Local Transportation

Shanghai has a wonderful public transportation system. I have not encountered any struggles with not having a way to get somewhere yet, unlike I may have in Marietta without a car. My Chinese friend showed me this website called ddmap.com which is a better version of Google maps for China. It shows you the fastest way to get from one area to the next and which type of transportation would be the best to take. Bikes and scooters are very common to use, but since our campus is small compared to main campus, none of us have them. We more commonly use these in Shanghai: the metro, buses, taxis and walking.

The first one is the metro is probably the most convenient for us since we have a metro station within a five minute walk from campus. The metro system here has been recently developed thanks to a large contribution from the government. You can definitely tell they’ve been focusing on improving it within the last few years. Every station has a security check where you are supposed to place your bags on the conveyor in order to check them, but barely anyone listens to the security guards. I asked my Chinese friend about this and she said that the security checks were built for the World Expo when lots of people came to Shanghai for it; now people just ignore the fact that they even exist. It is also fairly cheap to take the subway, ranging anywhere from 3 yuan to 8 yuan ($0.48-$1.29) depending on how far you go.

The newest one I have discovered is the bus system. Shanghai has around 1000 bus routes! I was simply overwhelmed when I found that out. There are no apps to help you figure out which route to take. You have to simply know what bus stops are near you and which road you want to know. With that being said, you also have to be able to read Chinese characters in order to accomplish this because the signs on the bus stations are written only in characters. Once you are on the bus, they announce what stop is coming up in both Chinese and English. The way I figured out what bus to take is by looking it up online, but I also have taken pictures of numbers of the buses which are nearest to my campus so if I ever need to get back to campus from somewhere that I am unfamiliar with, I can just look for certain numbers. Buses are only 2 yuan ($0.16) so I like using the buses even though the bus drivers are risky drivers!

Taxis are convenient whenever I need to return to campus later on because the metro closed, or if we have an exact location to go to and we do not have access to wifi to figure out the buses or metro. The rates of the taxis are not too terrible in prices but it just depends on how far you are going.

And finally, there is always walking. For example, this morning at 7 am I walked from school to Luxun Park and then to Starbucks which took about 20 minutes, but it was so refreshing to see so many people up and about so early. The park is always filed with elderly who were doing their various activities, like dancing, practicing tai chi, writing calligraphy on the sidewalk with water, and using the public exercise equipment. Our campus is not too far away from various places, and it’s always nice knowing that you are protecting the environment especially when it is a smoggy day in Shanghai. And let’s not forget about the fact that there are 24 million people living in Shanghai, so rush hour makes traveling so much more interesting! I can now say I have experienced the way that the Chinese squish onto the metro, and let’s just say, I am glad that I am not claustrophobic.

I’ve added some pictures for you all to see. My favorite is definetly the one with the two ladies on top of this giant pile of wood on the back of the bike. Oh the things you see in China…

Unique to China

So every week, we go as a class to eat lunch with our teacher. They call it Chinese tables. During this time, we only speak Chinese and learn things about China. Our Chinese teacher is able to speak Shanghainese which is unique to Shanghai. It uses the same characters as Mandarin Chinese; however it has a completely different way to pronounce them. For example, 你好 is pronounced “nihao” in Mandarin, but with Shanghainese, it is “nonghao”. Only people from Shanghai typically speak it. Most of my coworkers speak it yet my boss can only understand what they are saying when they speak it. She comes from a different part of China so it wasn’t passed down to her through her parents. I can tell when it is spoken but I do not understand it at all. I thought it would be easier to pick up on, but at this point in time, I’m only going to focus on learning Mandarin. If I were to travel outside of Shanghai, knowing Shanghainese would not be very useful.

Going off of that, I’ve been fortunate enough to get an internship at The Study Abroad Foundation. My coworkers are so friendly and helpful! I’ve noticed a few differences thus far between doing business in China compared to in the USA. For example, answering a phone call during the middle of a meeting or presentation is not shocking. Chinese think that if it is important enough to make a phone call about, they will answer it. This can also be said with our Resident Director as he will answer his phone in practically every situation.

The building of the company that I work at is well kept and has a nice environment. There is free coffee, tea and hot water, and the bathrooms are so much better than I ever would have expected (They are American style & they have seat warmers!). Also, on the first floor of the building, there is a nice casual sitting area. If I ever arrive at work early, I always sit down there for a few minutes and read. They have workers on each floor that act as secretaries and the ones of the first floor bring you hot water as well. The perks of this building are nice and I wonder if every business center like this has these amenities.

I have decided that I will do my capstone paper for my Economics class based on my internship. I will be researching and analyzing the main reasons that Chinese students want to go abroad to an English speaking country, what they plan on doing after they receive their education, and why more and more students have been doing this in the past few years. I am excited to look deeper into this topic and will keep you updated with how it goes.

As I have been to more and more universities in China, I have noticed a few differences. To save energy, some colleges will turn of electricity around 10 or 11 pm which means that they have to be in the building before then in order to be able to sleep in their room. Luckily, this is not the case for our campus. Another difference is that oftentimes there will be a central shower room for many residence halls rather than have showers in each bathroom. I found this out because I noticed people walking to and from buildings with their towel and shampoo one day and asked my boss what the reason for this was. I talked to my Australian friend about this and she said that they do that as well so I am not sure how bizarre this custom is or if it was just something I was unaware of.

Lastly, I have noticed that China has different features than the USA when it comes to accessibility for people with physical disabilities. All throughout the metro and many sidewalks, there are bumps on the road indicating whether or not the sidewalk will continue on or if a turn is coming up. At first, I had no idea what they were, but it makes sense now although they are extremely uncomfortable to walk on. In general though, I would not want anything to happen to my legs during my time here because getting around on crutches let alone a wheelchair would not be a fun task to have to deal with here. It is not like the USA where the buildings have to have an elevator and ramps are strategically placed around to help these people.

Oh and don’t think that I have forgotten to mention guan xi. Don’t worry, that will be one of its own blog posts in the near future.

Want to learn some Chinese? 不好意思 (buhaoyisi) literally “I’m embarrassed” in Chinese but is used like we would say “Excuse me” in English.

Long Weekend Trip

We went to Shaoxing (绍兴) which is the hometown of Luxun (鲁迅) who is an extremely famous Chinese writer. When we first got there, we went to eat and then went to all the touristy areas such as his house, ride on a small boat on the canal and tried the famous stinky tofu. Since I couldn't stand the smell and I hate tofu, I did not try it. There were mixed reviews on it. Either you loved it or you hated it.

As we drove there, we had seen houses for the first time. So far in Shanghai, it seems like everyone lives in apartments. There is some type of solar energy that they use on top of their houses that everyone has! I feel like it might be used to make hot water, but I'm going to look more into it to figure it out.

That evening we explored and found a little night market. Our hotel is extremely nice compared to our dorms so I was extremely thankful for the comfy bed and nice amenities. After a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, we loaded the bus to go to Xinchang (新昌) to go to a valley and hike around for a bit. We were held up by some traffic on the way there due to a car accident on small road. But we eventually got there. In the middle of the hike, we stopped at a little family restaurant which we think ended up making a few people sick later on in the trip, but we are not exactly sure whether or not that was the cause. I added a picture of the bathroom there... lets just say that everyone decided to not use it! This place was absolutely gorgeous though!

Then we went to Hangzhou (杭州) and I was able to meet up with Will and Meg that night! We shopped around Hefeng Street, saw the West Lake night fountain show, and ate at Grandma's Kitchen. It was an absolutely wonderful evening. The fountain show was incredibly breathtaking, unfortunately, I did not have my iPad to take pictures but my friend, Sally, did so I will get them from her eventually. And this restaurant was delicious & I found out they're a franchise which is also in Shanghai! I will definitely be going there again!

The next day was a nightmare, to say the least! My roommate was sick all night from food positioning so we got a late start to the day as we had to tend to her needs in order for her to be well enough to return to Shanghai on the bus with us (2.5 hour bus ride when you have food poisoning is a bit of a challenge without proper medicine). So while she is getting medicine, the rest of us venture out to West Lake, but our bus sideswipes a car on the way there so we had to wait for the bus driver, police and the other driver to verbally fight it out. Eventually our tour guide hands over some money and runs away! It's a whole different story when dealing with car accidents here.

And thennnn after touring around West Lake we go to find our bus which takes at least 45 minutes of walking. At that point in time we are all tired and hungry and some of us were not feeling so well. We show up to the restaurant we have reservations for at least an hour late, but luckily all the food is ready for us. We feasted and then headed out to go see the Tiger Springs (which were pretty neat!). There we were able to try some of the water and explore the park. And finally we pick up my roommate and head back to Shanghai. But of course, we have to stop for bathroom breaks and food. So we got KFC which was an adventure in it of itself since we have 30+ people in our group.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip and makes me want to take more weekend adventures! I was glad to get out of Shanghai for a bit and truly felt more immersed in the Chinese culture. Many more people were shocked to see foreigners (waiguoren 外国人/laowai 老外). I managed to have some short conversations in Chinese with both locals and other tourists which increases my confidence in my Chinese skills a whole lot! Our group is getting along so well thus far. I'm so happy with just about everything. Our next adventure is a weeklong trip to Hongkong, Macao and Guangzhou. I cannot wait! And after that, in the beginning of May, I have decided to go to Malaysia with my friend Sally for a week.

The start of week four

I can't believe it's been three full weeks of classes already. This week is going to be stressful with a finance presentation on Wednesday, a Chinese test on Thursday and an Econ paper due on Thursday as well but my reward is being able to travel more in China!!!

I've been meeting so many people from all over the world here. It's been so amazing. Shanghai has so many Chinese people as well as international. Most of the people I've met have been students studying here, but there are a bunch of expats as well.

I looked into scheduling for next semester already and it seems like I will be graduating on time and I will probably graduate with a major in international business and minors in finance, leadership and possibly Econ!

In the next post, I'm going to discuss more about my internship and the differences I've noticed thus far with business in china versus the USA (although the company I work for is based out of the USA). For now I need to focus on getting through these next four days!

I've added some pictures of the shanghai urban planning museum that we went to a few weekends ago. It still amazes me how big this city is and how I've been able to survive here for a month already. I would have never considered myself a city girl before but now I know what it's like. I'm not sure yet wether or not I prefer the city or suburbs.

Beautiful day!

So this very moment I'm laying on the grass in front of our ten story residence hall enjoying the beautiful day. Not only is it extremely warm (>70 degrees Fahrenheit) it is also Women's Day. Women's Day is a big deal in China. To celebrate it, women don't have to work and spend the day doing typical female activities like shopping so stores have special sales. At lunch today, all the girls got a bowl soup for free which had soy beans and other things in it which I have no idea what they were. A few minutes ago, some of the female workers on campus took part in a tug of war. Not quite sure why or what exactly but it was still fun to watch.

Today for class, we went to Luxun park and talked to the locals. We had 10 questions prepared ahead of time to ask them. I was shocked how willing they were to talk to us but not everyone received a friendly hello. I was fortunate enough to be welcomed by all the people that I talked to. We saw them doing many activities: tai chi of course (太极拳), tai chi with a sword (太极剑) using the outdoor exercise equipment (锻炼), dancing (跳舞), singing (唱歌), writing calligraphy on the sidewalk with water (书法), and this whipping thing (鞭子). A few of the guys from our group attempted to do this whipping activity and succeeded, while others ended up whipping themselves! Basically what they would do was swing the whip around their head and then snap it real quick making a loud noise! It was pretty entertaining and amazing how many people were there partaking in many different activities and how strong some of these elderly men are!

Today concludes the third week of classes. Next week we have our Chinese test on Thursday and then we leave Friday to go to Zhejiang province. There we will be able to go to Hangzhou and see the West Lake. I'm excited to take a weekend trip. I've been trying to figure out what I want to do for our weekend vacation and have been debating between going to Chengdu and Xian or farther south cities like Guilin. I have to make up my mind soon and start planning it all out. Either one will be great, I'm sure.

During my internship this last week, I was able to visit a few different universities like Jiaotong University and Tongji University. It is truly amazing seeing how large these schools really are. I talked to a girl at Tongji University about wanting to go abroad and her English was really good! Everyone here seems to start learning English at a very young age, just like in the United States but with Spanish. Also I have posted some pictures of Jing'an park which is right behind my work!

The food here has been unbelievable thus far, even though we have eaten American and Mexican food already and it's only been a month. Most meals consist of either noodles and dumplings or meat, veggies, and rice. Here in shanghai you can find pretty much any food you could ever imagine. The quality may not be what you are used to in the United States but I have not had a situation where I've gotten sick from the food yet. (That doesn't hold true for everyone in our group though)

I haven't figured out why there are so many jets that fly by our campus yet, sitting here for only two hours, they've flown by at least 5 times and it seems like each time they are lower and lower. It makes me wonder....

Well I'm going to rest my eyes for a bit and then I'm going to explore Shanghai more tonight with friend. Tomorrow, we will go to Shanghai Science and Technology Museum which has a fake market below it!

不同国家的人有不同的习惯 - People from different countries have different customs

So today we had our first Chinese test! The theme was basically the title of this post so I found it suitable to blog about this. The test wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. I’ll let ya know how I did on it but I am feeling pretty confident about it. So I’ve noticed quite a few differences between life in China and life in the USA. Here are just a few:

1. When someone sneezes, people don’t say ANYTHING. It is so hard for me to get adjusted to just because in the USA, every time someone sneezes and no one says anything, I feel bad. So I always make sure to say “Bless you” even though it has such a weird meaning behind it.

2. Next, people in China wear their outfits more than once a week. It seems like a strange custom but I asked my new friend Peiyu last night. She said it was because if you didn’t get it dirty, then you can wear it again. Of course they shower and then just put the same clothes on, it is just different than in the USA.

3. Going off of the topic of clothes, we have to hang dry them because the dryers are awful. I wasn’t expecting to have any dryers, but we do. Someone put their clothes in there for four hours and they still weren’t dry. So we have to hang them up on our lovely balconies. This is so common here and you can see clothes hanging up ALL over the city in such bizarre locations (even off of power lines)

4. Free space in Shanghai is used so efficiently. Not only are the buildings well planned out, but the locals seem to have claimed out sidewalks and spaces in subway stations in order to sell their goods. Walking back from the subway station to my dorm, I have to walk on the roads at times in order to get around all the sellers.

5. Walking in the road is dangerous. People don’t have the right away here like they do in the USA. You really have to make sure that there are no cars, motorcycles, mopeds, bikes, taxis, OR BUSES coming. Buses seem to always be the ones that want to run us over.

6. Hot drinks is what we have been drinking allll the time which I have been fine with thus far because it warms me up, but I’m wondering how I will like it once it gets hotter. Milk tea is huge here and it’s one of my favorites. I’m going to have to find somewhere in the USA that has it because it’s becoming an everyday drink for me. My roommate and I bought a water heater for the room so we can have hot water whenever we want!

7. Before you shower, you have to turn on a switch for the hot water at least 10 minutes in advance. This is extremely energy efficient but causes a nuisance on occasion when people want to quickly shower. I haven’t had too much of an issue with it yet, I actually love the idea.

8. Shower stall doesn’t exist here. It’s just a drain on the floor of the bathroom. So after you shower you kinda got to mop up the water a bit. This one bothers me a little, just because you have to wear shoes in the bathroom if someone has recently showered. I’m used to never wearing shoes and so it will take me a little bit to adjust to this difference.

9. Toilet paper does not exist in every bathroom here in China. Most public bathrooms are squatters and require you to bring your own toilet paper. And after using that toilet paper, you do not put it down the drain. This goes with any toilet here; trashcans are always located next to the toilet to put the paper in.

10. Rooms aren’t centrally heated. If it does have a heater, it’s on the wall and is controlled with a remote. In our classrooms, this has been a bit of an issue. There hasn’t been one class yet where we haven’t all worn our coats during the entire class. The buildings seem to be colder than outside. It’s a bizarre concept but I have heard that the other dorms on main campus don’t have any heating at all.

If you have any questions/comments on what I just mentioned, feel free to let me know. I’d love to hear what your opinion is on all of this. I’m sure there are more differences but those are the ones that have stuck out to me during my two and a half weeks here. That’s all for now, folks. Today, I plan on getting a lot of my homework done so that I can be ahead of the game for this week.