The Bund at Night

The Bund is an area of Shanghai that is very metropolitan and very nice. There is a lot of shopping and is surrounded by skyscrapers! it is also one of the most popular tourist sites because of the famous view of Shanghai! This is it during the day...

 And this is the Bund at night!! SO COLORFUL!

The tower with the spherical parts is the Pearl Tower and the building that is outlined in blue in the back a little bit is the main financial building in Shanghai! The building that says "Aurora" on the top of it is basically a giant billboard at night, you can kind of see it in the picture but the entire building is LED lights that play ads of different places in Shanghai! I didn't get a picture of it but there is also a ferry that is completely covered in lights that goes across the river! After seeing the skyline, Charly and I ventured below the river to experience the "Bund Tourist Tunnel". Basically a slow-moving roller coaster in a tunnel with lots of colorful lights! It probably wasn't worth the 60￥I paid for it, but it was worth saying that I at least did it while in Shanghai!

Food!

THE GOOD:
Shanghai has some great food! I'm finding new things almost everyday that I love! We have lots of restaurants on our campus that we can go to and all of them are amazing! I can get a sushi roll, a korean beef rice bowl, or indian curry with chicken and rice each for 16￥, or $2.53. I can go to the dining hall and get a big plate of fried rice with egg for 6￥($0.93) or a large helping of beef chow mien for 8￥($1.27)! So pretty much I'm eating the most delicious food for pennies! The other night we ordered food to the dorm and we got Mediterranean food so it was a little more expensive then normal and I started to regret ordering when I realized it was 50￥but then I thought about it and realized that it's less then $8 in the states. It's going to be so hard to come home and order food from now on! But even with all the amazing food I've found around Shanghai, I have absolutely found my favorite... classic Shanghai dumplings!! Oh.... my... goodness. I can't describe just how good these little guys are but I'm hoping to learn how to make them and bring the secrets home with me so I can make them forever! The classic dumplings are pork based or shrimp/ crab based and how a broth that is inside of the dumpling that cooks the meat when steamed :) it's SO flavorful on its own but when you dip it into the sauce which is a mix of vinegar and soy sauce, you just melt from deliciousness! I think I could eat these every single day..... and I just might! The other dumpling I tried you aren't encourages to eat the dough part (which is a good recommendation, it was not good when i tried it) but instead the inside it filled with lots of broth and little bits of pork that you suck out through a straw! Yum! Here are two pictures of my new favorite foods!

 Top right: dumplings, Top left: dumpling with soup inside, Bottom: Boazi

Me with my dumpling soup cup!


THE BAD:
This section doesn't have too much in it, I've found that most of the food here is delicious! The being said.... one tradition that the chinese have that I find a little gross is that when they serve a poultry dish, it is custom to put the ENTIRE bird in the dish. So we had dinner one night and were grabbing chicken from a bowl of thick broth, can't really see inside, and instead of a breast or thigh someone pulls this out...

A whole chicken head!! Not a great surprise, I don't think any of us has more of this dish after our little discovery. Second, I got a lot of questions before I left that sounded like "Are you going to eat dog while you're in China?", well... I found a place that serves dog. It's only about a 3 minute walk from my dorm in fact! And I know someone that is dead set on trying it before she leaves... we'll see about that! But besides those two little instances, the food is wonderful and I'm loving being able to pig out because its just so cheap! :)

Jing'an Temple

In Shanghai our school weeks are only Monday-Thursday, so for our first Friday in Shanghai my roommate, Charly, and I decided to visit the Jing'an Buddhist Temple. Translated in chinese Jing'an means "Peace and Tranquility" and although located in the heart of Shanghai, it was very much that. It is an active buddhist temple, so although there were some tourists exploring the temple, many of the people inside were there to worship. The temple is beautiful from the outside and even more impressive on the inside.

The temple is surrounded by skyscrapers and big bustling malls, there is even a subway line that runs directly underneath the temple! Its a surprising and beautiful addition to the fast paced streets of Shanghai. Once inside the temple the first thing you notice of the overwhelming aroma of burning incense. Burning incense is part of the Buddhist prayer ritual and people burn them by the bundle, it smelled amazing!

Above is the view of the inside of the temple. The big metal tower looking thing in the middle of the courtyard is hollow and people were throwing 1¥ coins at it trying to get them through the holes and into the tower. I think it was good luck to make it inside.

 Above are two examples of statues and offering tables that people worshipped too. The bottom one is a happy Buddha! All of the statues in the temple (and there were MANY statues) had a table with offerings of fruit on them. Most common fruits offered were apples, oranges, and watermelon.

 This was the main statue at the top of the main staircase inside the temple. Just as a reference on how tall it was, I just about even with the first base level, then there is the level that looks like a cushion, then the actual figure is sitting on top of it.... HUGE!

 The detail inside the temple was beautiful. There was at least six stories inside the temple and the towers were even more then that. The railings were detailed and there was artwork and carvings covering most of the walls inside.

The perfect ending to a perfect day at the temple was getting to witness the Buddhist monks come out playing drums and bells while chanting a closing prayer for the temple. Exploring the temple was like nothing I've ever done before and I can't wait to go visit some more!

First Impressions

I made it to China!! The 13 hour flight wasn't nearly as terrible as I was expecting and the chinese airport had a surprisingly good amount of english so I didn't get lost too bad! My program met me at the airport and got a bus for me and about 8 other students who all had later flights in to Shanghai like me. Our first impressions of the city started with buildings that were rippling rainbows! The city of Shanghai loves color and light and loves them on buildings, at night the whole city is lit up with colorful skyscrapers!

I, surprisingly enough considering a 15 hour time difference, never got jet lagged. I got right into a schedule which made it a much easier adjustment. We have orientation this week and classes start next monday. In orientation and just being here for a few days we've learned some really interesting things like to bring toilet paper EVERYWHERE, bathroom in public places (malls, restaurants, etc) don't put toilet paper in their bathrooms... which are also often squat toilets instead of regular toilets. They also don't have soap so you have to bring hand sanitizer with you. Also, even if it says you can cross the street, watch out! The hierarchy goes busses, cars, mopeds, bikes, then you. You stop for anything moving or the WILL hit you!! I've almost been hit a few times. But its easy to get used to these changes and doesn't bother me that much. The one thing I could do without in Shanghai is the constant rainy nights! It has rained the past 3 nights, definitely not used to that coming from Colorado!

Now lets talk about FOOD! So far my favorite part of China. Everything in general is cheap here and thankfully food is too! The first night here and yesterday for lunch we went to a type of restaurant where it has a lazy susan in the middle of the table and you order a bunch of dishes for the table. Both times we've ordered about 13 different dishes for 12 people and the total came to 260 yuan so about 22 yuan per person which is the equivalent to $3.50, but one night we all also got giant beers along with dinner and the price rose for $4.16. Today I went to the dining hall with my friend and he ordered us each a plate of fried rice ("chow fant") and a bowl of broth for 6 yuan, less than $1.00, and it was amazing! And it was such a large helping that I couldn't even finish my plate! I love it here! Ha ha. Here are some of the interesting things that I've tried:

1. Lotus: a lotus flower with rice stuffed into the pores, it kind of tasted like a potato in a way with sticky rice and a sauce it marinated in, really good and unusual!

2. Hot Milk Tea: a warm drink you get from the street vendor behind our dorm, you can get regular tea or chocolate milk but I don't think thats any fun. The flavors I've gotten so far have been Sweet Potato Green Tea and Adzuki Bean Grass Jelly. Both sound weird and gross but are sweet and absolutely delicious! The adzuki bean one had smashed beans in the bottom that come up with the drink that you chew, they are bean texture but extremely sweet! I've gotten one every day so far! Only 6 yuan (aka $1)

3. Baozi- pronounced "bow-tzer", its a steamed bun filled with a meat of your choice. Sounds very simple but the mixture of meat and spices in the middle have made me crave them as an afternoon snack every day! They only cost 2.2 yuan= 35 cents.

Some fun things I've gotten to do here so far are walk around the city, visit an enormous 10 story mall, go out to dinner at some great restaurants, practice calligraphy (which is incredibly hard), and watch a man play an Ehru which is kind of like an asian violin. We also ventured out to the Bund area for the night. When you see picture of Shanghai and all the colorful buildings and the financial district, the pictures were taken from the Bund area. We went into the Hyatt hotel in the area into a glass elevator and went to the 32nd floor to get an amazing view of the entire city! And finally, tonight we are going to the circus to watch some chinese acrobats perform! I can't wait!

And I'm Off

6am at the airport and getting ready to fly to San Francisco and from there fly to my final destination of Shanghai! Over 20 hours will be spent in an airport or on an airplane but I think the final destination will be worth the wait! Can't wait to start this journey!