Finals

I was lucky and was able to move all of my finals early.  Since all of my classes are pass/fail here I was not terribly concerned about my finals, but I still had a bunch of tests the last week. Two in Mandarin, one in Microbiology, a report for Microbiology, a report for Sociology, and a Sociology test. I made it through all of them and on Friday I was done with the education part of Hong Kong forever. Getting through all the tests was made easier because I knew that at the end of the week I was leaving for Thailand!

Overall, my classes at HKUST we pretty good. With the exception of Microbiology Lab they were all educational and worthwhile. I enjoyed my Chinese Political History class the most, it taught me a lot of about Chinese society, although since it was taught by someone who was educated at Stanford that lives in Hong Kong, it wasn’t exactly from a Chinese perspective. I wish I had put a little more time into Mandarin, but I got busy with other things. 

Singapore Day 1

I have not caught up on the rest of my blog (most is written but not posted) but here is what I did today.

The trip started by catching a taxi from HKUST. There is a special service put on by a guy named Dennis for flat rate taxis around Hong Kong for students, and we had called him for a pickup. Usually when you do this you get one of Dennis’s friends, but we got the actual Dennis, which was very cool. The best part is he is probably one of the only taxi drivers in Hong Kong that is fluent in English so we had an interesting talk on the way to the Airport.

The airport the flight was nothing exciting. I managed to catch up on some schoolwork and most of my blogging on the 4 hour flight. When we landed in Singapore and got through customs, I felt the first wave of heat. The heat index was in the mid 90’s and it was very humid. Something that is cool about Singapore is that almost everyone speaks English. They speak other languages (Chinese, malay, etc) but I haven’t found someone yet that does not speak any English at all, so telling the taxi driver where to go was easy.

Singapore was a British Colony until shortly after WWII and then became apart of Malaysia. The Malay people didn’t like the number of Chinese people in Singapore, so they rejected Singapore from the country making Singapore the only country to gain their independence involuntarily.  Now Singapore is probably the most diverse place I have ever been to. There is an almost even mix of South East Asians, Indians, Chinese, and Caucasians. It is odd when in public, all of the signs and menus are in English, but almost no one speaks English in their conversations.

The taxi driver took us to the hostel, and after checking in. David and I set out walking around the area. What we noticed then and for all of today is that the streets are very oddly clean and not noisy at all. The location our hostel is in is awesome as well. It is in the Arab district of Singapore, and right down the street from us is a large mosque. After a bit of exploring we headed back to the hostel and went to bed. The hostel accommodations were perfect except for our roommates. For some reason they found it necessary to turn the lights on at all hours of the night, and then wake up at 7 am, turn the lights on then (even though the room had plenty of sunlight). They also thought it was a good idea to let their alarm go off for 30 minutes straight. Oh well though, hopefully they are gone tonight.

Mosque down the street

After waking up to the annoying people, David and I set out for the Marina Bay Sands. We had heard that it was possible to get to the roof, but we were not sure how. This hotel opened last June, and is very nice. It has a casino, multiple shops, high class restaurants. And most importantly a sky park that connects the 3 buildings, and has a 150 meter long infinity pool. We took the elevator to the top floor but they wouldn’t let us on without a key and told us we could purchase a viewing pass instead down below. We went and purchased that pass and went back up to the top. At the top there were certain things that tourists can do and certain things guests can do, like swim in the pool. They don’t monitor this boundary very well though, so we went to the pool.  The views from the upper deck, especially the pool, were awesome. It was very cool to go swimming and when turning my head to breathe looking out over the city from above. I was worried we would get caught, but we didn’t for the hour we spent there, and even got free samples and fruit water.  Overall this lounging by the pool and swimming made the entire trip to Singapore worth it.

Infinity pool

Marina Bay Sands

After the skypark we explored the surrounding area. Then I realized that I had lost my passport. Thankfully I remembered I had left it at the Skypark but was worried they would catch us when I went to retrieve it. Thankfully though someone had found it and turned it in to lost and found and it was recovered without hassle. I think of all the places to lose a passport the poolside of a 5 star hotel is probably near the top of the list for not really having to worry.

After the passport issue was all sorted out, we continued exploring, including going across a very cool helical bridge.

Marina Bay Sands and Helix bridge

We walked all the way around the Marina and looked at all of the modern buildings of Singapore, and then took the MRT to the district of Little India for lunch.

The restaurant we ate lunch at was very interesting. Although the menu was in English, I didn’t know what any of the actual dishes were. Also interesting was that it was all finger food. There were no utensils in the entire restaurant it seemed. The food was very good though. I ordered a tortilla like thing that was dipped in different sauces. It was also very cheap.

After lunch we took the MRT around Singapore exploring many of the shopping malls that the country has. I swear there is a shopping mall almost everywhere in the country, it is ridiculous. Singapore does not have a lot for big tourist attractions so we spent our time just exploring the culture, which seems to be a lot of high end shopping.

We then headed to the home of the original Singapore Sling, the Raffles Hotel Bar. Raffles was the “finder” of Singapore for the British, and there is a very nice hotel named after him. The hotel is in colonial style, and very cool looking.

Singapore Sling

We went to the bar and ordered Singapore Slings and only afterward found out that the total bill was over 20 USD a drink! But oh well it was worth the experience to try the original.

We ended our night by taking the MRT to the world’s only nighttime zoo. At this zoo, you get to go on a safari through the jungle and see many animals very close up. The non violent ones would be able to be touched if you got off of the tram. It was a very cool experience. There were also trails to go see other animals, such as a giant flying squirrel which was bigger than a house cat, and fruit bats which were very cool and you could get very close to. Sadly my camera isn’t suited for nighttime photos in dimly lit conditions of moving animals, so none of my pictures really turned out but the experience was very cool.

Fireshow at Night Safari

After the zoo we took the MRT back to our hostel and I am now going to bed.

Random Shenzhen Trip

Shenzhen

My only Tuesday was cancelled so I used the day to head off toward the western new territories to see the wetlands. I arrived all the way there to find out that the wetlands are closed on Tuesdays (guess I should have checked that out). So instead, I went to use the only Hong Kong-China border crossing that I had not done yet, the Western Crossing bridge to Shenzhen. This is a 2 km long bridge that goes across the Shenzhen Bay. The ride on the bus over the bridge was very cool, I got a nice view of both Shenzhen and Hong Kong, as well as these weird rafts that were floating in the water.

Bridge

Weird Rafts

Once on the other side I got to experience another new thing for me. Hong Kong drives on the left, and China drives on the right so at the other side there is a crossover and suddenly we were driving on the other side of the road! Hong Kong rents a small portion of land from China, so there is a part when you arrive where you are in China but the area is policed by Hong Kong, and you haven’t passed through immigration yet, which is a little weird.

I headed through immigration, and then walked around the surrounding area for the next few hours. One of the things I saw was the the main stadium for the University Games. After seeing this stadium and the ones in Beijing I am really disappointed in how America makes stadiums. We do it so boring.

When I wanted to go back to the border I had a problem. I didn’t know the exact name of the border in Chinese and I don’t speak enough to explain where I wanted to go to a taxi driver. I tried to say Hong Kong, at which point the driver suggested the other two border crossing that were far away and not where I had come in. I tried to translate “bridge” on my iPod but for some reason it gave me bridge as in a bridge between two ideas, rather than a physical bridge. I gave up on the taxi, but thankfully I eventually found a bus that would take me to the border. I went back through immigration and went back to campus.

I think that it is really cool that I can just take a day trip to China for around US$5. That’s something I for sure will not be able to do in Minnesota. 

Monkey Mountain

We had off classes for Easter Monday, so 3 other exchange students and I went to see Hong Kong’s “Monkey Mountain.” This hill is in a park located just a little bit north of the busy Kowloon metropolitan area and is packed with wild monkeys. From what I read online, these monkeys are the offspring of pets people released in the past but now they live in this park.

They didn’t like me very much for some reason (maybe because of my aviator sunglasses) and if I got too close they would hiss and show their teeth. It was a little intimidating. Although it is against the law, many people fed the monkeys which was interesting to watch. They eat very similar to a human, except that sometimes they do it while hanging upside down by their feet. Monkey Mountain was something I had wanted to do in Hong Kong for awhile, so I am glad I finally was able to do it. It was exciting to see a wild exotic animal. The park also included some scenic views of downtown, and nice hiking trails through the forest. 

I really like how Hong Kong is both a huge metropolitan city and at the same time a largely undeveloped natural area.

Sharps Peak

On Sunday, a few other exchange students and I decided to hike to one of the peaks in Hong Kong, called Sharps peak. We arrived at the trailhead and then started hiking toward the mountain. When we first saw the peak from afar it was a little discouraging to know that we still had a very long way to go both horizontally and vertically.

The Peak from Afar

Free Range Cow

For most of the way to the very base of the peak the trail was paved which made it easier to hike, but it still was slightly challenging to hike up and down the steep hills. We were also in a bit of hurry because we didn’t want to have to come back down in the dark, so that made the hike even more strenuous. All along the trail we notice “evidence” of a cow, but we didn’t actually run into one, until we got to a small village and then it appeared around the corner. It was kind of odd just to have free roaming cattle, especially in the mountains, but I guess that is the tradition.

We eventually reached the point where we had to diverge from the paved trail and go on more treacherous terrain, at which point we were greeted by this sign.

WARNING SIGN

We then started the hike/climb to the top. The entire way was full of excellent views and you should check out my facebook album to check out some of the pictures I took. There were points along the way when I doubted my ability to safely make it to the top, especially the gravely and steep parts.

Steep Climb

Finally though we reached the peak, and were rewarded with a fabulous view of the surrounding mountains, as well as some beaches and in the distance we could even see China! We took many pictures at the top of ourselves and the landscape. It was for sure worth the climb, and is one of the coolest things that I have ever done. It also gave me a new appreciation for real mountain climbers. Sharps peak is a little under 500m tall, so techinically is not really a mountain by most definitions, and we were able to climb it without special equiptment. I can only imagine what it would be like to climb a real mountain. Although my pictures were cool they fail to capture the amazingness of what it was like.

Marker on Top

The View

Me on the edge

Mountains off in the distance

On the way back down we chose a different path down in order to go to the beaches we had seen. It was a bit of a risk because we weren’t 100% sure the trail led there, but our risk paid off. We even got to stop at this giant rock that overhangs the valley a bit and take a bunch of pictures.

Way down

Pride Rock

The beach we arrived at was awesome. A long white sand beach, with very fine sand. The water was very shallow and warm and there were also perfect waves for body surfing. It was excellent!

Awesome Beach

At that point we were ready to head back, so we went to the village that was on the beach. At this point we found out that the only way to reach this village is by a ferry (which was closed and it cost 900 HKD for a private ride) or a 5 Km hike back to our starting point. We chose the hike and trekked back through the hills. The only thing that was keeping us going was the fact that on the other side was food!

Eventually we reached the starting point where we had called a taxi to pick us up at. We took it to Sai Kung and finally our sweaty and salt-water smelling bodies were able to eat real food. I got a slice of pizza from a local pizza place, and it was amazing.

That night after taking a shower I slept amazing. Hiking Sharp’s peak was one of my favorite things, possibly my favorite. Everything about it was amazing. The views, the hike, and the people I went with. Hopefully I am able to do a bit more hiking before leaving. 

Homestay

The day after my birthday celebration, I woke up at 8 am to go to Shenzhen for a homestay with the family of Will, a HKUST student whose family lives there. I was excited to go but 8 am after going out was a bit rough, but by the end of the 2-hour journey to his home from campus I was fine.  

First we stopped at his family’s apartment, which was very conveniently located right above the bus stop. His home was very similar to a regular apartment in the United States, minus having access to Facebook. One thing that was different was that when we entered we switched shoes from outside shoes to a pair of shoes for inside.

Shenzhen Government Building

Will and I left and took a bus to a tall hill that overlooks Shenzhen. Along the way Will pointed explained what all of the buildings we were passing were. My favorite was the Shenzhen Government Building. The architecture was just so large and flamboyant it was fascinating.

Shenzhen is hosting the World University Games this summer, so a lot of the city is under construction for improvements. Sometimes I am a little disappointed I am not staying for the summer like some exchange students. I could go to the University Games and the FINA World Aquatic Championships in Shanghai, but oh well.

We hiked up to the top of the hill overlooking the city. A lookout at the top had good views of the entire city and also had a giant statue of Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China during the Tiananmen Incident. According to Will, Shenzhen loves him though, because he is the person that pushed for Shenzhen to become one of China’s Special Economic Zones (Zones where the rules are much more capitalistic) which caused Shenzhen’s economy to flourish.

The rest of the afternoon, Will and I walked around Shenzhen and we shared aspects of our cultures. Something that surprised me in most of Shenzhen was the utter lack of foreigners. The border area that I had visited twice previously has many foreigners but in the rest of the city they are absent. One effect of this was when we were at lunch and Will asked them if they had an English menu, they just laughed.

After exploring the city, we went back to his home for dinner. When we arrived I got to meet his parents, who speak very little English. They were able to say hello though, and were amused when I said “ni hao” back. Dinner was an interesting experience. I had never eat a real Chinese meal before so I didn’t know what to expect. We started a bowl of soup, that you had to finish before you could eat other food, because it was your only dish. Thankfully I liked the soup, because I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t. After the soup was gone we filled our bowls with rice, and then served ourselves “family style” from a selection of a few dishes of meat and vegetables on the table. All of the food was very good. I wasn’t very hungry after lunch and didn’t eat much, though , and sadly Will’s mom thought I was because I didn’t like the food. I tried to tell her, through Will, that this was not true, but I don’t know if she believed me. After dinner we had some coconut milk to celebrate my birthday. I hadn’t told them it was my birthday before hand because I didn’t want them to make a big deal out of it, but it the coconut milk was a very nice treat.

After dinner, Will and I walked around his neighborhood and he showed me some of the places he went to school and other things from when he was growing up. He explained to me China’s system of exams for getting into High School and College. In primary school, all students are tested, and their results determine what High School they get into, and same for getting into college. The High School you go to has a large effect on your college exam results, so basically a test you take in primary school could determine the rest of your life.

The next morning we woke up and had dumplings and rice for breakfast. Usually dumplings are served for special occasions and holidays, so they made them for my birthday which was nice. I want to try making dumplings at home, it is something that is severely lacking in American food and I don’t know why. Fried bread with meat inside. Really I have no idea why there aren’t Dim Sum restaurants in the US like there are in China. Business Idea!

Bird people on the Beach

After breakfast, we headed out in his family’s car to explore the edges of Shenzhen. Our first stop was to drive into the Mountains nearby and look at the cool amusement parks and hotels there. It was a very cool place, and I am sure a bit more expensive than a hostel. We stopped for photos along the way a few times as well.  

Will's Parents with a popular chinese saying

Afterward we went to a nice beach. Sadly it was raining/cloudy so not a really good beach day, but it was still cool to visit. This beach will be the location of the beach volleyball for the University games, and because of that there are lots of cool buildings and sculptures surrounding it. It would be cool to visit on a clear day as well, because supposedly you can see Hong Kong.

For lunch we stopped at McDonalds because I had told them that the type of food I usually eat at home is burgers and pizza. Will’s mom didn’t think one meal was good enough for a “fat” boy like me, so she had me get another burger and also ordered me some chicken wings. This was a bit too much food for me, but I understand her view that she didn’t want her guest to go hungry.

We drove around Shenzhen for a bit more including visiting a Russian war ship that docked as an exhibit, similar to the aircraft carrier in New York. While there Will and I discussed our countries’ militaries and how they get soldiers in times of need. America had the draft, but China would just take people off the street and force them into the service. I can imagine at the times they needed this that people were afraid to even go out.

On our way back to his home, our car got rear ended by another. So I got to experience the cultural experience of arguing over what the damage would cost. Similar to the US if you are in an accident your rates go up (in China, your “discount is decreased”), so both parties wanted to avoid filling a report. Eventually they agreed on an acceptable price for the damages and we went back to Will’s home for dinner before leaving.

After dinner we took some group pictures, then Will and I headed back to HKUST.

Homestay Family

Half in Hong Kong (right) half in China (left)

Overall I very much enjoyed my experience in at the homestay, it was interesting to get a non-tourism view of China, and to eat an authentic Chinese meal. Will’s parents were very nice to me, and I very much appreciated their hospitality. As I could not really convey this directly to them, I made sure to tell Will to pass it on. If anyone on exchange has the opportunity for a home stay in your home country I would highly recommend it!

Birthday!

Birthday Flowers!

Thursday was my birthday. To celebrate, first me and two of my friends went out to dinner at a Restaurant on the top of the IFC mall called Red Bar+Restaurant. The bar was very nice and included an outdoor area with a view overlooking Hong Kong Harbor. I ordered a pizza, which was very good. The three of us also ordered a bottle of wine. When the bill came around however, they seemed to have forgotten to put the HK$440 bottle of wine on the bill. We waited awhile to see if they would catch it, and we even asked if we could take our glasses out on to the observation deck. But they still didn’t remember, so I we wrote it off as a very nice birthday present to me. After dinner, we walked around the park at the top of the IFC mall and looked out over Hong Kong Harbor for awhile, before heading to LKF to continue my birthday celebration. There we met up with a few other HKUST people and spent the night going to bars and clubs, which sadly I won’t be able to do in the US for another year.

For my Birthday, Courtney was very nice to send me flowers as well.

Weekend of April 15-17

Bird Market

The weekend of April 15-17, I also wanted to continue to explore the parts of Hong Kong I had missed. Friday I woke up rather late, but eventually headed to see the Goldfish and Bird Markets in Mong Kok with another exchange student. Both markets were very cool, just because of the number of different stores selling almost the same thing. The prices were also very cheap. The bird market as cool because of all the different colorful birds that were available. The Goldfish market, had lots of stores selling many types of tropical fish, as well as dog and cat stores, and restaurants. 

Bird Market 

Goldfish Market

The next afternoon I went on a boat trip that was set up by the International Student Association.  We rented out two big boats and spent the day floating in an area across the bay from campus. The boats also included two speedboats, so some people, including me, got to go wakeboarding and banana boating. It was a lot of fun. Another cool aspect was that since we had two boats it was possible to swim between the boats and visit the people on each boat. Diving/jumping off the upper deck of the boat was a lot of fun, and I got to use my skils learned in my springboard diving class, to not bellyflop every time. This trip was made even more interesting by the consumption of large amounts of alcohol. The Americans introduced the concept of a beer bong to the foreign students, and some of them I think were trying to make up for their years lost without a beer bong, and as a result got pretty drunk. As the level of drunkenness went up, so did the level of slipperiness of the boat, and as a result people kept falling over on the boats, but thankfully no one fell overboard, or was seriously hurt. It was pretty funny to watch though. Overall the trip was just a day of relaxing in the ocean with the other exchange students and was a lot of fun.  If possible I hope to go boating again before leaving.

Punchoi

 On Sunday I went on an organized trip to the New Territories that was set up by an organization on campus. Sadly it was pouring almost the entire day, but the trip was still somewhat interesting. We got to see some temples and religious buildings in one of the oldest parts of Hong Kong. We finished the day off with eating a traditional dish of Punchoi. Punchoi is basically every type of meat cooked together in one dish. It did not taste bad, but it was till weird to eat.

After dinner we went for dessert, and I got to try for the first time the smelliest fruit in the world. It is called Durian, and smells kind of like garlic but much worse. It tasted like garlic, but unfortunately it was impossible to remove the taste from my mouth for the rest of the night. Right as I thought it was gone, it would pop into my mouth again. This was a once in a lifetime experience for me I think. Durian is so smelly, that in some cities there are signs banning it from being brought into hotels or the metro systems.

Durian

Weekend April 8-10

Building with a hole for the dragon of the mountain to escape

The weekend after Shanghai, I wanted to spend my time exploring the parts of Hong Kong that I had not had the chance to so far. On Friday I set out for the southern side of Hong Kong Island to visit the beaches there. I visited Repulse and Deep Water Bays and spent the day finishing some of the reading for my classes while sitting on the beach. The beaches were very nice, and there are also very cool buildings surrounding the beaches, including one with a hole in it to let the dragon of the mountain behind it out.

Sunset over Ocean Park

After laying on the beach, I took the bus to the city of Stanley that is also on south Hong Kong Island. I explored the Stanley Market for awhile, but for the most part it was not much different from other markets I have been to in Hong Kong. I ate dinner on the seaside, and then headed back to campus for the night.

Golden Bauhinia

Convention Center

That Saturday I headed back to the Island. First I went to see the Hong Kong Convention center, and to see the Golden Bauhinia the statue that was given to Hong Kong by China  during the turnover. This statue is much hyped but in person it looked pretty fake and not very impressive. The location, which is currently surrounded by construction, does not seem all that impressive either.

Afterwards I finally got to take the Peak Tram to the top of Mount Victoria. The tram was very neat, it goes up at almost a 45 degree angle and makes the  journey not take very long at all. 

Peak Tram

View from Peak Tram

Once at the top I headed out to walk the Peak Circle trail which goes around the Peak of Mt Victoria. I headed off the main trail to take a secondary trail to the actual peak of Mt Victoria. The view from there and all along the rest of the Peak circle was excellent, and I got many great views of both sides of the island. And some nice views of Hong Kong at night.

While on the top of the peak, I had a moment where I realized how cool that I was at the top of a mountain overlooking downtown Hong Kong, and how lucky I was to be able to be doing this. I am very glad I was able to come to Hong Kong, and it has been a very enjoyable experience so far.

Sunset from Mt. Victoria

City at Night

Peak Tower

Sunday was a pretty chill day. I went to a nearby beach with some other exchange students and we spent the day there. The location of the beach was very cool. You had to take a ferry to get to it, so it was relatively secluded. It is also possible to see HKUST from the beach which was cool. The water temperature was very nice, and I swam out to the diving platforms a few times, but mostly my time was spent laying on the beach (Which I regretted for the next week from the burn).

Trio Beach

After the beach, all of us headed to the nearby town of Sai Kung, where we had an excellent seafood dinner. The location is very cool. Every restaurant has tanks where they keep the live sea animals. And depending on your dish sometimes you are even able to pick the actual fish or lobster that will be cooked for you. You can’t get any fresher than that!

Tanks of Fish

Shanghai Part 2

Sunday, Miro and I woke up a little bit later and after eating in the hostel headed out to Yu Yuan Gardens. Yu yuan gardens are an imperial gardens that are hundreds of years old. The gardens were very scenic with lots of cool buildings and water features. In my opinion it was very similar to the Forbidden City, just with more plants and water. There were many different “rooms” separated by walls.

Yuyuan Gardens

 In my opinion, what was cooler was the market area that was outside of the gardens. This market was composed of what at least appeared to be authentic old Chinese buildings that were all clustered together. There were restaurants, and shops selling every possible Chinese souvenir possible. There were even some items that you could get custom made with your name or your picture. We spent a fare amount of time here. While their I introduced Miro to a very cultural experience, a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Apparently Finland does not have Dairy Queen so he had never experienced a Blizzard especially it being served upside down. We stopped in a Starbucks for the free wifi and then took the metro to the spot of the first meeting of the Chinese Communist party.

Yuyuan Market

The meeting spot was just a smaller building in a residential area of Shanghai. Something that was interesting about it was the lack of attention they gave to Mao. Usually everything that had even a little to do with Mao is exaggerated. Here there was simply a picture of him on the wall along with all of the other people attending the first meeting. This meeting had to be kept secret because both the ruling KMT and the British/French governments did not approve of the formation of the CCP. This museum was of course full of the usual propaganda about the CCP, but it was still interesting. After the museum, we found a nearby Apple store so we could use the internet. We must of spent a little too much time there, because eventually some not very friendly looking employees that instead of having colorful shirts and name tags wore all black started approaching us. At that point we decided to leave.

We headed back to Yuyuan gardens to get some lunch at a dumpling restaurant. The food was very good. Leaving the market Miro and I decided to take one of the bicycle carts that were being offered to us. The driver told us that it would cost 20 yuan for the trip. When we arrived at the destination however he tried to convince us that he meant 20 yuan/person instead, which would be more expensive than a taxi. He even cornered us against a wall with his bike and for awhile we exchanged “you said 20” and him saying “si shi quai (40 dollars).” Eventually we paid him 30 total, but it was still annoying.

Miro’s time in Shanghai was running out and he wanted to visit the former French concession to see some European Architecture. We took the metro to the nearest spot and spent some time walking around in the former French Concession. Overall it was pretty disappointing. Although the buildings were definitely constructed in European rather than Asian style, there was nothing really special about them. From the cars and the people walking around though, it was pretty obvious that we were in one of the very nice neighborhoods of Shanghai. We were hungry, but as a result of the above mentioned niceness (=higher prices) we choose to eat a quick lunch somewhere else.

Maglev Train

After picking up Miro’s luggage we headed off toward the airport. Shanghai has a Magnetic Levitation train that connects the downtown area to the airport and I wanted to ride on it, so I accompanied Miro to the airport. We took the metro to the Maglev terminal, bought our tickets, and boarded the train. Riding on the train was very cool. It reached a top speed of 431 km/h (~267 mph). The coolest part for me though was when we went around turns the train banked very strongly (up to around 30 degrees). Due to the speed though, unless you were looking out the window you could barely tell that it was banking. Due to the speed we arrived at the airport shortly and then Miro left to catch his flight. While waiting to board the train back, I got to talk to a very friendly man from Tokyo, and it was very interesting to hear his impression of the events taking place in his country. He said most Japanese trust their government’s story and handling of the disaster, which is almost the opposite to how many western news outlets portray it.

After arriving back in downtown I went to find a night ferry ride on the river. After fighting off many people trying to sell me tours and products, I found the place  that had been mentioned in the travel guide I looked at. The views from the boat were very cool. I got to see both the skyline of Pudong and the Bund from different angles than I had been able to before. It was also a very nice break from all of the walking I had done over the past 3 days.

Skyline from Night

The Bund at night from the Boat

 The next morning, my plan was to head to the nearby city of Hangzhou. Hangzhou is the most popular domestic tourism destination in China mostly due to West Lake , a very scenic lake, with many pagodas and scenic spots. I had not found much information about how to get there but by looking at the railway map I figured that going to Shanghai South Train station was the best option for getting there. It turned out I was wrong. Shanghai has 3 train stations. One of them (Hianqiao) has fast train services to Hangzhou that are frequent and only take 40 minutes. Shanghai South station has one train that leaves every day and it is a slow train that takes 2.5 hours (but much cheaper). The ticket machines also don’t seem to seel this ticket. Luckily, after about 30 minutes of dealing with ticket machines, and locals watching over my shoulder, I was able to find an employee that spoke senough English to sell the ticket. Standing room was all that was available however and the train didn’t leave for another 2 hours or so. It may have been a better plan to go to the other train station, but at this point I just was happy I had A train.

While wating to leave I took a taxi to the nearby Shanghai botanical gardens and walked around admiring the nice flowers. This was cool because it seemed that it wasn’t really a tourist destination. I was probably the only non-chinese person there.

Botanical Gardens

I took a taxi back to the train station shortly after and waited for my train. The train ended up being delayed by about 40 minutes, which I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t looked up the character for “delayed” on my iPod. Eventually I boarded the train though. Riding the train was a very interesting experience. If only the seats were filled the train would have been crowded, but they also filled the aisles with people including me. To make this worse, they occasionally rolled carts through the aisles with food. Although, the physical experience of this ride is something I would not want to repeat, it was all made up by the conversation I had with the people near me. They were all from Shanghai and spoke English. We had a nice conversation about a wide range of topics, such as schooling in China vs. the US and American sports and food. The girl that I mostly talked to told me that in high school she had about 6 hours of homework a day, and that she really liked that her father let her play basketball for a whole 1 hour a week. After we arrived in Hangzhou she was also useful because she waited with me in the taxi line and told the taxi driver where I wanted to go. While waiting in line, I got to experience the well known corruption of China’s police force. A police officer was patrolling the taxi line trying to keep unofficial drivers from bother people waiting. This officer, however, only really kept off some of the unofficial taxis. He actually helped some of them to convince those waiting in line (I know this thanks to the girl’s translation). I am sure there was some money exchanged for this preferential treatment.

By the time I arrived at West Lake, the day I had hoped to have in Hangzhou had been reduced to 5 hours. I spent that time walking around the lake and enjoying the scenery. There were plenty of Chinese people, and not many westerners. I ended up walking to a giant pagoda on one end of the lake and paid to go up in it. This pagoda was a little odd because it was not ancient at all. I think it is a replacement to a previous pagoda, but this one had elevators, and other very modern features. The view from the top was still very nice though. After the pagoda, I walked across one of the 2 causeways that cross the lake. I was pretty tired of walking so I took multiple stops to just rest and enjoy the view overlooking the lake.

Xihu (West Lake)

On the other side of the lake it was my intention to get some food and then catch a taxi to see another pagoda along the river. I found food, but afterward it was impossible to find an open taxi. There were plenty of taxis going in both directions on the road I was walking on, but all of them were occupied. I kept walking hoping to find the place that they were exchanging passengers, but only after walking for another 40 minutes along the edge of the lake did I finally find an unoccupied taxi. I showed the driver where I wanted to go on the map, but upon arrival I realized the pagoda had closed for the night, so instead I had the driver take me to the train station. I had bought my return ticket before leaving and had chosen the fast train with a seat. Overall I am glad I went to Hangzhou, because it was nice to see the lake, but I wished I had had a little more time to explore the surrounding area, I am still glad for the conversation I had on the train ride there though.

Cool Modern Pagoda

Lanterns over the water

The train ride back was much more comfortable and I slept for most of it. I arrived in Shanghai at a few minutes before the metro closed and me along with most of the passengers ran to the platform. Thankfully I had purchased a transit card, so I did not have to buy a ticket and was able to make it on the last train, saving me the expense of a taxi ride. Unknown to me, and most of the other passengers this metro train was on an express route, and skipped every other station. This was announced eventually in Chinese, but as I did not understand that I just guessed the meaning. When the train stopped one stop before my destination I decided it was better to get off then, or else I would end up on the other side of the river. I walked back to the hostel, and went to bed after a very long day.

The next morning was my last day, so I intended to do all the things I had missed. My first stop was the IFC building. This building is shaped like a giant bottle opener, and is home to the tallest observation deck in the world. Thankfully, due to the time I went there were very few visitors. I got a private introduction to the building by the staff, and then took the elevator to the top. Something I noticed in the exhibits at the base was the lack of mention for the oriental pearl tower. Some people don’t like the look of the oriental pearl, and I guess whoever owns the IFC building is one of those people. There are 3 viewing decks in the building, but the coolest one is the tallest.  It provided a great view of the city and it was very cool to look down from the 3^rd tallest building in the world.

Shanghai Finance Center Observation Deck

I went down from the upper observation deck and spent some time in the lower admiring the view (and the free wifi), as well as sending some postcards.

Eventually I took the elevator back down to the base and headed to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. This museum is in People’s Square and has a bunch of exhibits about the plans for Shanghai’s future, as well of a cool model of all the current or planned buildings for Shanghai.

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Red Panda!

After a bit of souvenir shopping nearby I got my luggage from the hostel and headed in the direction of the airport. On my way, I stopped to see the Shanghai zoo. Like others I have seen in China this one was a disappointment in the way that they treat the animals. The best part for me was the red pandas though they had a decent enclosure, although it was sad the amount of garbage that people fed to them.

After the zoo, I took the metro to the airport and shortly after took my return flight to Hong Kong.

Dumb guy sitting in the Penguin Enclosure

My trip to Shanghai was very enjoyable. There was lots of walking, but I still really enjoyed the blend of ancient Chinese, western, and modern Chinese cultures. The metro system is also very very efficient and made getting around very convenient. Of all the skylines I have seen Shanghai’s is the best. I think that  I may not have needed as much time as I spent in Shanghai as I had, but I found stuff to do for all of it, and it was a great trip. It was also an interesting experience to travel all by myself for the most part, and be able to do whatever I wanted to.