shanghai observatory

The same day we went to Qibao Laojie we made a complete change and went from the ancient Shanghai to the Shanghai’s most modern area around the Pearl Tower; really different, another kind of beautiful! We went up to the world’s highest observatory center at Shanghai’s World Financial Center. We went right before the sunset around 5 so it was perfect because we got to see the view at daylight, sunset and night!

The elevator went between 8 to 10 meters per second. The last floor was 474 meter high.

lucky crickets

After a whole week of rain, on Friday we were finally greeted by the sun, maybe a little too much sun. They don’t lie when they say the summer here can get really bad. You can be outside, doing nothing, but be sweating as if you had been running for an hour. We took advantage of having a break from the rain to go to Qibao Ancient Town, also known as Water Town because it’s crossed by two water lanes. The town is 1000 years old and the name ‘Qibao’ means seven treasures. The town is named Qibao because, according to legend, seven treasures were housed in the town. History, however, states that only four treasures, the Gold Lotus Scripture written by an imperial concubine of the 10th century, the Big Bell, the Magic Tree dating back 1,000 years and the Golden Cock ever actually existed- and only two- the Scripture and the Bell-survive today.  

 

They sold a lot of crickets in the streets and they were chirping REALLY loud. Crickets are a sign of good luck and wealth, it’s like the Mulan cricket! They say the more crickets invade a family's residence, the wealthier that family will become.

diet shoes! These shoes said they were for dieting! XD

And of course there were lots of snacks! Food is really important for Chinese XD. One of they way Chinese people usually ask ‘How are you?’ is by asking ‘Ni chi le ma?’ which literally translates to ‘Have you eaten?’1) bamboo filled with rice and pork, 2) mango watermelon ice, 3) I don’t know what the bunnies are but they looked cute, 4)the thing that looks like a cave is actually a bunch of eggs and the hard shell is all salt, 5) I had never seen durian so big!!!, 6)black stinky tofu, I don’t think I could try this!! I think I can even see some green in there >< The lady said it was almost the same except a little more ‘sour’ which for me makes it sound less appetizing

Trying stinky tofu!! It was pretty good. I can’t believe it but I liked it.

Yuyuan Garden

Sunday was Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu Festival), so some of the Shanghai volunteers took us out to Yuyuan Garden to see if they had any activities. Duanwu Festival is major holiday and the one with the longest history. The legend says the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan who committed suicide by drowning himself on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. The local people, who admired him, dropped sticky rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river to feed the fish and prevent them from eating Qu Yuan’s body. This is one of the reasons it’s a tradition to eat zongzi on this holiday. It is also said the local people paddled out on boats to retrieve his body hence the origin of dragon boat racing. We didn’t see the dragon boat racing but we did get to eat some zongzi. It was very good but I miss my Popo’s (grandma’s) zongzi back in Panama.

This was a very interesting zigzag shaped bridge

I loved this wall, the dragon is so creative!

Group picture!

Yu Garden also known as the Garden of Happiness or Peace is about 2 hectares big. I really liked this garden, it’s probably one of the nicest I’ve visited so far. It was like a little maze with small houses, bridges, lakes and nature in between. Everything had so many unique details. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a house there? It was so peaceful, it was like stepping into another world right in the middle of the Shanghai’s hectic streets.

green tea ice cream with basil seeds and vanilla, milk custard and almonds & mochi balls and peanuts

In the afternoon we went to Honeymoon, a Hong Kong desserts restaurant in Wu Jiang Lu. They had many odd things but they all looked really good!! What I like about Chinese desserts is that they’re not overly sweet. Honeymoon is definitely a place, we will be visiting again.

So far I’m loving Shanghai. It’s a very different life from Tianjin. Tianjin was a lot more quiet and slow while Shanghai is a lot more hectic. There’s people everywhere walking and so many things to do; it has a very New York feeling to it. What I’ll really be missing from Tianjin are the prices! I think in Shanghai everything’s about double the price since it’s a very touristic area. In Tianjin a meal could be just about 1 USD. I know 3-5 USD is still very cheap but when you see it in yuans it makes a difference seeing 12Y compared to 24Y and for 4.5 weeks we were spoiled with very veryy low prices.

Shanghai

China has the longest high speed rail network in the world. We took the high speed train to travel from Tianjin to Shanghai. The train went at an average speed of 210 km/h although it can reach a speed of up to 430 km/h. The journey took only 5 hours, had we taken a regular train it would have been over 16 hours of traveling!

Ajisen noodle salad

our classroom in Shanghai

we tried the famous Shanghai xiao long bao

The campus is right in the middle of a huge shopping area!!

went for haircuts today

We also walked around Yuyuan Market, a street with traditional old Shanghai buildings

and joined a flash mob

Alexander, me, Daniel and James

再見天津！

Some pictures from around Tianjin University campus and Tianjin city. You might wonder, as I did, why some of the buildings look like they belong more to Europe than Asia, the story behind it is kind of interesting. In the past many foreign countries had concessions in Tianjin among them Germany, USA, France, Belgium. Japan and Russia. Similar to Panama, Tianjin had a strategic geographical location at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Peiho River that made it one of China’s premier ports. Hence, many of its buildings look foreign. However you might be surprised to hear that most of these buildings have been torn down and rebuilt. The government has been rebuilding European style buildings that seem to be “old” all along the Haihe river area to attract tourism and make Tianjin a more commercial area. So all the buildings you see along the river although they seem old, they may be less than two years old. What’s even more surprising is that they’re currently empty! Their specific use has not been determined apart from creating a pleasing atmosphere.

It is very common in Tianjin to see bikes everywhere. Ever since the first day I came I’ve wondered how two people ride in one bike, how stable is just sitting in the back, whether it requires much balance or if it’s even comfortable. The other day I had the ‘luck’ to try it out! When I went for dinner with some Tianjin friends they all had bikes but since I didn’t have one we were walking until they all agreed we would never get there and I should just ride with one of them. I’ve concluded that it’s not as carefree as it seems to be or at least I’m not used to it. It is especially not fun when crossing the street. Remember how I said traffic was crazy and crossing the street felt like a serious danger? Well it’s even scarier when you can only but trust the person controlling the bike! It also requires a lot of abs muscle power since you have to balance your weigh to not fall back and you only have a very small “seat” space.
Tomorrow we’re leaving to Shanghai! I really can’t wait to see the world’s largest city (population-wise)! Tianjin has been really nice, I especially liked the people. Everyone has been so welcoming and nice. 我會想我天津的朋友！:(