On Sunday, My friend Nadia and I went and explored the Shanghai Municipal History Museum, located at the base of the Oriental Pearl Tower.
The museum gave an overview of Shanghai's history and helped me to understand the structure of the city. It still amazes me that the now-classic skyline has only existed for about 25 years.
After the museum, we went and explored the waterfront. Usually I spend most of my time on the Puxi (East of the Pu River) side, but the museum was on the Pudong (East of the Pu River) side, so we got to see the river from the opposite side as usual.
The next day I went to a coffeeshop in Jing'an to do work. I have't always been a big fan of the coffeeshop culture but I have really adopted it here and find myself naturally gravitating towards them when I need a place to do schoolwork. There are an unbelievable number of coffeeshops in Shanghai so it makes it easy. I went and got sushi that afternoon and then had a chiropractic appointment. I was a little weary about going to the chiropractor here, but it ended up being the best experience I have ever had. The chiropractor was incredibly knowledgeable and had been a physical trainer for a soccer club in France. Following my back cracking, I went to a rooftop bar to have a glass of wine and finish off the day.
The following day, Tuesday, I had off school for Labor Day, a public holiday. I spent the day doing work before celebrating the holiday with Mexican food at a place called Togo Taco that is write down the street from where I live. We go occasionally, mainly for the 10 yuan tequilla shots and delicious margaritas, but the tacos aren't bad, and when you haven't had good Mexican food in a while, it really gets the job done.
I had class all day on Wednesday, so it was a pretty uneventful day.
On Thursday, I had class in the mid afternoon before meeting some friends at a bar. We hung out for a little before biking about two miles to a different bar, where we sat outside and had a beer. After drinks, I headed to dinner with my roommates and our club promoter, Darpan. I met Darpan a few months prior and he has been a real liaison to the city. He is an interesting guy, so when he asked us to grab dinner, we happily agreed. We spent a few hours eating pizza and talking about the nightclub industry in Shanghai, Darpan's ideas for startups, and the differences between China and India (where Darpan is from). It was a fun experience and I learned a lot.
On Friday, Nadia and I went to a modern art museum called Power Station of Design. It is housed inside of an old power factory.
As soon as you walk in, there is a giant room with a giant pile of clothes in the middle and a crane bucket above it. The crane is on a cycle and every once in a while, it will reach down and pick up the clothes and then drop them. Art.
After exploring the museum for a few hours, we had to head out to go and meet our school group for a company visit. There were about ten of us who went to a digital sports marketing company, The Mailman Group, to learn more about how sports teams and players interact with their Chinese audiences on social media. The event lasted about two hours and they happily answered all of our questions and helped us understand social media in China a little more.
Following the visit, we went to an Irish bar to grab a beer, before heading to dinner at a Lebanese restaurant for lamb kabobs. After Dinner, I headed back to my apartment because I had to be up early the next day.
The next day, Saturday, GW took us on a day trip to neighboring Hangzhou. We left at 7:00 AM from our apartments. The bus ride took a few hours and we arrived around 10:45 to the Lingyin Buddhist Temple. We walked around for a few hours, but due to the rain, no one was super excited about being outside. It was very pretty and natural.
After the temple, we went and had a traditional lunch. We were told that all of the food was native to Hangzhou, but most of it I had had in other parts of China, so either Hangzhou is where a majority of popular Chinese food comes from, or they exaggerated a little.
Following lunch, we went to a "theme park" to see a show. The theme park was all over the place. I think it could best be described as a Chinese take on a renaissance fair. The show we saw was self described as the "third best show in the world" and told about the history of Hangzhou. It was interesting but rather hard to follow since I didn't speak Chinese. The special effects were pretty crazy and at one point the whole stage got flooded with water.
After the show, we hurried to West Lake to take a boat trip. Unfortunately, because we were running late, we were only able to get on the boat that took you to the other side of the lake, not the one that stops at the artificial island in the middle of the lake. Regardless, the lake was very pretty and had great surroundings.
We then set off on our three hour journey home. It was Cinco de Mayo but everyone was too exhausted to go out and celebrate by the time we got back at 8:30.
This was a pretty great past week, and its been great being able to truly see all that Shanghai has to offer. I feel like I could spend the next year here and still not understand this city, but I definitely feel like I have gotten a pretty good start on things.
No comments:
Post a Comment