在上海我过中秋节 Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival in Shanghai

3-2-1-BREAK!!From day one, my Monday-Friday schedule has been quite intense (I'll show you one of these days, promise). But this past week was Mid-Autumn Festival here in China. So, our school gave us last Monday and Tuesday off, a total of a four-day weekend. Needless to say, my friends and I wanted to take full advantage of it! We decided Shanghai was the destination for us. 

Friday: 

Step One: First thing's first, we had to make it through our normal Friday ritual. Recorded pronunciation exam, review, test, language activity. Check! My friend and I were even able to fit our Friday afternoon gym time in!

Step Two:  

Arrive at Beijing Railway Station. Just like any holiday in America, the transportation stations were packed!I've been in China for just over a month now, so I'm used to a busy subway - but this was unreal. Once I entered the station I stopped walking and almost started crowd surfing! It took at least 15minutes to move less than 50m. 

Naturally, all of that hustling and busteling was well worth it. After going through an intense security system - consisting of a bag x-ray machine that no one was watching and a metal detector machine next to a guard who was texting - I made it to the platform! Platform 13 to be exact, although I will say I looked for 9 3/4 just to see if I could spot any Chinese wizards. 
Along with my friend Zack, I boarded the train (on the right side of the picture). We had "soft sleeper" tickets. Meaning that we had two of the four beds in a private room. After putting our baggage away we decided to explore the train a little bit more. It wasn't long before we found the food car and decided to spend some time there. 

Step Three:

It was finally time to stone and tumble! Or as others say, rock and roll! To celebrate the start of the adventure, I got a casual beer. I was shocked when I noticed it was a World War II Edition in Memory of the US Army beer. While I have to be honest and say it wasn't the best tasting beer I've ever had, it was definitely the most interesting edition! I stayed in the food car until I was finally tired enough to go to bed; and a grand total of 12 hours later...I ARRIVED IN (上海）SHANGHAI





Saturday:



So...when I first arrived in Shanghai, I was like...
                         








 OH MY GOODNESS I MADE IT TO SHANGHAI!!








And then I was like...










AWW YEAH, 'MERICA BREAKFAST TIME










After my amazing breakfast of eggs, sausage, and hash-browns; it was time to find a hostel. Finding a hostel was actually really easy. Finding Wi-Fi to search for a hostel was the real task at hand. I'm used to America, where almost every building has Wi-Fi; and if it doesn't I can just whip out my iPhone and use the internet on it. Not so much in China. Wi-Fi is rare and usually costs money to use. Luckily, Shanghai is a little more westernized than Beijing, so I finally found free Wi-Fi in a coffee shop. 

And there it is! My Shanghai home-sweet-home! For $7.00 a night, I think it was a pretty good deal. My hostel room even had free Wi-fi, air conditioning, and really nice showers! 

After a quick shower and lunch, it was time to explore! Zack and I met up with our friends on Nanjing Road. This is a very famous and busy shopping area in Shanghai. Needless to say, we took advantage of the shopping opportunity right away!! 

The real adventure of it all was when Zack said he wanted to look for a watch. A woman on the road heard him and said, "You want watch? This way - I have". So we followed her - for at least 10-15 minutes. When we came to a park, she tapped a man's shoulder and he began to follow us as well. Then we were lead into a corner of the subway station entrance and the man pulled watches out of his suitcase. Zack found one he wanted; and did a great job of haggling down the price. Afterwards, they asked if I wanted to look at bags. I said yes; and we began walking again. This time the woman took us into into a small shop - to the very back of it, up some very scary looking stairs, through a heat sensitive locked door, and finally into a small room filled with bags. I didn't end up finding one I wanted - but it was really cool going though the whole experience. 

I even found a real Apple Store! The government doesn't give Apple any protection in China. So there are hundreds, if not thousands, of copycat stores. 

When we had our fill of Nanjing Road, all of us made our way to The Bund. 

The Municipal Government Building (once called the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) was our first stop. We had to visit the lions (one of them pictured here giving me a cute little kiss). Legend has it that the lions of the HSBC Building will give you security and wealth, as they have given Shanghai, if you touch touch their mane and front paws. 

Not very far from the HSBC Building, we found the Chinese Bull! 

Our last adventure before dinner was to walk along the river and look at the beautiful Shanghai Skyline! My favorite building is the Oriental Pearl Tower (the funny one of the far left). Some people claim it's the ugliest building in the world...but those people obviously didn't see Penrose Library before it was renovated.

And of course, the ever classic peace sign pic had to be taken!

We even found a beautiful wall covered in flowers. Zack and I decided it was the perfect spot to review our Kung Fu.

Before our first full day in Shanghai came to a close, the group decided to explore the Shanghai nightlife. 

My dear friend Alex (second girl from the top) loves taking pictures - so she thought it would be cute if we took a "prom pic" of all the girls before we left the hostel. She was right!! :) 

Go immersion team! Whenever any of our friends needed help speaking Chinese over the break, they asked us. Although...there were times where we were little to no help. Shanghai has their own dialect and even way of speaking. A mix of Mandarin, Cantonese, and local dialect gives you Shanghainese. 









Sunday:

After a quick breakfast of Dunkin' Donuts (Yes mom, I did in fact still order the pink donut with the pink frosting), it was time to start our adventure to 朱家角 (Zhu-jia-jiao). It's known as the Venice of China. 
 

As soon as we got to Zhu-Jia-Jiao, we signed up for a boat tour. Our little tour guide took us up and down multiple water streets of the area. There were a lot of boats passing through so every now and again we played a quick round of bumper boats. 

The area is famous for it's old bridges. Some are made of only stone, while others are made of wood and stone. 

I really enjoyed the boat ride. It was nice being able to see most of the area from the comfort of a shaded boat. We even posed for pictures for people on the streets as we passed by.  When we finished the boat tour we found turtles!! I got a little too excited and picked one right up out of the water!What can I say, I'm a Delta Zeta girl after all! 

 And of course, there was more shopping to be done! However, this time the shopping was a little different than Nanjing Road. The items around this open market were more...unique. Yes, unique. That's a good word for this. You could buy anything from Chinese swords, to chickens (that would be killed and plucked right in front of you; to guarantee freshness).

Of course, being a hospitality major and all I was extremely fascinated by the food. Above is a bunch of...well I never quite figured out what. I know the leaf triangle looking things are filled with rice. And to the left is the "fast food" of the land.  

One of my friends bought a painting from this man. We got to watch him work on a new one. He really had a natural talent!

Here are my two top finds of the day!

I think this is super fascinating. Simply because I can't tell if it's bashing Obama or praising him. Naturally, in America it would be bashing him in multiple ways. But in China, a lot of people are still really big Mao fans - as well as Obama fans, I might add. So do you think this is directed towards American's who dislike Obama; or Chinese people who like him?

This is a perfect example why you should never rely on Google Translate or any other direct translator. 好好学习天天向上 is actually one of Mao's most famous quotes. Loosely translated it read, "If you study very well, you will succeed". It definitely does not translated to, "A good study, day day up". 

After a busy, busy day of running all around 朱家角 (Zhu-jia-jiao)it was time for an early birthday celebration; at my favorite restaurant in the world, Din Tai Fung! Their speciality is 小笼包 (Xiao-long-bao) - They're dumplings filled with soup and meat (or whatever else you'd like). Since I was the only person who had been there before, my friends were brave enough to let me order for everyone! 

So all of us had the hot and sour soup(酸辣汤:suan-la-tang), vegetarian fried rice (素食炒饭:su-shi-chao-fan), shrimp and pork steamed dumplings (虾仁猪肉蒸饺:xia-ren-zhu-rou-zheng-jiao),and then the two delicacies of the night truffle oil and chicken xiao long bao (松露油鸡肉小笼包:song-lu-you-xiao-long-bao),and mushroom xiao long bao (蘑菇小笼包:mo-gu-xiao-long-bao).

While I can't speak for everyone at the table, my favorites were the hot and sour soup along with the truffle oil xiao long bao. I feel so lucky that I was able to celebrate my birthday with such great friends...and such amazing food!!

                                                                 

 Even though we were celebrating that I am now the age of an adult; I (along with some of the table members) had to remind everyone that the older you get the younger you act!

Before heading back to the hostel, some of us picked up a little dessert! The first Starbucks (星巴克:xing-ba-ke)I've had in China! While I sure do miss making and drinking Scooters coffee; this Chinese Starbucks did a fine job with my Mocha Chip Frappe. 

When I got home I found my first birthday surprise, Danny (He's the one in the plaid)!! He wasn't able to make it to the birthday dinner; but he made sure to stop by for the celebration! After heading home to freshen up; two of my favorite boys, the ladies and I were lucky enough to go explore a Shanghai club called M2.

Monday:

Break was sadly coming to an end, but not before we explored one more Shanghai sight! The 豫园 (yu-yuan) garden. Of course before we made it into the garden...there was just a little bit more shopping to be done! Because the central focus of the 豫园 (yu-yuan) garden is it's 5 ton jade rock, jade was being sold everywhere. Grace and I found necklaces in one of the stores; she went with the snake and I went for the dragon. I also found a jade ring and bracelet (and haggled the prices down magnificently, if I say so myself).

Because everyone in China was on break; this famous garden was packed! Thank goodness I stand out a little bit, I was constantly getting swept away from the group by the crowds of people! I love this picture because it shows how beautiful the shopping area is, but also just how many people there were! 

After having our fill of jade purchasing and people surfing we made our way into the garden. It was absolutely spectacular! There were a lot of building built around the rocks so the area was kept very natural. It was a nice break for the concrete jungles that are Beijing and Shanghai. 

One huge difference between Shanghai and Beijing was the air quality! Shanghai has much more greenery and is less industrial than Beijing - so there was very little smog, if any really. 

And in the garden we also found this little guy. He was learning, "if you give a fish a bread crumb, the whole lake comes over". He was braver than I was! Some of the girls put their fingers in the water to feel the fishes mouth clamp onto them! 

I definitely wish we could have stayed there a little bit longer; but like I said it was time to start heading back. Before Zack and I hopped back onto the train, we went to Blue Frog-a yummy burger restaurant- with Danny and his Chinese friend. All of us had little bits of culture shock at the dinner table. We had ordered chili cheese fries (delicious) to share, and Danny's friend didn't know how to eat them. You see, at the Chinese dinner table you don't get your fingers dirty or eat with you hands like you sometimes do in America. We finally got him to 入乡随俗 (ru-xiang-sui-su), "Do as the Romans do" and dig in!All of us then proceeded to explain how you can't just group, "American" or "Chinese" cultures together. It all depends where you come from; Danny, Zack and I gave the example of how you have a different accent depending where you come from. Danny's friend explained different customs and dialects from different areas of China. It was honestly one of the best dinner conversations I've had here. 

After my great dinner date with three handsome boys, my favorite Tiger Beer, and a burger loaded with onion rings, BBQ sauce, and cheese...it was time to say goodbye to Shanghai. Even though just a few short days earlier, I was super excited to leave Beijing; I was just as excited to come home to it. That crazy concrete jungle is really starting to grow on me. 

xoxo,
公主雷洁