Suzhou!

Tired of the hustle and bustle of the city, myself and three of my girlfriends in the dorm (Charly, Mal, and Andrea) packed up and made our way to Suzhou! Suzhou is a famous water town in China located close to Shanghai. It's nickname is "Venice of the East" because of all the canals that the city is built around. The location in proximity to Shanghai and the promise of some gorgeous site seeing made it an easy decision to travel there!

 It takes about an hour and a half or so to drive to Suzhou but we instead took a train, which turned out to be the bullet train! So instead it took exactly 22 minutes and we had arrived at our destination! Before we left I had booked us 4 beds in a 6-person dorm style room at a random hostel. I went for the cheapest option in the beat area so we ended up paying around $3.75 per person per night. The hostel we stayed at was amazing! It was along a canal and located in the heart of a famous night market street with great shops and awesome places to eat!

We arrived later Friday night so just spent the night having dinner in our hostel's restaurant/bar and planning our weekend's excursions! Thanks to "Lonely Planet: China" we had a full weekend's worth of activities in mind!

 

Friday morning we were up at 7am ready to start our day! Our first stop was to the Humble Administrator's Garden (pictures are above), a short one mile walk away from our hostel! The garden was very large and modeled after the traditional style of gardens that China is so famous for. We meandered for most of morning around ponds, through pagodas, along rows of bonsai trees, and across

stone bridges enjoying the beauty of the gardens while also trying to avoid getting too close to the numerous Chinese tour group that occasionally flooded an area o the garden ruining the tranquility with those ever so powerful loudspeakers.

One we'd thoroughly explored the area we went directly next door to the Suzhou History Museum. Apparently tour groups do not frequent the local museums because I found the Suzhou History Museum even more peaceful than the garden, but then again, maybe that's just the nerd in me. The museum had lots of modern works of art done by local artists of the Suzhou scenery, silk paintings done in the traditional ways of a few different dynasties, and (my personal favorite) ancient artifacts organized by the age periods. My favorite discovery was a ceramic pot from 7,000bc. Standing there looking at a pot that is 9,000 years old is such a surreal concept to try and grasp! As my roommate Charly so eloquently put it "This pot makes it seem like Jesus and I could have been buddies!". There was also very impressive displays of traditional Chinese ceramics and jade carvings that were really interesting to see! 

From the museum we went to a Buddhist temple a little further in Suzhou than our hostel was. A pleasant surprise was that cabs, once outside of Shanghai, are incredibly affordable! We only paid about half the price we would have had to pay in Shanghai to go the same distance! When our affordable can ride was over and the driver told us we were at the temple we walked towards where he said the entrance was without seeing a typical temple entrance that we're used to. Instead it was just a big door half cracked open, we stepped inside and it looked like a typical Buddhist courtyard so we continued walking into the main temple area. It was very still and calm, not touristy in the least, which was a nice change of pace from temples we had encountered on many occasions. We arrived just in time to watch and "ahh" at the Buddhist monks' closing day chants. It's a very moving experience even when you aren't as familiar with Buddhism or understand the meaning of the chants. As we walked out of the temple we decided to stop at the area where you burn incense and pray to the gods, even though we are not Buddhist we took a moment to pray to whatever we believed, a calming and happy reflection of our lives and the loved ones in it. Shortly after the calming ceremony of contemplation, we became embarrassed and felt dumb when realizing that we had technically "snuck" into the temple through the side gate and had bypassed the 25 kaui entrance free required for that temple... Oops! 

After returning home to our hostel we all took a short nap; a full day of activities will wear a person out! When we awoke we decided to walk along the market street that was literally out our hostel's front door, shop a little, and find a place for dinner. A pleasant way to end a busy day!

Saturday morning and up again at 7am! Breakfast in our hostel's bar/ restaurant just like the day before and we're off on another round of exploration of this city called Suzhou! We went to the Blue Wave Pavilion first thinking that we would be there for an hour maybe two. Turns out that the pavilion was massive with so much to see and do that we stayed for 4 1/2 hours! There was a giant coy pond that stood still between the two temples, an eight story pagoda 1,000 years old, lots of land and walking areas with waterfalls and Chinese styled gazebos, and an ancient city wall. The ancient city wall had two massive entrances (one by land and one by water) guarded off by draw bridges that were used hundreds of years ago to keep the city's enemies from being able to enter, very similar to the types of walls seen in Medieval movies to protect the king and queen's castle. We got off the wall and ended up taking a wooden boat ride through a small part of the river that went through the gate's entrance. Our boat rower was an older woman who sang us beautiful Chinese songs, which are traditionally sang on boats, it was such a cool river cruise! We ended our time at the pavilion by walking up the 1,000-year-old pagoda! Unfortunately, unaware to us when we began climbing) we were only able to climb to the third story before the stairs were blocked off. Apparently climbing all the way to the top of an 8 story 1,000-year-old pagoda is not aloud, but the views even from the third story were spectacular and you could look over the entire property! 

 

Since we spent so much time in the pavilion, by the time we walked out and back onto the streets of Suzhou we were starving! So instead of going to a restaurant we managed to swipe a table at one of the local bakeries! I'm not quite sure I've mentioned the bakeries in China in my blog posts but let me tell you, they are INCREDIBLE! It makes me wish we had more of them in Colorado! They have desserts, pizza like things, sandwiches, break with eggs bakes in the center, and so much more! For lunch on this particular day I decided to get a pizza-bread-thing resembling Hawaiian pizza with pineapple and ham, a long doughy bread stick with a drizzle of what they called "cheese" (the Chinese don't eat the same cheese as the states, but this was a close second in comparison), and to wash it down got a tiramisu latte! We were quite happy with our random smorgasbord of bread for lunch!

It began to rain that afternoon so, knowing we ha lots to do that night, we went back to the hostel for another well-deserved naptime. For dinner we headed to a popular shopping street to find a particular restaurant and experience a traditional Suzhou style meal... But like many of our plans, this one ended by the restaurant owner looking at us with a frown saying "mei you, mei you!" or "don't have, don't have!", so with no available tables for us we proceeded to the next best thing, Dairy Queen. With my dinner of a large Oreo blizzard in hand, we departed to our first evening activity, a cruise around the main river of Suzhou! The cruise was an hour long showing us many beautiful areas around the river that were lit up at night in beautiful colors! There was a traditional Chinese singer who provided entertainment for half of the trip as well! The final destination was a large pagoda on the river's edge lit from top to bottom with lights illuminating its massive size and beautiful shape! 

Back on dry land we took a cab to our final destination, a hole in the wall teahouse with live music playing nightly. The teahouse only had four tables and lucky for us we managed to secure a spot at the only one open. The tea ceremony in china is very interesting! We had our own personal "tea guide" who conducted our ceremony. She first made a pot of tea, filled up each tea cup, then picked up each cup pouring the tea over the top of the teapot, only to refill the cups again and passing them around for us to do a cheers with our first cup of tea. She was with us the entire time always making sure our cups were filled with wonderful green tea! She was learning English and we are learning Chinese so lots of our conversation was going through words and phrases with her and us helping here with the same in English! The live music at the tea ceremony was all traditional Chinese instruments and songs and we got the chance (for a small fee) to request songs for the artist to play! The tea ceremony was a very traditional part of the Chinese culture that we were finally able to experience and in such a personal and comfortable setting.

7am came once again and we all ventured out for our final morning in Suzhou. We went to another beautiful garden with the theme of "harmony between man and nature". There were small Chinese gazebos, stairs, and other man-made features but because of the garden's purpose, they had been so well incorporated into the natural surroundings that they fit perfectly into the tranquil environment. My favorite moment was when a Chinese man came up to us with his 3 or 4-year-old daughter and said something to her in Chinese and she began to sing the ABC's! It was so cute!

When we left the garden we walked down the street and happened upon an 800-year-old Confucian temple! There were a few statues of Confucius, lots of bells and gongs, and bonsai trees around the temple but the coolest part was what was waiting just beyond the back gates of the temple's grounds. Out the back was a street market where vendors had laid out blankets and set truckers out on the blankets for sale! We were the only foreigners in the area so we knew they would try and take advantage of us so our bargaining skills had to be top notch! My favorite moment of bargaining that's happened to me since coming to China occurred within ten minutes of entering that market. I saw a teapot that I really liked and went to ask the vendor how much it was me: "duo shiou qian?" vendor: "liu bai Kaui!" me: "600 Kaui?!" that's almost $100 in US terms. I told him I would pay 80 kaui and only got him down to 400 until I moved onto the next vendor who did the same for his teapot that I liked but went to 300 kaui. Neither prices I was willing to pay so began to walk away when I got stopped from vendor #1 saying he would sell his for 300 also, which prompted vendor #2 to run over saying he would go down to 275, then a third vendor came up with one of his teapots saying he would sell it for 250! Before I knew it I had at least 7 vendors surrounding me all fighting among each other continuing to lower their price so they would be lower then the previous vendor and therefore hoping I would buy THEIR teapot, all while I sat their quietly watching them compete for my business. Finally ever one of the vendors was down to 80 kaui, my original asking price, and I decided to take advantage of the situation and demand that now I wanted the pot for 50 kuai instead which (reluctantly) they all agreed too. So I ended up choosing the very first pot that I found and paying only 50 kaui from the original 600, which is $7.92 down from $95.02. 

And with that final price of excitement and victory, we headed back to the train station to return to our fast pace, populated city of Shanghai with some great stories and memories of our travels to Suzhou!

City God Temple

My study abroad program hosted a day trip to City God Temple for anyone who wanted to go. Of course I was totally up for a trip out to another temple (I love going to temples!), so I immediately signed up! I had a great afternoon at City God, but it was definitely not what I was expecting and a very interesting experience showing how China capitalizes on the history of their country while demonstrating the interests of the people who live here.

When you first walk into the temple, the entry way is not very peaceful but instead filled with a souvenir shop, a massage parlor, and a restaurant. Not quite the first impression you expect when entering into a place of worship. When you enter into the main courtyard it feels much more like what you would expect out of a Buddhist monastery; much quieter and the traditional Buddhist incense and praying. Unlike other temples I’ve seen, the statues and relics were all incased when you went in and out of the rooms around the perimeter of the temple. There were stands (tourist traps) set up inside of the temple itself, as well, selling pieces of jade jewelry, religious figures, and other trinkets.

Outside of the main temple is Shanghais oldest teahouse, which is 180 years old. My roommate and I went into the teahouse thinking it would be fun to get some tea from such a famous location but quickly changed our minds and left when finding out that a pot of tea would cost over $20 US dollars, but not before snapping a picture! Instead we went to a nearby restaurant and had 饺子(jiăozi- dumplings) which were very cheap and delicious!

The area surrounding the teahouse was a beautiful pond with statues, flower gardens, and coy fish! But again, I was a little disappointed in the area that was meant to be such a relaxing place. The amount of people that crammed into the area around the teahouse was completely overwhelming! You couldn’t move without getting pushed in the opposite direction, and the Chinese are not shy about blatantly pushing you out of the way! Around the pond and teahouse, which used to be traditional buildings that were an extension of the temple, are now completely converted to house gift shops, restaurants, and many different stores to buy things. Its very surprising being in a place which clearly has so much history and an elegant style of old Chinese architecture and to be suddenly snapped out of it by being pushed by somebody into a Starbucks, shoved in the opposite direction into a McDonalds, then harassed by a street vendor to buy a remote controlled helicopter! The commercialization of Chinese history and the country’s monuments is one thing that I have found to be disappointing in China

 (You can see Starbucks in the center, on the left is a Cold Stone, and further on the right is McDonalds!)

Although the experience to City God Temple wasn’t quite the afternoon that I had had in mind, the trip was very eye opening and interesting to see this side of China. Its these experiences, the ones that may not be the most appealing to me, that help me piece together an idea of what Shanghai is like overall, not just viewing the city from the eyes of someone who has only experienced the best of what it has to offer. I believe that the negative experiences are the ones that make you more patience with the unfamiliar, more understanding of the people and the culture, and humbling you when realizing that it is you who has to change the way you behave when choosing to be in a new and foreign place. 

Coca Cola Factory Tour

      

      My Changing Nature of Business in China class is taught by the past CFO of Coca-Cola China so as a special class trip, we got to go visit the Coca-Cola bottling plant which is on the outskirts of Shanghai. We were brought up to a board room and shown a video of the history of Coca-Cola. Started by a pharmacist in Georgia in 1886 and only sold about 5 glasses a day when it was first sold. Now the product can be found in over 200 countries and has a huge product line!

      We got to first go through the bottling and assembly lines of both Coke and Sprite. They are able to fill about 1,000 bottles every minute from their assembly line! It was crazy to see how quickly the bottles moved from being first washed, then labeled, then filled, and finally sealed and sent off to be packaged. They also showed us about the new packaging system that China is using to be a little more eco-friendly. Instead of using cardboard boxed to package their bottles, they are using plastic wrap and shrink wrapping cases of their beverages which take away much of the waste that cardboard used to account for.

      Afterwards, we went through the factory’s Coca-Cola Museum. They had all of the styles of bottles and cans that Coke has used in the past and even had special bottles designed for Chinese events such as this past summer’s Expo and the Beijing Olympics. They played a wide selection of adds that have run on Chinese television to advertise Coca-Cola products available to the Chinese market. It was interesting to see the similarities (advertising to a younger audience and having the commercial be highly energetic) and the differences (focusing a lot of their adds on romance and falling in love) from Chinese Coke commercials to American coke commercials. The museum displayed the many different products that Coke produced for the Chinese market, many that I have never seen in the states, and now when I look around at the drink selection in stores it is blatant how dominant Coke has been able to become in the Chinese market. Although, there are other brands such a Pepsi, from what I have seen, it looks as though Coke has about 75% of self-space in stores reserved for their products.

      
We got to finish our afternoon at the Coca-Cola Facotry by getting to sample the different drinks. I chose to try a milk like drink with pineapple flavor. In 2008 China was faced with a crisis with the milk that was being sold to its citizens. The chemical melamine was found in the milk prodced by 3 major companies in China and as a result over 6,000 people became sick and experienced kidney failure, a few even died because of this chemical. Due to this milk crisis, the Chinese have been very hesistant to drink milk over the past few years. This Coke product is not pure milk, has a fruity flavor, and also doesn’t require refrigeration (cold drinks are not popular in china, only in the past few years has the idea of chilled beverages began to gain popularity), this makes the product much more desirable to the overall population. The drink fell way beyond my expectations! It was delicious (almost like a less sweet pina colada!) and I’ve bought it a few times already!

      The factory tour and presentation was such a fun opportunity and something so unique to be able to experience while here!

Hot Pot

·      One of the most classic Chinese dinners is called Hot Pot. Basically what it is, is a Chinese style fondue! You sit at a table and in the center is a big pot split in half filled with regular brother on one side and spicy broth on the other. Under the table is the fire that boils the broth. The 服务员 (fúwùyuán- waiter) brings you a tray filled with an array of different meats and veggies to cook in the broth! The first time I went was with my Beginner 1 Chinese classmates at a restaurant that is about a 10 minute walk away from our dorm. We got pork, beef, chicken, shrimp, lots of mushrooms, and other vegetables. It was really good! I was so fully after eating there! The second time I had hop pot was, unfortunately not quite as great of an experience. We went to a Hot Pot restaurant in the Sichuan province of China, known for their incredibly spicy food! Besides the fact that my mouth felt like it was on fire, the types of meat they brought out to us were less then appetizing. They brought whole fish and plopped them right into the broth which left an unpleasant fish taste afterwards, the broth was much more oily then the broth in Shanghai (a very common thing in Sichuan, oil is a very prominent ingredient in most of their cooking), and some of the meat they chose to serve was sheep lung, cow tongue, cow stomach lining, and a unknown animal’s intestines. Now I pride myself on being an adventurous eater and willing to try almost anything (which I did) but its hard to expect me to make a full meal out of inner organs! So I think I will stick with my preferred Shanghai style Hot Pot meals from now on, which I do enjoy very much!

Huangshan - Yellow Mountains

Four of my friends from the program and I decided to get out of Shanghai for the weekend to escape the pollution and crowded city so we packed a backpack and headed to the Anhui Provence. In Anhui is where you will find Huangshan, known as the Yellow Mountains in the states. The yellow mountains are very famous for their beautiful scenery and steep climb to the top! Being from Colorado, I jumped t the chance to go hiking for the weekend and be in the thin air that comes with higher altitudes! We hopped on a long distance bus Thursday night and spent the next 6 hours traveling to Anhui!

Unfortunately for us, once we got off the bus on their last stop, we realized that we had taken the wrong bus! Luckily we were still in Huangshan but unfortunately the area is enormous and we were over an hour away from the hostel we had booked and were stuck standing on the street at 1am. We decided to just make the best of the situation and got two rooms at the nearest hotel. In the morning we spoke with the front desk and by some miracle, our little mishap ended in us being 25 minutes from our first day trip destination instead of the 1.5 hour trek we had been planning to make! Funny how things work out! So with that positive news we headed out to Mukeng, a bamboo forest along waterfalls and rivers in the Huangshan foothills. we got there and began walking around the paths around lakes and trails surrounded by massive bamboo trees 50 feet tall and about 8 inches thick! I didn't know that bamboo even grew to be so big before then! 

After a while of exploring we began to hear drums in the distance. We knew there were performances that the local village put on for the park so we set out to find them. Once we got to where the show took place we had quite an interesting time getting in with the broken and minimal Chinese that we knew as a group. We were greeted by two locals who told us we weren't aloud to come in and even at one point yelled (in English) "F*** YOU!", obviously taken aback by this rudeness and confusing random situation we were just about to leave when one of the local men noticed a hole in the sleeve of one of the boys in our group's shirt. He pointed to it and said a lot of Chinese that we didn't understand and proceeded to invite us into the area. We still have no idea why the hole in our friend's sleeve was the deciding factor in this situation! But we went in and they showed us how to pray to their gods and we did a little prayer ritual with them then went to the stage where the performances were held. There were about 10 men and women all in their "tribal" attire with modern touches. Us being the visitors to the show pulled out our cameras to take their pictures and were surprised to see they were doing the same back to us! Apparently they rarely see white people and were clearly excited we were there! They were so friendly and taught us traditional dances and even invited us for lunch that people in their village had made for them! It was delicious and, surprise surprise, was mostly rice and cooked bamboo shoot! When a group of Chinese tourists showed up they began their performance. The women did a dance, one man put fire on this body, in his mouth, and blew fire balls, and one man stomped on broken glass! It was crazy!! As we headed down from the forest we found a little zipping set up that ran across the lake two times! It definitely did not look like the most secure structure but we figured, "why not?" and decided to go for it! Turns out it was a wonderful choice and we had so much fun sipping across the lake surrounded by the beautiful scenery of the area!

We left the bamboo forest afterwards and went to a new hostel closer to the entrance of the yellow mountains. The hostel told us of an outdoor market with lots of stone figures, toys, tea, chopsticks, and other merchandise we could bargain for. I ended up buying myself a 6 cup tea set with beautiful, unique patterns and bargained my way from 180¥ to 100¥, the store owner was being very stubborn on the price and it took me holding a 100¥ bill in front of him and threatening to leave until he'd go for it! At the market we got dinner and I ordered a classic Huangshan dish of their fried noodles. Delicious! Then we headed home preparing for a long day of hiking the yellow mountains!

5:45am came way too early. We were downstairs at 6:10 eating breakfast that our hostel had prepared for us and at 6:30 the bus was out front of the hostel to take us on the hour and a half bus ride to the mountain. 

Once we got to the ticket office to get passes to Huangshan we got our first glimpse of what a touristy place the yellow mountains were! There were a few hundred people in line to get to different areas of the mountain by yet another bus, thankfully our line was the shortest and didn't take long to get us on our final bus ride before hiking! The 20 minute bus weaves through the beginning of the mountains gaining elevation quick and transforming the scenery into beautiful jagged cliffs and green trees lining the bottoms.

We were finally at the mountain! Majority of people were buying gondola tickets to take them to the first real scenic area but we had already decided that we were hiking the whole way! Little did we know before starting this trek, unlike mountains and hiking that I'm familiar with, Huangshan's trails are entirely paved... And entirely stairs! It took around 4 hours of climbing to make it to the first scenic area where the gondolas let the tourists off. 

From that first area the views were beautiful but the most memorable was actually watching the Chinese tourists. There were thousands of Chinese tourists all gathering in this one area once getting off the gondola and were waiting in 3 hour long lines in order to get to a special famous destination. You may be wondering what could possibly be so incredible that thousands of tourist would pay lots of money to get them to the top of a mountain to see. The answer is: a tree. It's not an ancient tree and it didn't do anything special. What it did was grow one of its branches a little longer then the others to make it "look like an arm is stretching out to welcome people to the mountain", which is why the tree is known as the Welcoming Tree. People wait in 3 hour lines in order to take a picture in front of this Welcoming Tree. There are just some Chinese mannerisms I don't think I'll ever get used too or fully understand.

The five of us decided that as part of our hike on Huangshan, we were going to make it to the very top of the highest peak in the Yellow Mountain Range, Lotus Peak. By this time our legs were tired an wearing out fast but we never quit movie and walked up stairs after stairs until we made it to our final destination! The views front the top of Lotus Peak are breathtaking. You look around and you are the tallest thing for as far as you can see. Peaks and valleys are all you see in every direction you turn! It was such a feeling of accomplishment to have made it so far!

The trip down from Lotus Peak was significantly shorter then the trip to the top, although walking down stairs just works a different set of muscles than going up the stairs, ensuring that no matter what, you will not be able to walk the next day! But we got to the bottom in once piece very excited about what we'd just done. From the time we began climbing the stairs until when we got back down to the same point, we had been climbing up and down stairs for 7.5 hours! Not some little hiking trip, that's for sure!

That night my roommate, Charly, and I both fell asleep at 8pm and didn't wake up until 9am the next morning. The only reason we were able to move was through the application of ample amounts of Tiger Balm and Icy Hot to our throbbing legs! 

And what would a traveling story be without a little insanity thrown in last minute? All weekend, for some strange reason, we missed almost every single bus that we took. We each took turns being reason for almost missing the bus but my moment didn't come until we were heading back to Shanghai. Our hostel got us a taxi van to take us (unnecessarily) about 1/2 a block from our hostel to the long distance bus stop. We got off the taxi bus and onto the Grayhound-like bus going to Shanghai and right as we were pulling out I realized I had left my kindle, one of my absolutely favorite things, in the taxi van. I jump out of my seat and start screaming to stop the bus (in English which no one understands) and frantically am yelling at everyone to stop and let me out of the bus to try and chase down the taxi van! Finally they get what I'm saying and stop about 100yds away from where we'd been. Myself and my friend Peter jump off the bus and sprint after two different vans that looked like the one we were in, I was literally sprinting after the wrong van in the middle of the road! After not catching up to it I run back to our hostel panting and frantic trying to tell them to call the van they had gotten us and tell her to come back. In the meantime my roommate is dealing with the bus driver who's threatening to leave us! After a few minutes of pure panic that I had lost of one my favorite things I'd brought to China, a little taxi van pulls up front of our hostel waving the kindle in her hand! The people of China have been overall incredibly nice, but it was even more then I had expected! It was an absolutely crazy but memorable way to end a perfect weekend in the Yellow Mountains!

Chinese Culture

·      When I first decided to study in China a lot of people thought I was crazy. They thought that it was insane for me to choose a destination so far from everything that I was used too and in a language that was so completely foreign to me, those people may have been right but if I could go back in time I wouldn’t do anything different!

·      Some cultural differences are hard to be able to handle at times. For example, spitting is a very common thing among men in the Chinese culture. When you are on the street there are men spitting on the round and I have even seen some spit on the floor inside of the train stations. It’s hard to ignore when we were brought up around the belief that doing anything like that is incredibly rude and just plain gross! Another time when you can see a blatant difference is when waiting in line for just about anything, because lines mean nothing to most Chinese. When you wait in line its a very good probability that a few people will just jump right in front of you!  The concept of “waiting your turn” doesn’t seem to be something that was taught in elementary school quite like it was in the United States! Your patience is sometimes stretched with situations like that but it definitely helps you grow and become more understanding of others’ cultures.

·      But not all the differences are bad ones. A few times this past weekend while in a smaller city of China, a Chinese family asking if we would be in a picture with them approached my friend and I. They were so enthusiastic and excited about getting a picture with a “Meiguo ren” (American)! So somewhere in China there is a picture of a Chinese woman and I on a bridge in the middle of a Chinese garden. And they aren’t the only ones who get beside themselves at the sight of a foreigner. Multiple times a day we would have people saying “Laogui, laogui!”, which means “foreigner, foreigner!” while we walked past. People would also come up to us and say “Hello!” because that was one of the only English words that they knew. Its so funny to see how entertained they are just from seeing people from another country!

·      Overall the differences, either being entertaining or tough to handle, make living in a foreign country much more interesting and I believe will force me to move out of my comfort zone and grow into a more international person. Since I hope to someday have the chance to work in an international company, I couldn’t be happier about my decision to throw myself into the culture and customs of China!

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!