in the restaurant made it difficult to capture the beauty of the city from a camera but I know I'll never forget that night or the view we enjoyed so i dont need a camera to retell it to me.
The last full day of fun we decided to see the Jade Buddha temple. This temple was built to house two Jade buddha statues given to the Song Emperor from Myanmar, Burma as it was known at the time. The many temples within the main gates house
Subway
We were lucky to have subway to take us through the city
the reclining buddha, the happy buddha(his tummy is said to bring luck to your family if rubbed, i did so family i hope you have good luck), and the largest buddha carved out of a single slab of Jade. This temple was more relaxed and less crowded than the City of God temple in the Yu Yuan. We had the opportunity to see many carving of different representations of the Buddha and we saw many monk rituals. This temple was surrounded by the smoke of the incense bought and burned by visitors to pay homage to the gods/Buddha as well as to cure illness for themselves or family members.
We left friday afternoon for a flight back to Wuhan, all the trains were booked and tickets can only be purchased 5 days in advance so we missed it, it was like buying concert tickets. We took the subway to the MagLev station. The MagLev is a train of Magnetic Levetation. The trip was 7 minutes and the speed equalled 211MPH. It was unbelievable. I felt like I was in a NASCAR. We made turns without slowing and I assume it was flying through the air at that speed. I tried
to take a picture but the speed was so fast I only captured a blur. It was so impressive, and kinda scary. After a 1.5 hour flight we took an hour cab ride home. This week was great. We had fun with each other and fun exploring an area that is so drastically different from Wuhan. Wuhan is a huge city, even larger than shanghai, however it has only recently developed and the result is huge factory and industry in this city. The air quality is much better in Shanghai and the building development forced by the west as a symbol of international power has really made Shanghai a western port. Along the Pudong, the more modern business district, there is a branch of Abbott. This city continues to be a western bragging area. We were lucky to work one month then have a week off but now we must go back to the joys of teaching. 😊
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