Day 1 and 2 Shanghai

Shanghai

Day 1: Today we ate at a very fancy restaurant. This was the first time we had eaten in a lazy–Suzan style. The only people I knew at this point were my two friends, but once we sat together, graduate and undergraduates, we all became united. I remember we were all wondering what the food was or what the red soup was made of. We thought Shanghai was nice during the day, yet in the night, blue lights were above our heads while driving to restaurants. Shanghai by night was like New York City!

There are three but they were to immense to take all three together

Day 2: Today we visited a sacred place in Shanghai called The Jade Buddha Temple. We were very excited because David said we could see monks once we arrived and toured around the temple. This was a very nice experience because we saw a different religion. I remember this lady was bowing down in every direction with incense above her head. It was a form of thanking their god for answering their prayers. When we went inside the temple we saw three big gold Buddhas, which represented past, living, and the afterlife. We also had the opportunity to see the big Jade Buddha, which we were told would not have been present if the rebellions had destroyed back in the day. Because of the monks’ cleverness to take a picture of the jade Buddha and put it behind the glass, the Jade Buddha is intact.

Yu Garden

After this, we went to walk through the Yu Garden. This place was so beautiful, flowers were blooming everywhere and I felt peaceful. David explained that this garden was built by a governor for his parents. And truly you could feel his love for them. We then ate and learned what Ganbei meant. Ganbei is a form of respect to your superiors; therefore the Chinese custom was for an individual to lower his cup to his superior as a sign of respect. I remember Maria and I were doing this all the way to the floor because we both respect each other very much.

Chinatown

Next we went to Chinatown in China! This place was fun to be in. The custom of the people who are selling the items in Chinatown was different than in the U.S. In America, the cost that an item is being sold for is usually fixed, meaning no bargaining is normally done. Yet in China it is tradition or custom to have a small fight in prices with the seller. David warned us about this tradition, but we did not quite see the picture until we were actually physically there. We went to a tea place, for example, and she wanted about 250-300 Yuan, we tried to bargain for less. We took at our cell phones to figure out what number accommodates our needs in US dollars. Then we decided to put in practice our bargaining skills and walked out and she screamed out 100 Yuan, more than half off the price she originally said! We were all surprised that she went this low! After a short time passed, we got comfortable with bargaining.

Bund

After that we went to the riverside of the Bund where the whole class took a picture with the beautiful background scenery. This was a really nice place to be and the people there were very friendly. The residents even wanted to take pictures with us. We felt as though we were super stars. And we also went to a museum and so beautiful crafts and unique vases with so much detail and color!