大家好!
Wow it’s been a while! School has really kept me busy. It seems like it’s been so long since I had my fall break. Fall break was the first week of October since October 1st is National Day in China. It's their equivalent of the Fourth of July but with less fireworks. For my Fall Break I went to Shanghai. It was a very good time even though I was only there for three days, I was sick the whole time, and there were over 24 million people in the city because of the holiday. But I guess that’s China for you.
I took the high speed train down to Shanghai which took a little over four hours. I was surprised at just how much leg room there was on the train. Compared to an airplane, a lot more room so that was nice. There are several stops along the way and I would have liked to have left during the day so that I could have looked out the window, but we left at night so everything was dark.
My first day in Shanghai, I went to Shanghai Disney. Ever since my parents went to Disney for my brother’s Spring Break, I was jealous, so I knew that I had to go the Disney while in Shanghai. It’s a lot smaller than Disney World in Florida. We managed to go on all the rides and we just went for the day. The cool thing about Shanghai Disney is that it’s got rides that are special to Shanghai Disney. For instance, we went on this canoe ride (kind of lame. You can skip that one) in which the tour guide didn’t like us because we were the foreigners that didn’t know what was going on. We also went on a roller coaster called Tron and a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Miner Kart Ride. My favorite ride was the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride. Just wish we would have gotten to go on it a second time since it was Chinese and none of us understood it the first time. The other cool thing about Shanghai Disney are the shows that you can see. We went and saw a Pirates of the Caribbean show and a Tarzan show. Once again, the Pirates of the Caribbean show was cool, but we didn’t really understand the story. The Tarzan show, however, was probably my favorite thing of the day. It was a Cirque du Soleil esque style show where the actors were swinging on ropes, doing flips while on stilts, and flipping around the stage. It was also nice because we knew all of the songs so even though they were in Chinese we could still understand them.
On day two we went to Zhujiajiao 朱家角 otherwise known as Watertown. It was extremely beautiful and a nice contrast to the super modern Shanghai. There are shops all along the streets of Zhujiajiao and if you want to buy anything you have to barter. Even though bartering is very common in China, I still feel weird asking for a lower price. I’m sure I will get used to it eventually but right now it’s a scary world when you have to barter. In addition to going to Zhujiajiao, we also went to the Bund 外滩. The Bund is a waterfront area in Shanghai. At the Bund, there is the Pearl Tower which reminded me of the Eiffel Tower even though they didn’t look anything alike. We went at night and that is when I realized just how many people were in the city. Taking the subway back was a challenge because everyone was pushing to get on it before the last subway ran. Luckily, we got on before the subways closed otherwise it would have been a long taxi ride back. Another thing that I noticed is just how much everyone smokes in Shanghai. I’m sure it’s the same in Beijing but I noticed it a lot more in Shanghai. Everywhere you walk, you are walking into a puff of smoke.
On our last day in Shanghai, we went to the French Concessions 上海法租界. This was probably my favorite place in Shanghai. It was so beautiful and reminded me of when I was in France. From 1849-1943 this area was a foreign concession in Shanghai. This area was nice because there were a lot less people around and we could just stroll and take it all in. I think it was the perfect way to end the short break.
Overall, I think I prefer Beijing to Shanghai. I think that Shanghai is a lovely place, but it is too urban for me. Beijing felt more like home.
再见!
Until next week!
马乐
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