so this past weekend we all, except durrell, took a trip out to shanghai. the city is really awesome, and it bled me dry (i spent about a total of 30 dollars). just about everything is in english, which is quite the turn from everywhere else in china where nothing is in english, or at least in english that makes sense. (an example, the other day i saw a hairdresser's that was translated as "odium of hairdo").
tyler, courtney, and i stayed with our pal jeff, who studied in beijing with us but is now being a bum in shanghai, tutoring american kids for the sat and applying for paralegal jobs. he showed us around, and we saw all the usual sites, including people's square, the bund, the old city, and pudong (more on those later). below are some views of the city.
tyler, courtney, and i stayed with our pal jeff, who studied in beijing with us but is now being a bum in shanghai, tutoring american kids for the sat and applying for paralegal jobs. he showed us around, and we saw all the usual sites, including people's square, the bund, the old city, and pudong (more on those later). below are some views of the city.
as you can see, shanghai is extremely modern and extremely beautiful and extremely nice. it really puts crap places like new york city to shame. the first picture is from people's square, the second from the top of the peace hotel on the bund.
in the late afternoon we hopped across the river to pay a visit to pudong, or, as i like to call it, #1 ultramodern desolate wasteland in china!!! pudong is the new economic zone of shanghai, which basically means no rules. the buildings are all supertall, with huge amounts of open space, and absolutely no people. it doesn't help that half of them are not even finished yet. i wouldn't be surprised if the place was inhabited entirely by robots. but we managed to dash across the huge empty streets to the jinmao (jinmiao?) building, which is the world's third or fourth tallest building. it is perhaps the only new building in shanghai that actually looks cool. we caught the elevator up to the hyatt at the top, which is the highest hotel in the world (inside a building). we had a drink at one of the many bars (the only one without a minimum charge) and watched the city light up. below is a picture of the building from the bottom i took at night.
that evening we went to taco bell for dinner! the only taco bell in china. it is called taco bell grande, and is actually a sit down restaurant. the food was pretty decent and the prices we surprisingly resonable for such a clearly western-geared place. the waiters all wore sombreros and ponchos and said hola and adios. quite a trip. we stole their hats at the end.
in the late afternoon we hopped across the river to pay a visit to pudong, or, as i like to call it, #1 ultramodern desolate wasteland in china!!! pudong is the new economic zone of shanghai, which basically means no rules. the buildings are all supertall, with huge amounts of open space, and absolutely no people. it doesn't help that half of them are not even finished yet. i wouldn't be surprised if the place was inhabited entirely by robots. but we managed to dash across the huge empty streets to the jinmao (jinmiao?) building, which is the world's third or fourth tallest building. it is perhaps the only new building in shanghai that actually looks cool. we caught the elevator up to the hyatt at the top, which is the highest hotel in the world (inside a building). we had a drink at one of the many bars (the only one without a minimum charge) and watched the city light up. below is a picture of the building from the bottom i took at night.
that evening we went to taco bell for dinner! the only taco bell in china. it is called taco bell grande, and is actually a sit down restaurant. the food was pretty decent and the prices we surprisingly resonable for such a clearly western-geared place. the waiters all wore sombreros and ponchos and said hola and adios. quite a trip. we stole their hats at the end.
that night i bought some dvds.
the next day we checked out the shanghai chinatown. sounds weird, but it was where the original city was before the europeans came and built their colony away from the chinamen (i realize that is not the preferred nomenclature, but i wanted to instill some colonial feeling into the post). then, after trying in vain to catch a cab we walked over to the french concession to check out all the cool houses that are still there, included sun yat sen's house when he lived in shanghai for a long time. according to jeff, it's usually really easy to catch a cab, but we tried three or four times while we were there and failed every time, so i think maybe he was on crack. speaking of crack, recreational drugs are extremely against the law in china, dealing them can sometimes end with the death penalty. but apparently in shanghai the government lets the trade run relatively free in order to keep all the foreigners happy. just what i heard.
in other news, it turns out chinese propoganda is funny for about 2 months and 25 days, after which time it gets extremely annoying. last night in the cafeteria there was this music video playing (at full volume) of semi-traditional chinese signing. the video itself though was the story of some commie soldier during the revolution who got injured and was nursed back to health by a village girl. as soon as he got better they happily parted ways, him back to the front and her to continue sitting on her front step singing about how fucking great china is. i just wanted to smash my fist through the t.v. set. i just cannot understand how the students here just soak this crap up. i can't help it, but my level of respect for them as independent people, especially young people, just drops everytime i encounter this kind of situation. is this just me, some kind of cultural difference, or is it really as pathetic as i think it is?
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