First month down in China! Phew, I can certainly say it has been quite interesting so far. My trip began with a fellow Rollins classmate, Jonathan, when we flew four days early to China to try to adjust to the jet lag sooner. During that time, we visited an underground market in a subway station at the Science and Technology Museum, the area around Yuyuan Garden, visited the Bund at night, the Oriental Pearl, and more. Our Chinese language classes are quite intensive (we’re learning over 20 new characters every school day) but all of the staff are helpful, friendly and my other classes are incredibly interesting. Enough about school, let’s get back to China itself. Most Westerners appear to be well liked here and sometimes receive special incentives. The air in Shanghai is quite polluted and the days are a bit hazy—certainly not as sunny as Florida. However, there are plenty of shops, restaurants, and (for the roughly 24 million people that live in Shanghai) is not as crowded as I expected. Last weekend, we visited Xi’an which is most famous for the clay soldiers there known as the Terracotta Warriors. We rode bikes on the old city wall (which was also the first time I ever rode a tandem bike), went to several museums to learn about the history and culture of China—especially the cultural and religious diversity of Xi’an. My favorite was probably the Forest of Stone Steles Museum where they have countless stones with various styles of calligraphy etched into them. Although a fire alarm sounded for about 20 minutes in our hotel just before midnight due to someone practicing traditional Chinese medicine in their room at 11:47 p.m., Xi’an was a very interesting and fun place! Last weekend, I visited Wuxi which is a short bullet train ride from Shanghai. The city is much less crowded and there are some neat places to visit such as Nanchang Temple (if I recall the name correctly) and I ate at IKEA for the first time which was pretty good. The trains are an affordable and efficient method of transportation here in China. I will add pictures once I get the site working properly on my laptop and/or phone. I also rode a “taxi” (random person driving a scooter actually) which seemed more like I was about to film Fast and Furious Shanghai Scooter style but I arrived just fine. Until next time!
