Update from Shanghai

06/23/08

2008-06-23T19:33:00.003+08:00

So I just got back from traveling with my brother Jon. It was really good to see him again, and we had a really good time. I was planning on posting pictures, and writing something really long. Then I found out that my Stat final is on Wednesday instead of Friday. So I'll give you the short version, and then hit the books: First we spent three days seeing the sights in Shanghai. Then we took an overnight train to Beijing, where we spent another three days. After that, we took yet another overnight train to Xi'an, where we spent (you guessed it) another three days. Finally, we flew back to Shanghai for a day and a half, and Jon left today (Monday).

Here's the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites that we saw: the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, and last but not least the Terra-cotta Warriors. All of that with a few more museums and such squeezed in between. Not bad for a ten day excursion.

I know it's a poor excuse for a blog post, but I'll be home two weeks from thursday. And I'd be happy to show you my pictures after that.

06/12/2008

2008-06-12T11:27:00.002+08:00

So, here's the news:

Right now my brother is on a plane and on his way here to visit me. So I'm pretty excited about that. If all goes according to plan, we'll be spending three days each in Shanghai, Beijing, and Xi'an. Should be fun.

I spent this past weekend in Nanjing. Good times.

Four weeks from today I'll be home. Hard to believe.

That's all I've got for now.

5/12/2008

2008-05-12T11:07:00.002+08:00

Here's a recap of the past month:

I did travel anywhere after Beijing.

School kept me really busy.

I started a new class three weeks ago.

I had two finals last week.

So, not much excitement. But now that the first set of classes are finished, I can try to do some more tourism.

Beijing

2008-04-08T19:41:00.040+08:00

"You are not a real man if you haven't climbed the Great Wall"

-Mao Zedong

So as you can guess from the title, I just got back from a weekend in Beijing. Here's what happened:

Thursday, April 4th:

We left for the train station at around 7:30 a.m., and left the station at 10:30.

The train ride to Beijing was 10 hours long, but the train was nice so it wasn't too bad.

When we arrived, we checked into the hostel and got some food near the station.

Friday, April 5th:

We hired a driver and left for the Simatai Great Wall at around 8:00 a.m. Beijing has three areas of the Great Wall that are set up for tourists. Simatai is the most strenuous, and apparently also the least crowded. It took us two hours to get there, but it was definitely worth the long drive.

This is the Simatai section of the Great Wall seen from the parking lot.

The first step of the hike up the Great Wall is taking the path they made to get from the parking lot to the wall itself. The wall you can see in this picture isn't the wall, it's just the way they decorated the tourist path to make it fit the theme.

This is the view from the lowest tower in the Simatai area. If you look closely you can see the path we took up to the wall about half way up on the right side of the picture. We went down to the lowest tower so we could get a better look at the river, and the wall on the other side. After taking pictures and admiring the scenery, we turned around, climbed back up all those steps and kept walking uphill past the entrance.

Here you can see the view from the third tower. It's the one in the upper right-hand corner of the previous picture. One of the things I didn't really think about when I decided to go to the Great Wall was the amount of steps involved. I knew it went through some hills, but I didn't really think about what that meant. Well, as you can see, there are a lot of steps and they're really steep in some sections.

Here's the view from about half way up. At this point we started to get a feel for how big the wall really is.

When we reached the last tower, the way was roped off because the path was too dangerous. So, we had to turn around and hike all the way back down.

On the way back we got stuck in a traffic jam because of an accident. If you look closely, you'll notice that the left lane has cars facing both directions. Yep, that's China. So we turned around and went to a little restaurant by the side of the road to wait for the highway to clear. The food was good, including the fish that they took out of a pond with a net, and killed by throwing it on the ground several times. In the end, the two hour drive took us about five. But I did get a nice nap, so it wasn't so bad.

In the evening we went to Wanfujing, which is a famous street in Beijing that has a lot of stores, and street vendors selling exotic food.

Saturday, April 6th:

We started the day off by driving past the "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium. It was really hard to see because there was a lot of fog, but we passed by it a few times and I managed to get a good look at it.

After that, we went to the Summer Palace. It was really crowded because of the holiday weekend, and it seemed like every time I wanted to take a picture of something, some old lady would pose for a picture in front of it. But aside from all that, it was still impressive.

The palace is built on a hill next to a big lake, and is pretty much one big garden with some buildings for the emperor to live in.

I think the most amazing part was the detail in the paintings on the buildings.

After spending a few hours at the Summer Palace, we went to a river valley about two hours away from the city. After realizing that there wasn't anything very fun to do in the town, we crossed the river and hiked a trail that runs up along the cliff face. The view was good, and we got to see mountain goats in their natural habitat.

Finally, we returned to Beijing and had some Beijing Kaoya (Roast Duck). It was good, but not really better than any other duck I've had.

Sunday, April 7th:

We started by going to the forbidden city.

Where should I start? The name Forbidden "City" isn't an exaggeration. The place is huge. I've heard people who have been to the Louvre say it's so big that after while you get tired of seeing paintings, no matter how good they are. I think you can get "Louvre Syndrome" in the Forbidden City. There are so many amazing buildings, with so much intricate detail in the architecture and decoration, that after a while each new building is "just another building."

But it's still impressive (I feel like I've used that word a lot, but I can't come up with a better one).

I took a lot of pictures, and I don't really know how best to describe the city here.

There are a lot of courtyards and small back alleys, and there's also a big garden inside.

If you want to hear more about it, call me when I get back and we can sit down and go through all the pictures.

Next, we went to the "Temple of Heaven." This one was painted in a style similar to the Summer Palace, but the thing that makes it unique is that it's circular. I've seen a lot of temples and pagodas since coming to China, but they've all been square or octagonal, except for this one.

Finally, we ended the trip by going to the "Lama Temple." Apparently it's one of the top ten temples in China. I don't know how they rank them, but it did have nice buildings. Although I have to admit that since it was my third set of ancient Chinese buildings in one day, I wasn't as impressed as I could have been. And I don't like the smell of incense.

On Sunday night, we took a sleeper train back to Shanghai and arrived at 7:30 a.m.

So over all, it was a good weekend. And it was about time for me to go to one of the more well known spots in China.

04/01/2008

2008-04-01T21:17:00.003+08:00

I know I haven't posted in a while, but you're not missing much. Classes have been keeping me busy, and something has come up every weekend to keep me from travelling anywhere. But this weekend that's all about to change. They're changing the holiday calendar here in China this year. So instead of giving us a whole week off in May, they're giving us several shorter holidays. This Friday is the first one. So since none of us have class on Thursday either, we'll be leaving in the morning to spend 3 days in Beijing. It's nice to finally be planning a trip to one of those places that everybody's going to ask me about when I mention I've been to China. I'll post pictures when I get back.

In other news: I'm not sure if it's just because of the Olympics or if there's some other reason, but over the last week a lot of websites have been "unblocked" in China. A few examples are: Wikipedia, BBC News, and Blogspot. So that means that I don't have to be tricky about my comment reading anymore.

Two Weeks Later

2008-03-11T18:46:00.004+08:00

If anybody's wondering why I've gone so long without posting anything, here's my answer:

The yellow pencil is new (obviously). I started the blue one on Wednesday night of last week, and this picture was taken the next night at 2 a.m. (So that's an indirect way of saying I've been a little busy.)

But now it's probably about time for me to update this thing, so here we go:

As I said in the last post, I started class two weeks ago. Right now I'm taking 4 classes: Automatic Control, Aerodynamics, Intro to Engineering Materials, Global Design Project.

Automatic Control: I had a lot of catching up to do in this class. The prerequisite that I took for this class didn't cover everything that was covered in the Chinese prerequisite class. So I had to a little over a week to catch up on 5 chapters that they were reviewing at the beginning of the class. I'm caught up now, but the class is kind of boring.

Aerodynamics: I didn't have as much catching up to do in this class. They use the same book that I used for Fluid Mechanics and would be using for Aerodynamics at Purdue, and they covered the same material. But I did have to finish 4 homework assignments in a week. The best thing about this class is that the professor's English is good enough that he can do more than just read the lecture slides.

Intro to Engineering Materials: So far it's been really easy, but most of the people taking it here are freshmen, so they don't understand much and it makes the pace really slow.

Global Design Project: We're doing a design project with the Chinese students who'll be going to Purdue next semester. So here's what it is: we're designing a toy robotic crab. So as an Aero, the actual project has nothing to do with anything. But it'll be a good opportunity to get some experience in teamwork and the design process. And let's face it, if we pull it off it'll be pretty cool.

So that's the rundown of my classes. I've found out that it's easier to get around the city from here than I thought, but classes have been keeping me pretty busy.

And I almost forgot to mention that I've started taking Chinese classes twice a week. I figure it's kind of pathetic to live in China for six months and not learn any Chinese, so I'm giving that a shot.

Class

2008-02-25T23:59:00.004+08:00

I started class today, and I have to admit: it was nice to finally have something that I was required to do. I only had one class, and it was the one that they said would definitely not be taught in English. Well, surprise surprise, the professor took one look at me, and started teaching in English with an occasional lapse back into Chinese. So even though I probably could have made it since the slides and the book are both in English, I'm pretty happy about how things turned out. Now if the sight of four people who can't speak Chinese can get them to teach MT004 in English (that's MSE230 for anybody from Purdue) I should be set.

In other news, I finally found a sneaky way to read my comments.

Moving Time Part II

2008-02-23T15:02:00.004+08:00

As you can probably guess from the title, I moved again. It happened on Thursday. I checked out of Tao Li Yuan, pulled my two suitcases containing everything I own in China to the curb and hailed a taxi to take me to Minhang campus. When I arrived, I checked in and carried my luggage up four flights of stairs to my room. My roommate seems like a nice guy. And in case you were wondering, he's from Texas. The room's not bad, but I'm pretty sure I like the Xuhui dorm better. The kitchens and the furniture are nicer here, but the bathrooms aren't as nice and there's no elevator. I think I'm going to miss Xuhui's amazing downtown location, but I'm really glad to finally have something to do.

Minhang campus is huge. The buildings aren't as closely packed as Purdue's, but I think if they were, this campus would still be bigger. I think I'm going to invest in a bike. That's partly because I don't want to walk so far, and also because I almost get run over by bikes everywhere I go (sounds a bit like Purdue... *grumbles and shakes his fist*). Apparently they're really cheap. Somebody told me I can get a new bike for 200-300 RMB, which is about $28-42, and I can sell it when I leave. Oh, and for anybody who's lived in Buenos Aires (or France I guess) there's an Auchan about five blocks from campus. It's not as nice as the one in BA, and it's pretty much just the supermarket part, but it'll fill the empty spot left by Wal-mart.

There's a bit of confusion as to whether the classes that were supposed to be taught in English will actually be in English or not. I know for a fact that my Aerodynamics class will be because I met the professor, but I don't know about the rest. So I guess I'll find out on Monday.

On a completely different note, I found out yesterday that there's a link to this blog on the official GEARE website. So if any future GEARE students have been reading this, I hope I haven't been discouraging you too much.

02/18/2008

2008-02-18T13:02:00.005+08:00

Here's the news:

I finally got official confirmation today that the semester starts... today. So they want us to move to the other campus by friday. I don't know what the deal is with research, but there's not much point now since I'm moving soon anyway. It also looks like my semester's done on July 4th which is sooner than I expected. I hope the earlier date means I can get a cheaper return ticket.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Edit:

It's amazing how little things can make life seem so much better. Earlier this afternoon, I went out for about an hour. When I came back, they had cleaned my room. I assume they're getting it ready for somebody else to move in. But not only that, they fixed my bathroom. It used to be that half the time the shower and sink were just a trickle. But now the whole bathroom has full water pressure. I feel like I just took my first shower since coming here. And they fixed the lights above the beds which haven't worked at all since I first moved in. All that combined with the fact that I finally have a definite schedule is making me feel pretty good about today.

But I'm not looking forward to packing up my stuff and moving across the city.

恭喜恭喜！

2008-02-15T11:08:00.002+08:00

As promised, (and after technical difficulties with blogger) here is a longer update:

Just after the last post I went to a cell group meeting for the church I've been going to. The people were very friendly, and I ended up spending the rest of the day and evening with them. We went to eat, and then I went with some people to watch some British soccer at a Singaporean bar. I don't follow European soccer, but it was fun to watch anyway. The best part was when Manchester was down 1-0 in the second half, and they had gone over the stopage time but the ref was allowing one last corner kick. And Tevez scored on that play to tie up the game. I don't particularly care for Manchester, but I was happy to see an Argentine player make an amazing shot at the last minute.

That night, I started to feel a little bit sore in my throat and by the next morning I was feeling very sick. The bad cold lasted for 3 days and I ended up skipping church and cancelling two of my tutoring sessions. Then by Wednesday I was feeling good enough to go outside again, so we went to the Shanghai Museum. The museum is an exibit of aincient Chinese art. It was fun, but you can only look at so many bronze wine vessels and stone buddhas in one day, so we only made it through half of the exhibits. Here's one I liked:

Then on Thursday, one of the Chinese students who will be coming to Purdue next semester came out and took us around to some other parts of the city. First, he took us to a temple where people pray and play little games for good luck in the new year. I noticed that all of the games involved throwing money in or at something... I'll bet the priests just love it when new year comes around.

This one involved trying to land a coin inside that big metal thing:

Then he took us to that shopping area that looks like an ancient temple (I don't remember the name of it). It was the third time I'd been there, but it was a lot better with a local who knew what was worth buying there, and what wasn't. In the end I didn't buy anything, but I got a better idea of what's available. Then we came back and went to eat some Shanghainese food. It was good, but very spicy. While we were eating, he recomended that we go visit a nearby city called Hangzhou during the weekend.

So on Friday, we planned the trip and then went to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. It was a pretty impressive aquarium, but I wasn't surprised since Shanghai is right next to the ocean. The best part was this long glass tunnel that went through several tanks. You could see sharks and turtles and a bunch of fish swim over and around you while you walked through.

On Saturday, we left at around eight to go to the airport so we could get a bus to Hangzhou. Now for anybody who's been to Shanghai, I'm sure there's a way better and cheaper way to get the Hangzhou, but we didn't start planning until the day before. So the easiest way that we found was to go to the airport and get a bus from there. Once we got on the bus it took about three hours to get there.

Hangzhou is a smaller city that is located next to a large lake. The lake is surrounded by Chinese gardens and pagodas. So it's really scenic (for lack of a better word). And af course I went nuts and took over 200 pictures. If you want to see them all you'll have to come talk to me when I get back.

We spent Saturday afternoon and evening walking around the north side of the lake and taking pictures, and then went to a hostel that was pretty close by. The place was nicer than I expected, and my only complaint was that the heater didn't work very well and it was freezing cold.

On Sunday morning, we took the causeway that goes right down the middle of the lake, and went to the south side. There they have this big pagoda on a hill that overlooks the lake. Honestly I was kind of dissapointed with it. It would have been cool if it was older, but the original pagoda was destroyed by Japanese pirates several hundred years ago. The new pagoda was built in 2001-2002 and is way too modern. It has elevators going up the middle, and you can see the steel beams in the walls... The view was nice though:

After that, we took the bus back to Pudong (where the airport is) and then back to Xujiahui (where the campus is). And that's the extent of my Chinese New Year celebrations.

Just a Quickie

2008-02-11T21:19:00.000+08:00

I know it's been a while, but I am still alive. Chinese New Year has been fun, and a longer post with pictures is coming soon.

02/02/08

2008-02-02T12:26:00.000+08:00

Here's the scoop: I got a call yesterday to check if I still wanted to do research after the break. Of course I said yes. Then in the same call I found out that the university has been working even though it didn't seem like it to me. They found somebody to tutor me for the next two weeks, and we had our first "class" today. It was nice to finally be able to ask somebody about all the practical words (mosty food related) that they never taught us in Chinese class. Now I have a lot of words to study, but they're words I'll probably use on a daily basis.

No News is Not Necessarily Good News, Part II

2008-01-28T13:08:00.000+08:00

As the title suggests, the fact that I haven't posted anything since Wednesday does not mean that I've been too busy with my research job here at the university to post anything. The real story is that I went to the meeting and the prof. that I met with seemed to think we could work something out. But there's just one problem: they didn't just start their semester two weeks ago, instead they just finished it. So he said that it wouldn't be worth starting on anything until after the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), because nobody works during the festival. Well, the break for Spring Festival ends in mid February. So that means that I'm going to have to keep twiddling my thumbs for the next three weeks. And before anybody says: "You're in China! There should be all kinds of things to do!" I'll remind you that everybody I know is either working, or went home for the break. So the plan now is to find somebody to tutor me in Chinese while I wait to start my research (if I ever do start my research). But I don't know if anybody will want to start tutoring before the end of the festival, and that gives me the same problem I had before... So Phil 4:6 has become the verse of the month.

SCF was good yesterday. I tried to go to one of their cell groups on Saturday, but I took a wrong turn and it was too cold for me to try to figure out where I had gone wrong. When I got back and looked at a map, I realized that I had been on the right road but was headed in the wrong direction. So I'm going to try again next Saturday.

And speaking of the cold, it snowed all weekend and is still snowing today. They tell me that it's been 4 years since the last time it snowed in Shanghai. It's really been a rain/snow mix, and it didn't really stick much until today. Right now, there's a little bit of it sticking on the roads and the grass is covered in it. Now there's something I really didn't expect to see around here.

Here's the view from my window:

Progress

2008-01-23T14:20:00.001+08:00

My meeting is scheduled for tomorrow at 2.

Dumplings!

2008-01-20T18:31:00.000+08:00

On Saturday we went to the most famous dumpling place in Shanghai (or at least that's what I heard): Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant.

Here are some pictures of the feast:

We started off with some Chinese tea.

Next, they brought out some "Shrimp Balls with Crab Roe Soup."

Don't ask me what "Crab Roe" is because I have no idea, but they were good. the stuff you see on the outside is some kind of fried dough. On the inside there was a hollow shrimp ball filled with soup.

Then came the dumplings.

The ones in the front were filled with shrimp, and the ones in the back were filled with pork. And both kinds also had soup that we had to suck out before eating the rest of it.

And to top it off, we ordered bigger dumplings.

These didn't really have a solid filling on the inside. They were filled with soup and little bits of meat and vegetables that were small enough to fit through the straws.

After all of that, they brought out some watermelon slices (though I didn't take any pictures of those).

So here's what my place at the table looked like before the meal:

And here's what it looked like after I was finished:

We got some funny pictures showing how to eat everything, but I didn't take any of them, so I can't post them right now.

* * * * *

No news on the research job yet.

01/16/2008

2008-01-16T17:35:00.000+08:00

Well, at the last minute things fell apart with Cat. So, I'm going to meet with a professor tomorrow or Friday to see about doing research at the university. Honestly, the internship was a bit of a stretch anyway. None of the work they offered was related to my area at all. I just wanted something to work out. So I think doing research will be a better use of my time. I'll be meeting with a professor tomorrow or Friday to figure something out. I'll post more news when I get it.

01/14/2008

2008-01-14T14:31:00.000+08:00

First of all, thanks to Kim for your suggestion. I can now see the the finished product, though I still can't see my comments. I can also access wikipedia, and several other sites that were blocked before.

Here's the update on the job: I called them today to ask about the list of jobs that they sent me. They explained what they were, and then told me that they would be having meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss intern things, and that I wouldn't be able to start until Thursday. So now I have to decide which job from the list will be the best one for me to take, and get back to them before then.

Yesterday I went to Shanghai Christian Fellowship, a church not too far from campus. I'm glad to say that it looks like it's going to work for me. I was afraid that it would be some state-sponsored, vague, good for nothing church, but I was pleasantly surprised. They were very clear about what they believe and seemed to be on track about everything. I was also surprised by the amount of ethnic groups represented. There were people there from all over the world. It almost felt like a preview of that passage in Revelation (sorry Dad, I don't remember the exact reference) where people from every tribe, people, tongue and nation are together before the throne of God. So all that to say that I look forward to going back next week.

And now for something completely different: We were this close (you can't see it, but I'm holding my thumb and index finger really close together) to booking a 6 day tour of Tibet for Chinese new year. But it turned out to be really expensive. So that's disappointing.

News

2008-01-11T16:59:00.001+08:00

As promised, here's more news: I ended up emailing my contact with the university to try to get a number so that I could call Cat. I guess she must have contacted them directly because I just got an email from her telling me that my internship is approved, and giving me the list of jobs that I was promised. Unfortunately, there's no description with the jobs, so I really don't know what most of them mean. I haven't been able to call them back, but it's a step in the right direction.

No News is Not Necessarily Good News

2008-01-11T12:40:00.001+08:00

Thanks to everybody who commented, and to Elizabeth for forwarding them to me.

Tyler: I tried to make the font size bigger so I hope that makes it easier to read.

This is just a quick update about the job situation:

As I said last time, they're supposed to call me this week with some job options. So I waited all day yesterday, and all I got was a missed call at around 12:15, because my phone didn't vibrate when the call was coming in, but it did vibrate to tell me that I'd missed the call. Grrr. So I waited for them to call me back, and when they didn't, I tried to call them. But every time I called I either got a busy signal or a message in Chinese that was too advanced for me to understand. So I've tried a few times today and still haven't been able to get through. The worst part is that I don't even know if it was Cat that called me. I just can't think of anybody else who would have called me.

So I have another day with nothing to do. But I did find a coffee place not far from campus that has high-speed wireless internet (which means it's as fast as high-speed internet is on a slow day back in the States, but it's better than in my dorm). I've been missing coffee, so even though they put too much milk in it, the capuccino hit the spot. There's also a bookstore three floors up the sells books in English, so I'm set for a while.

That's all I have to report right now, so I'll post with more news when I get it.

One and a Half Bits of Good News

2008-01-09T19:05:00.000+08:00

Today I woke up at 8:30, and headed out at around 9:15 to meet the Chinese student who was going to help me get to my interview with Cat. We took a taxi, and got there really early. So we sat in the break room and waited. A little while later I was taken to a conference room where I was interviewed by a manager who basically told me that the only positions he had were in marketing. Of course he took for ever to come to the point, but when he finally came out with it I though: "So why am I here?" Then he repeated his point two or three times as if he was filling time and hoping I would say something, but what could I say? I don't have any experience in marketing. The only thing that filled me with hope was when he told me that he was the manager in charge of marketing and support, and that I would also be interviewed by the manager in charge of manufacturing.

When that part of the interview was finally done I was interviewed by the other manager who told me that because of Cat's long history with Purdue interns in the States, they would find something for me to do. The only problem is that because of the time frame, and because they only found out about me last week, she didn't know if they could find anything worthwhile for me to do. And of course, they were confuse about why I would want to work for them anyway since I'm an Aerospace Engineering major. But then I explained how even though my last job was at an aerospace company, it really wasn't strictly aerospace related (if that makes any sense). But in spite of that, I still learned a lot. She seemed to like that, and said that with a job from Cat I would learn a lot of intangible things, but that they would enrich me for the future.

So to keep a long story from getting even longer, they were going to meet today or tomorrow to discuss possible work for me to do, and then they'll call me tomorrow to let me know what they come up with. At that point I'll tell them whether I want the job or not. But at this point it's likely to be the only offer I get, so I'm pretty sure I'll take it. That covers the half good news: Half good, because I have a job. Half bad, because I don't know how good or meaningful of a job it'll be.

After the interview I met my fellow Purdue students at a clinic so we could get our physicals that we had to get for our 8 month visas. That was an experience. Instead of having one doctor do the entire physical, they had a long hallway with 6 or 7 stations. We had to stand in line for one, and then move on to the next. All of this while wearing these Chinese shirts that overlapped in the front like a bath robe. I felt like I at a spa or something.

After that we went to "Steak-King," a restaurant that's supposed to look like an American diner. Now, before you start to bug me about eating American food while in China, I'll tell you that they also served Chinese food and I had a dish called "Buddha climbing over the wall." Apparently it got its name because it's so good that the Buddha's would climb over the wall to steal it. Well, I beg to differ. It was good, but I probably won't get it again.

When I got back to my room, I had a good conversation with my room mate. It turns out he's a Christian, and on Sunday he's going to take me to the church he's been going to here. I kind of suspected that he was because yesterday when I was trying to figure out what kind of bookends he was using I noticed a book that looked suspiciously like a Bible wedged between some of his other books. I didn't want to mess with his stuff, so I didn't pull it out to make sure, but when we started talking today I made sure to turn the conversation in that direction. So that's the full bit of good news: one of my biggest concerns about coming was about finding a church, and now I get to find one next Sunday.

I have to admit that when I first walked into my last room with my last room mate, I thought, "God, how could you let this happen?" And if I'd dared to vocalize it, I might have said: "God, you've made a mistake here," or asked: "Have you abandoned me here?" But now I see that He did have a plan all along.

Tourism, Part II: "You want buy shoes?" / "You watch DVD?"

2008-01-07T20:20:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we had our second shameless tourist day. This time we stayed on the west side of the river, and explored some of the older section of the city.

We started out by taking the subway to the western end of a large walk street called Nanjing Road. It seemed like a simple enough task, but we couldn't figure out where it started, and we ended up wandering into a densely packed area of the city where the streets were filled with a mix of cars, bikes, and pedestrians, and where everybody stared at us. If you want a good picture of what this area looked like, just think of the stereotypical image of what an Asian city is supposed to look like, and you'll have a pretty good idea. The picture doesn't do it justice, since the bright sunlight filtering through the smog washed out the cables and ropes that were strung across the street. So in the end we were able to explore a part of Shanghai that most tourists probably don't see, and we found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served Chinese dumplings. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of varieties of dumplings in China, but this place served the kind that Shanghai is famous for. They had a pork meat ball in the center, wrapped in a loose, thin layer of dough. Then the space between the dough and the meat ball was filled with soup, so we had to bite a hole in the top and suck out the broth before eating the rest. They were amazing, and if you ever get the chance you should try them. We also had a rice noodle and pork soup that was mediocre, and left a greasy yellow residue on anything it touched.

After that we figured out that we had gone in the wrong direction and that the walk street was only about a block from the subway station. Nanjing Road is basically a really long walk street with a lot of malls and people trying to sell counterfeit merchandise. The whole time that we were there, people would come up to us and ask: "You want buy shoes?" or "You watch DVD?" or "Rolex, jacket, shoes." or they would unfold a big catalogue of all the things they were selling. One man came up to us at around the second block and started talking to us in Chinese. Well, two out of the three of us couldn't even understand him, so we kept walking. He started to walk away in front of us, so we slowed down to put some distance between him and us. But every so often he would turn around, realize that he was getting ahead of us, and walk back to talk to us again. It turned out that he wanted to lead us down some shady side alley to sell us counterfeit merchandise, and since he wouldn't leave us alone we ended up going into a store to loose him. After that, we got tired of the area and pushed for the river.

The western bank of the Huangpu River has a region know as the Bund, where all the European companies that were in Shanghai in the 20's and 30's had their headquarters. Nanjing Road ends right in the middle of this strip. The buildings were impressive from up close, but we couldn't really go inside them or anything.

At this point I'd like to say that when I thought about going to the Bund the main reason for going was to see the buildings and the walk street. But, when we crossed the street and climbed the steps that lead to the riverside park area we got to see the Shanghai skyline in all of it's glory. When your in among the skyscrapers like we had been the day before, you're impressed by their size but you can't really take it all in. The view from the other side was amazing, and we walked along the entire length of the park taking pictures and refusing to buy rubber pigs that would flatten and then regain their shape after being thrown against the ground.

For anyone who read my last post: from the west side of the river it was obvious, as you can see in the picture, that Jinmao tower won't be the tallest building in Shanghai for long. And just to clarify, the Oriental Pearl isn't as tall as it seems in this picture, it's just a lot closer than all the other buildings.

When we reached the end of the park along the river, we wandered the streets for a while until we found a shopping area that was built in the style of an ancient temple. They sold all kinds of nick-nacks, and Chinese art. It was a really big place and easy to get lost in.

"One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong..."

But no, seriously, for all the flack Starbucks takes for being everywhere, KFC is the real culprit here in Shanghai. If you stand at a certain intersection not far from where I live, you can see four KFC's. I'll also add that there was one in this mall, and at least one within a block of the mall on the outside. There was also a Dairy Queen, but that's the only one I've seen around here.

At this point we were all tired from walking so much two days in a row, so we headed back along the river front taking more pictures, and eventually made it to the eastern end of Nanjing road, where we took the subway back.

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In other news: I found out today that I have an interview with Caterpillar on Wednesday. For anyone who doesn't know the story, I was supposed to get an internship here for the first three months. Well, when I left I still didn't have any news about what I would be doing. Then yesterday I got an email telling me that as a foreigner they couldn't get me a job in the aerospace industry because of the close military involvement, but that they would try to get me in with CAT. Obviously, being an Aerospace Engineering major I would rather work in the aerospace industry, but I'll take whatever I can get. So we'll see how that goes.

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Disclaimer: I've been having some formatting problems with the blog, and since I can't actually see the finished product I have no idea if it looks good or not. I apologize if everything's all bunched up and the pictures don't line up right, or if everything's really spread out.

Tourism

2008-01-06T08:03:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we took the subway to the downtown area by the

river to be shameless tourists for a day. So of course the

cameras and maps were out in all of their glory. We started

by walking aimlessly for a while, looking at all the tall

buildings. It is amazing how many skyscrapers there are

around downtown Shanghai.

We eventually made our way towards Jinmao Tower. In the

picture it's the one on the right that slopes in a little, and has

the big spire on top. Right now it's the tallest building in

Shanghai although I suspect that the one behind it is taller,

but it's not finished yet. In this picture you can see the haze

that covers the city and makes it really hard to take pictures

of things that are far away.

When we entered the building we found out that it has an observatory on the 88th floor, so we
payed our 60 yuan and went up to the top. From up there the haze was even worse. They
claimed that you could see the sea and all of Shanghai from
the top of the tower... Well, as you can see we could barely
see the river. But I did get some pictures of the Oriental
Pearl TV Tower.

When we bought our tickets to go up to the observatory, we
got a coupon for "1 free pearl." So when we got to the top, we went over to the jewelry stand and handed them the coupon. The employees pulled out some clams, opened them and pulled out a pearl for each of us. Then they went over to a machine and drilled a little hole in the top. After that they set the pearls on the table and pulled out a thin chain to hang it from, and a pendant to attach the pearl to the chain. Then they informed us that the pearl and the chain were both free, but the pendant that attaches the pearl to the chain would cost us 180 yuan. So they were willing to give us two items that are completely useless on their own, but we would have to pay for the item that made them useful. Well, we just took the pearls, because even though the chains were free, they wouldn't give them to us without the purchase of a pendant. So in the end we each ended up with a loose pearl that had a hole drilled in the top, but at least it was free.

When we got back down to the bottom, we headed over to
the river. On the way, we stopped in at a store to get
something to drink and were surprised to see a lot of
western looking people. It turns out that we were in the big
expat region of Shanghai. The store turned out to be an
import store that had European and American imports along
with some Chinese merchandise. I'll have to remember that
in a month or two when I get tired of the food around here
and need a taste of home...

We walked along the river front for a while and looked

across at the area known as the Bund, where the European

companies of the late 19th and early 20th century built a

strip of old European style buildings. I wouldn't have been

surprised to see any of these buildings in a guidebook about

Berlin or something like that. Unfortunately the sun was

going down, and the haze was so thick that this was the best

shot I could get. But never fear, the plan for today is to do

touristy things on that side of the river, so I should be able

to get some good pictures.

By this time is was around 5, and we wanted to stick around to see the lights. So we went in to

the "Super Brand Mall" to find a place to eat while we waited for the lights to come on. We

decided to eat at "Ajisen Ramen." Now with a name like that, you might think it's a really cheapo

place that serves... well, ramen. But no, it's actually a really good seafood place. I payed about 32

yuan for grilled ell on a bed of rice and egg noodles (that's just over 4 dollars. So for all you fans

of Cerulean, you're getting ripped off).

Then we went back out, and looked at the lights. They

weren't as spectacular as we had hoped, but after about an

hour of waiting for all of its lights to turn on, we got to see

the Oriental Pearl in all of it's glory.

At this point I'll apologize for how grainy this picture is.

Then I'll remind you that this is the first chance I've had to

really use my camera, and that I'm still learning how it

works.

And that was the end of our excursion for yesterday. In

about half an hour I'll be leaving to go explore the other side

of the river, and if I manage to stay awake past 9:30 tonight,

I'll try to post those pictures to.

Moving Time

2008-01-05T12:48:00.000+08:00

For anyone who reads either of my brothers' Xangas, or for anybody who was just curious, I was able to arrange a move to a new room. The new room mate seems to be a nice guy, and it's nice that he speaks English. So thanks to everybody who was praying that I could get out of that other situation.

More to come later.

Success!

2008-01-04T17:04:00.000+08:00

They have this thing in China about censoring the internet, so I couldn't access my Xanga. Well, I'm ok with changing things for the next few months. The only issue is that while I can post things, I can't actually see the finished product, because it's blocked. But I'll try my best to work with that, so check back later for a real update.