Well, I recently (actually about a month ago) went to Shanghai. Needless to say, it is a different world than Beijing. We got to fly out of the new terminal which was built to support the traffic for the 2008 games. It was pretty impressive:
Upon arrival in Shanghai, I got to ride the maglev. It was fast fast fast, about 430 Km/h, or 270 mph. I remember reading about this train when it was first built and thinking it was too bad I would never be able to see it. It is funny how things work out in the end, cause here I am:
The hostel where we stayed was really nice, which was a lucky break. It was right by the subway station and the people were helpful. When we arrived they were overbooked and they paid for us to stay at another, more expensive place for the first night. If you are looking to stay in Shanghai on the cheap, you should go to the Blue Mountain Youth Hostel.
The first sites that we visited were Nanjing Road and the Bund. Nanjing Road has lots of malls and shops and everything else you can imagine. It is bustling with engergy. This is a not-so-candid, "candid" picture of Reese and me walking. (Christoph is quite fond of the not-so-candid picture)
Once you reach the end of Nanjing Road, you have arrived at the Bund. The Bund is located on the opposite side of the Huangpu River from Pudong (Shanghai's financial district). The Bund was initially the Brittish section of Shanghai way back when. Here is a picture of Pudong from the Bund at night:
That night we went out and partied. Actually, we partied most every night. I don't remember what days contained what activities for that reason. I think I burned out some of those neural connections.
*** Inside joke alert ***
Christoph, you cannot fool me brother. I know we were never really on that boat. I don't care if Reese does have the ticket. This picture proves nothing:
On a day that I do remember, Christoph and I went to visit the Jin Mao Tower. It was the tallest building in the world for a while but nothing lasts forever... so sad. To truly appreciate my visiting of the tower and subsequent eye contact (that's right folks, eye contact) with Jet, thats what I call him now, one must first understand the context created by the preceding events that day:
We started out from our hostel at about noon o'clock. We were running late by Christoph's standards, but he is German. This was Christoph's second trip to the tower since arriving in Shanghai. He had gone once already by himself. The first time he went, he found a restaurant that looked nice and that is where we had lunch. I didn't have any money so Chris spotted me until we could get to an ATM. The price of the meal was 400 RMB, about 60 USD per person. It was by far the most expensive meal I have had in China, but it was worth every penny. Here is another not-so-candid picture of Chris:
"you mother f***** ****** ****** ******************** Bank of China ********** ****** ***** ********** ****** ***** ATM"
/\ /\ /\ That's a lot of expletives /\ /\ /\
After I calmed down from the blatant ATM theft, I tried to get my money back from the teller. He told me they would call me if they found my money. Then after a ridiculous amount of argument I got to talk to a manager. She said they would call me. Finally, they put me on a phone and let me talk to a customer service representative in Beijing because, get this, the Shanghai and Beijing branches cannot communicate with each other. At one point while on the phone with the lady in Beijing, I asked to speak with her manager. She informed me that her manager was listening to our conversation and would simply repeat what she said. I told her that I didn't care and that I wanted to hear it from the managers mouth, to which she replied, "I cannot let you talk to my manager, she is in a meeting".
Now how does that work exactly? Her manager is in a meeting and listening to my conversation at the same time? In China you have to get used to this kind of thing or you will go crazy. My roommate informed me that because BOC was once a state run commie enterprise, they still have an antiquated, inefficient, bureaucratic business culture. If you are coming to China, bank with BOC at your own risk. You have been warned.
Anyway, after 2 1/2 hours of trying every method imaginable to get my money, I gave up. I was defeated. The most they would give me was a vague promise that they would return my money if they found it, and then give me a phone call. On the way out of the bank I saw this:
Anyway, now it was time to go to the Jin Mao tower, so we did.
(It's the one in front)This is looking down through the Hyatt hotel, which is where Jet was staying.
After we saw the hotel, we took the train back to the hostel. By the way, the subway in Shanghai looks something like this:
Upon Arriving at the hostel, I got a "haircut" next door. The barber made a disastrous mistake with the clippers and after he took the chunk out of my hair I told him he'd better just continue. I came out looking like this:
Later on in the trip, Reese's dad came to visit.
It was a long eventful trip, but it was, alas, time to return home to Beijing. Good old dusty, dirty, smelly Beijing. I really am starting to feel at home here.
After settling back into my school routine, I had a visitor:
Here is a picture of us in front the Bird's Nest which is the main stadium for the 2008 Olympics.
Today was rainy, so I decided to go take some pictures of the Beijing University campus. The campus is supposedly one of the most beautiful in China, and I think it is especially nice when it's raining outside.
The library where none other than The Great Helmsman himself, Mao, once worked:
**** DISCLAIMER ****
Jet Li was not consulted prior to the publishing of this post. Jet Li firmly denies that he ever gave the author of this post permission to call him simply... "Jet". All opinions and viewpoints expressed above belong solely to the author and are not the viewpoints and opinions of the Jet Li franchise.
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