On a side note, although I am traveling a lot, classes are still a top priority to me. However, HKUST does things a little differently here. The professors really don't assign any homework or cover anything important until after the drop period, which was today the 14th. This is because students are constantly adding and dropping classes to fit their schedules, and exchange students must get permission for classes from their home universities. Classes will pick up soon though, so i'm trying to travel a lot while i have the freedom to do so.
We landed in Shanghai around 2pm, and found our hostel after taking the train station there around 4pm. After getting settled into the amazing place (and for only 8USD a night), we quickly went off adventuring downtown. I was with 5 other people, Eli and Nima from Upenn, Grace from Madison, and Carl from Germany. It was a good group of people.
After taking the magnetic Maglev train, we got to our hostel and then went into the city. Downtown was stunning. It was a shock to the system to see such contrasting views. The updated, urban lightshow of the Shanghai financial district, and the colonial, stone architecture on the other side of the river.
That night we went to a club called Soho. The details aren't really that important but it was one of the most fun times i have ever had in a club.
The next day we woke up late and sleepy, but forced ourselves out of bed and ate at the hostel, which had surprisingly delicious and affordable food. We spent the day walking around the financial district, visiting markets and going into parks and relaxing. Shanghai was an amazing city full, not so different from Hong Kong really.
Later that day we went to the Yuyuan Gardens, which is an absolutely beautiful place thats sort of been turned into a tourist mall area but without completely sacrificing its beauty. We ate Shanghai style dumplings (they have soup inside of them and you drink them with a straw first), and bought trinkets and other street foods for dinner. It was all very nice and delicious
That night we walked around some more, took a few more pictures, and then went to a club called "Rich Baby", apparently the best nightclub in Shanghai. although i don't have any pics to confirm it, i do believe what people say about the place is true.
The next morning we woke up sleepy again, but had to get our butts moving because we had to catch a train to Beijing. It was a five hour bullet train that was very, very cool. It was facinating watching everything go by out the window, just waiting for the countryside to appear, but it never really did untill a good 3 hours into the 5 hour ride, and only for just a little bit. What would be a major city here in the states is but a tiny town in China. When we arrived we got to our hostel late, but had enough time to go down to a nearby Peking duck restaurant, where i had one of the best meals of my life for less than 10USD. Between the 6 of us we ordered 3 ducks, beer, green tea, moon cakes, and about 10 other side dishes. it was a feast.
The next day we went to the Great Wall of China. The weather was crappy but it eventually became a blessing, as we went higher and higher into the sky. The clouds began to float past the wall, and it seemed at one point we were in the clouds themselves, high up in the sky. It was beautiful, but exhausting. stairs after stairs and even more stairs after that. it was a tiring experience, but one i will never forget.
The last picture above is a picture of the sledding that we did to get down the giant hill. it was a dangerous thrill ride, and as people screamed at me in Chinese to slow down, i just kept going faster. it was a highlight so far of the trip
That night we went to Tiananmen square to celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival. We went into their night market to see the hustle and bustle of the inner city, and try to see if any of us had the guts to eat a scorpion, or seahorse, or any other weird thing you could imagine. none of us did
The next day, (our last day, Tuesday), we went back to Tiananmen square and to the forbidden city. We also checked out the Olympic facilities they built in 2008. Both were fun, but the weather made it a lot gloomier than it had to be.
Overall China was everything I thought it would be. Fun, challenging, communist and cloudy. also, don't go if you are over six feet tall, because you will be stared at all day long.
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