I woke up really early – at 4AM. I stayed awake until 7:30AM when I got up and took a shower. I ate breakfast (OJ and cheese and crackers) and watched an English language teaching show on TV. After getting ready, I headed out to Mark’s room. As I got out on the street, I realized that I had forgotten my razor and shaving cream. Since my room didn’t exactly have hot water, I was going to shave in Mark’s bathroom. I made a complete u-turn and went back to the entrance. As I raced in, the lady at the gate stopped and started shouting Chinese to me. I told her I didn’t understand. I tried to show her my key to prove that I lived there. After a few minutes, she called the head resident over. Of course he didn’t understand English either. After trying to explain to him that I didn’t understand, he brought me to his office to get me to fill out a Request of Residence form. I tried to explain that I had already filled one out, but he didn’t understand. After filling out the form, he took me up to the room. He motioned to me if there was anyone in the suite next to me. I said there was. He knocked on the door and woke Chris up. I told Chris I didn’t know what he was talking about. I was hoping Chris would be able to speak some Chinese to him, but Chris didn’t know any Chinese.The Bund
After filling out the forms and showing my passport to him, this seemed to satisfy him. I left to go to Mark’s room.
Mark was awake by now. It was Saturday and Mark had plenty of time to tour the city with us. After Mark got ready we headed over to the Foreign Students’ Dorm to pick up Chris. I had told Chris that Mark and I would be touring the city and that he was welcome to come along.
We got on a bus to go to People’s Square. Buses in Shanghai have a few single seats around the perimeter next to the windows. There are bars and handles for riders who choose or are forced to stand. The majority of the riders stand because of lack of seats. The cost of the ride was 1 YUAN (sometimes 2 YUAN if the bus is air conditioned) which Mark gave me a coin to cover the cost.
We got off at People’s Square. There was an abundance of people there. I wouldn’t say that it was overcrowded however. There were plenty of people selling kites. The grass is very well kept and there are signs in Chinese on the grass…I’m guessing it might say “Keep off the Grass.” In the middle of People’s Square is the Shanghai Museum.
While we were in People Square a couple of Chinese girls asked if they could have their picture made with me. Feeling a bit surprised and confused, I said “yes.” They made their picture, then Mark took a picture with my camera. Mark later said that my shirt (which was a Snoopy shirt) was inviting and may have made me seem friendly to some people.
We decided to head into the Shanghai Museum. Mark decided that we should get a double ticket to the Museum and to the Shanghai Grand Theatre to get the best value. Mark bought his ticket. I was expecting the ticket taker to ask me next. However a Chinese person had broke in front of me and was buying some tickets. This is how things operate around there. Chinese do not know how to form lines….it’s usually just a big mob of people. Mark said just to jump in there and get my tickets, so I did.
We took the tour on our own. We could have gotten an audio tour, but we decided to take the tour at our own pace. We saw authentic costumes, jade, and carved wood. As we were going along we met a Chinese girl whose English name was “Kate.” She asked if she could follow us around and practice her English. She was studying for an English language test in order to go to SUNY in New York State. We said that was fine, but we might be going to different places in the city. I later found that this was typical of Chinese English students. They will usually hang around tourist sites (sometimes buying a ticket) in order to meet up with English speakers to practice their English.
As we toured around the museum, I found myself more interested in Kate than these ancient artifacts. She seemed to speak English pretty well. Later Kate brought her friend Jack around. She said that Jack was not her boyfriend, but that he was just a friend. Jack spoke only a little English and remained silent most of the time.
We decided to leave the museum for Yu Yuan Garden. Kate and Jack accompanied Mark, Chris and me. They paid for the bus ride over there. This seemed to be the norm over there. Chinese people are very friendly and generous toward foreigners. They are willing to go out of their way to help you.
Yu Yuan Garden is a place with lots of bazaars and shops. We walked around and decided to find a place to eat. The first place we ate had a very long wait so we decided for another. At the second place, we only had a 10 minute wait. As we were waiting we had a conversation with a Chinese man in line. He said his favorite NBA team was the Houston Rockets. I’ve found that the NBA is very big in China. Everyone seems to have their favorite team.
For lunch we had some type of dumplings with sausage in the middle. I also had a Sprite. I found that Sprite does not taste like Sprite back home. It has a weird taste. After this meal I decided to drink Fanta and Coke for the rest of the trip. Sprite’s Chinese name is translated as “Green Water” since the can is green I guess. Fanta is a type of orange drink which tastes alot like Sunkist.
Kate paid for our meal even though she didn’t eat too much of this. Again this is an example of Chinese kindness we experienced.
After lunch we decided to go into the Garden part. Since Kate and Jack could not afford the ticket, we parted ways.
Inside the garden area we saw old pagodas….very typical of old Chinese architecture. While we were touring around we came to a place where they were doing paper cuttings. The man who was doing the cuttings was incredible. The cuttings were so intricate. He did a cutting of a tiger which was incredible. Chris bought the tiger cutting along with a Chinese animal astrology (dragon, rat, rabbit, etc) set. After Mark told me that he hadn’t seen anything like this before I decided to try to get a couple of cuttings for my sister and myself. The one I picked out for my sister was a picture of children playing an “Eagle and Chicken” game. I also picked out one of a ship sailing in a storm to remind me how scared I was to come to China. Mark wanted one too. He was able to negotiate the price down to a low level. The man who sold the cuttings to us was very impressed with Mark. He asked for Mark’s contact information. Mark gave him his phone number and email address. I later found out that Mark gave a fake phone number since he wasn’t too keen about giving out his phone number to just anyone he meets.
We toured around again and came to a place that does chop carvings. These are traditional stamps that Chinese businessmen use to endorse documents. I got one made with a rabbit on top of it since the year I was born is a rabbit year.
After the carving was done we took a taxi to the Shanghai Grand Theatre to finish our tour. The theatre was very plush. There was various tour guides around to give tours in English. Chris made one of the tour guides laugh uncontrollably as we entered the auditorium. He was trying to see if there was a step nearby. The tour guide saw it and lost her composure and started laughing. She must have told the other tour guides about it since after that other tour guides laughed when they saw us. In the auditorium we saw a play practice.
While we were touring around we saw a ballet practice. I was thinking these girls were probably very self conscious with all of these visitors around to watch them practice.
We got to the top level of the building and it seemed like ages until we saw another tour group lady. They seemed to abandon us at this top level. We finally saw a tour group lady was on the elevator to come down. We would have taken the elevator, but Chris wasn’t around. He was trying to catch up with another tour guide to ask how to get down.
We caught another elevator down. Chris asked the tour guide if we could go up instead of down, which made the female tour guide laugh again.
We got to the bottom of the Theatre and browsed at a gift shop cabinet. Mark had a 10 minute long conversation in Chinese with the lady at the gift shop. He told her that he was an English teacher at a local university and that I didn’t know any Chinese and was visiting the country as a tourist.
After that we tried to go out a different way, which we were promptly directed by security go out the front doors. We saw a wedding couple getting their pictures made in front of the theatre. They had a red Pontiac Firebird – obviously rented.
After this we went to the Bund. The Bund is a riverfront area. When the British occupied Shanghai they built up this area to look like the French Riverfront. We took pictures of the Oriental Pearl Tower which is somewhat like the Sunsphere in Knoxville. It definitely isn’t the tallest building in Shanghai, but it a great landmark. There wasn’t too much to do on the Bund, just stop and look around and take pictures.
We left the riverfront for supper. We decided on Italian. Mark said that Ginos Cafe was a good choice. We went in and got a table. We decided to find a bathroom use and to wash our hands. The nearest one was in a department store nearby. Mark said that it was okay to leave their stuff there. However I was not taking any chances. I took my paper cuttings and stamp and my camera with me.
We got back to the restaurant and ordered. Mark and I ordered lasagna while Chris order pizza. The lasagna tasted different…somewhat less cheesy.
After dinner we stopped by a CD and Video store. Chinese have movies on discs…somewhat like DVDs but in a different format. Many of these movies are pirated by bringing a video camera into the movie theater. For CD’s we saw mostly Chinese language singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan. I did see a few English singers such as Celine Deon, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sheryl Crow.
After we got back to the University we switched room from the International Students’ Dorm to the Guesthouse. This was the same building that Mark was in. This was a big improvement. The International Students’ Dorm had peeling paint and a large box shaped kitchen sink with it. The Guesthouse was setup like a hotel room with a bathroom. To save a little money Chris and I decided to share a room for 200 Yuan total. There were twin beds in one room and then another room with a long couch and TV.
After unpacking I hung out with Mark and then went to my room to get some sleep.