“Shanghai is (relatively) one of the safest cities in the world,” this is a quote from one of the wonderful Chinese roommates who volunteered to live with us for the rest of the semester. He gave me this fun little nugget of knowledge on my first full day in China, and admittedly when I heard him say this to me, I politely smiled and nodded, not trying to step on any toes, but was definitely wondering if this kid was being sarcastic or if he just enjoyed misleading study abroad students. I thought, “there’s no way, absolutely not. I mean, I didn’t come here thinking I was putting my life at risk, but still… Shanghai???” But can you blame me? What images of Shanghai do we have in America? “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, “Armageddon” were all set in Shanghai. These movies don’t exactly scream “we have well-lit streets and a general sense of public security,” but when I found out he wasn’t lying, and that Shanghai actually is pretty safe, as far as giant metropolises go, I was pleasantly surprised! I can do things in China that I would never do in America. I walk around by myself at night, I give people that I don’t know my contact information, I shared a car with some strangers I met on a dirt road outside of Xi ‘An (one might call that hitchhiking, but I like to think of it as making quick, new friends when you need to make your flight on time) I would also like to say, on the record, that I do not support anyone thinking about visiting Shanghai to do the same. Hitchhiking is still bad. Don’t do it. Just don’t.
Sincerely,
A girl who should have just grabbed tickets for the next flight