Spring Break Shanghai!

We left Nanjing on a bullet train and arrived in Shanghai two hours later. The bad weather had yet to hit Shanghai, which was a pleasant surprise. After getting off the train, we took cabs to our hostel.

If Beijing is the Washington, DC of China, then Shanghai is definitely the New York equivalent. Shanghai is also a huge and bustling city with tons of people, tons of noise, tons of skyscrapers, and a beautiful modern city. The analogy also works because there is a part of Shanghai that is called Times Square. Our hostel was actually located just a few blocks away from Times Square. Shanghai is located right on the river and the name of the city literally translates this way. Shang means on or above and hai means sea or water.

In Shanghai, we were staying at the Captain’s International Youth Hostel, which we were all very excited about because of its sailor theme. The outside of the hostel looked like a ship and the inside was decorated with all sorts of nautical pieces. The door to our room looked like a cabin door and the bunks in our room all had portholes in the headboards.

After checking in at our hostel, we walked around the area on our side of the river. We found some street food, which I think really grew on all of us over break. We really enjoyed eating “twar” as it’s called in Beijing, or “twan” as it’s called in southern China, which is meat on a stick.

On our walk around Shanghai, we found the Pearl Tower, which is one of the most famous buildings of the Shanghai skyline. We also found a really pretty park, which was a very unexpected green patch in the middle of the city. We also found an eight-story shopping mall, where we played in Toys R Us for a bit. Shanghai is relatively well-known for its shopping scene.

After walking around for a bit, we walked back to our hostel to get ready to go to dinner and go out. For dinner, we found the West Gate equivalent of Shanghai. West Gate is our favorite restaurant in Beijing. We had the most delicious jiaozi, or dumplings. Soup dumplings and friend dumplings a traditional part of Shanghai cuisine.

After dinner, we walked to the river promenade along the water right near the Pearl Tower and the International Convention center. The view was breathtaking. From our side of the river, we could see the Bund, one of the most famous parts of Shanghai all lit up at night. There were also a bunch of small cafes located along the river, which along with the warm weather, made for a really pleasant walk.

Later, Jenn and Sarah went back to the hostel to go to sleep and Molly, Jon, Aaron, and I caught a cab across the river to the bund to check out the nightlife scene for which Shanghai is so well known. As soon as we got out of the cab, it starting pouring probably harder than rain I have ever seen before. By the time we were able to run under the awning of the nightclub we had selected, we were all soaked! It was pretty funny though because we unexpectedly met up with some other guys from our program who had spent all of Spring Break in Shanghai. We all had an awesome time, so much fun in fact, that we didn’t get back to the hostel until nearly 5:00 AM on Sunday morning.

We had to check out of hostel by noon on Sunday and shortly thereafter, we went back to the restaurant where we had eaten dinner the night before and filled up on delicious jiaozi. We then took the ferry across the river to walk around the bund. There were lots of shopping areas. The one thing I will remember most about our walk around Shanghai was the terrible smell of stinky tofu, which is apparently a street food delicacy in Shanghai. Due to the pollution problem in China, we have become accustomed to walking through what we refer to as “air pockets,” but the smell of stinky tofu was by far worse!

In our travels, we happened to stumble upon a Dunkin Doughnuts, which was a terrific discovery! We were still tired from the night before, so we took the opportunity to relax, enjoy a real cup of coffee and some Boston Crème doughnuts.

After this pit stop, we walked along the river on the bund side of Shanghai on the water near a lot of the financial buildings and the architecture that looks relatively European. Later, after walking for hours and taking more pictures of the skyline, we took the Shanghai subway system back to the other side of the river and went to our hostel to pick up our bags and head back to the train station.

Our train left Shanghai around 8:30 PM. This time around, we had all top bunks in a row, which actually ended up being a good thing so we were all able to sleep because we were all pretty tired. The lights went off pretty early too, probably around 10:30 PM. I slept pretty well on the train and didn’t wake up until 9:00 AM. We arrived back in Beijing around 10:00 AM and then took the subway back to Beida.

We had an awesome break! I felt that I really made the most of my break because we saw a lot of really cool things, got to travel a lot, relaxed a bit, and spent some time with some awesome friends. We came home with tons of inside jokes, pictures, and memories that I know will last a lifetime! The best part is that all of the traveling, hostels, food, and entertainment over the course of break cost us all only about $200! You definitely can’t beat that!

Now that we are back from Spring Break, I really feel like I am coming down with a serious case of spring fever. The weather is getting warmer in Beijing and flowers are blooming everywhere! I know in just a few weeks campus is going to look absolutely stunning! We are also at the exact halfway point through the semester. As of yesterday, we have been in China for 55 days and now have 55 days remaining.

I am very lucky because I have a few weeks of down time before I really have to start worrying about finals and papers. I also got my Chinese midterm back on Wednesday and my teacher announced that I had gotten the highest grade of all the beginner Chinese students!

This weekend will be a lot of fun. On Saturday, we will be traveling a few hours to visit the Cuan Dixia Village, which is an old village from the Ming and Qing dynasties that had remained fairly well preserved. This weekend is also two of my close friend’s birthdays, so we will be doing a lot of celebrating. We are also working on planning a weekend trip to Qingdao for next weekend, which will be awesome if everything goes according to plan!

More to come soon!