Today is the last day of our program.  Last night, we were warned (very harshly) not to get too out of control, in order that everyone could wake up and make the departure time of 11:30am for the airport.  Of course, I’m staying in Shanghai, so that doesn’t directly apply to me, but I still made sure everyone stayed in line last night.  We went to the Park Hyatt Shanghai, on the 83^rd floor of the SWFC, courtesy of Yeongjun Chang (we all pitched in a little), and it was incredible.  The best part was that we all made it.  Remember what I was saying about everyone starting to hate each other?  We were getting worried that we all wouldn’t show—but we did, and it was a great time.  Mostly, we just talked about the good times we had had in China, and called each other out on our apparent faults.  Of course, nobody got drunk (otherwise, our teacher would have given us a D, and we wouldn’t have made it home!), and we all made it home with plenty of time to make sure we were all packed and ready for the morning.

In the morning, checkout went without a hitch.  No one lost keys, was (too) late, or a general mess, so around 12am, my class left me.  I stayed behind, and watched the bus leave with all my friends.  Finally, I was on my own, and it was scarier than I had imagined.  I walked around for a little while, still without money (save the Y100 that Liu Laoshi gave us as a refund), and managed to order a cheap lunch before I took refuge in the air conditioning and free WiFi of our hotel for a few hours until I attempted to fight the subway to get to my next destination.

XiaoXia didn’t get off work until 5pm, so I was supposed to meet her at the entrance to the Shanghai Museum (again, where she works) when she got off.  I got there—with my 50lb suitcase in tow—at 5:20pm, at the wrong entrance.  Luckily, she found me 15 minutes later, and we took the subway back to our new temporary apartment.  It was rough.

We made it though, and I met my wonderful new “landlords”, Alan and Kristin, graduates of Amherst studying language in Shanghai.  The apartment is beautiful—great views of this part (far west) of the city, and plenty of amenities—pictures will surely come soon.

Also, I made plans a few days ago to visit Yeongjun in Seoul, South Korea.  This adds another dimension to my trip, and I can’t wait.  Shanghai will be exciting for sure, but I want to fill up my passport as soon as possible with as many experiences as possible, and South Korea is a place I’ve always wanted to go (thanks Albert!).

I miss the structure of the class already though… of course.  And the people, believe it or not.  I think I’m excited for what next semester holds, and can’t wait to continue learning Mandarin, whether it’s just with Rosetta Stone or if I get to sit in on Liu Laoshi’s lectures.

Man I love Journey.  But that’s beside the point.  Today’s our last full day in China with the program—we started in Beijing, then went to Xi’an, then ended up in Shanghai.  Most everyone’s going home on the same flight tomorrow—I’m pretty excited to be staying here in Shanghai for a few more days.  Except for the fact that (no big surprise here) I still can’t get money.  We’ll see how long Y100 ($15) can last me…

All that was on the agenda for today was our final group dinner in the French Concession and then just walking around that area until we were done with it; the rest of the day was ours.  We ate lunch at a French (duh) restaurant called La Saleya, and it was incredible.  They didn’t get our reservation right, but we got to eat at the sister restaurant right next door, with the same menu.  Being French and all, this is probably the first full group meal we’ve had that we didn’t have to eat family style, which was refreshing.  The 3-course meal was beyond delicious, and a welcome reprieve from the spiciness and similar smells of the Chinese meals we had been eating.  The coolest thing about the restaurant I’d have to say was the bathroom—next to a poster of 40 hand drawn penises, there was a little button.  If you had James Bond-style instincts (like I do), you’d know that the button opened a secret door that led us to the bathroom.  Other than that the bathrooms were fine, but come on—a secret door?  Sweet.

Turns out I didn’t want to spend too much time walking around the French Concession, and neither did about half of the group, so we went back to the hotel to nap/pack.  I had already been to the French Concession (we went to Zapata’s there one night and walked around a bit), and others wanted to go find some fashion markets to spend the last remnants of their cash.  I did the whole nap/pack thing for a little bit, and put in my request to get emergency cash from Visa—they said they’d have to wait until tomorrow because the emergency cash department has normal business hours.  Thanks, Regions.

On the schedule for tonight, it said (and I paraphrase, with bolded words quoted), “YOU CAN GO OUT TONIGHT, BUT DON’T LOSE YOUR SANITY OR SAFETY.”  Which we took to mean, “go party tonight, but be safe!”  Apparently, we make Liu Laoshi very nervous, because all evening she’s been patrolling the halls to make sure we’re not drinking… oh well.  I’m headed to Yeong’s hotel at the SWFC tonight, and it’ll be time to party like pros.

Last night, we went to this American sports bar called Windows Scoreboard, and it was very similar to Pyro Pizza in Beijing, replacing pizza with hamburgers.  It ended up being a pretty crazy night—after indulging in burgers, fries, and cheap drinks, we went to a bar called M2 that was in that Plaza 66 place we had found that same day, on the top floor.  It’s one of the hot spots in Shanghai apparently, and that night was no exception.  We did manage to go on the night they had booked a transvestite singer/dancer, so that was fun too (thanks Pride week! …).  We made it home by a reasonable hour, and I had fun hanging out with XiaoXia again.

This morning was the second part of Dr. Greenspan’s lectures, and it was not nearly as interesting as yesterday’s.  This part was all about the little nooks and crannies of Shanghai, which was interesting, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a tougher time staying awake through a lecture before in my life.  Everyone in the class felt the same way.  We still had some interesting discussion, and I got to see a darker side of Shanghai, the “developing country” aspect of it that hasn’t been glossed over by the glory and futurism of Pudong.  Hopefully the World Expo 2010 will do to Shanghai what the 2008 Olympics did to Beijing, as far as modernizing the entire city.

After lunch, we went to the tallest building in Shanghai, the tallest building in China, and the world’s tallest habitable floor/observatory—the Shanghai World Financial Center in the Pudong district.  It was incredible.  We bought the high roller tickets, meaning we got to go as high as they let people, almost ¾ mile above ground—the 100^th floor.  The view was absolutely absurd, and they definitely did the trip with style.  The elevator we took (of the 91 in the building) went straight from floor -3 (they don’t really do B1, B2, … here) to floor 97.  In about 20 seconds.  Suck it, Towers elevators.  We frolicked up here for a good while—the only disappointing part about this event was the air quality—not clear enough to get a really good view of Shanghai, but definitely good enough to see the Pudong side (and get some great pictures!).

We went to a big commercial shopping mall in Puxi after this, and had a great lunch—my first experience with hot pot, which turned out to be incredible.  I had veal, and cooked it myself (in hot pot style), and it was delicious.  I also discovered a new love for peanut sauce.  I’m sure I’ve had it before but not by choice, and I pretty much covered all my food at this meal in it.  Mmm…

Our intention for the evening was to walk up the Bund to check out the French architecture and the scenic views of the river, but because of all the construction and cleaning of the river they’re doing, the Bund was almost completely sightless.  So as everyone else headed back to campus as the sun was setting, Zach, Yeong, and I went back across the river to Pudong to check out the Oriental Pearl—the first of Pudong’s futuristic sights, and the tallest building in the city for a long time (until the Jinmao tower and now, the SWFC).  Night conditions were much better for sightseeing and picture taking, and when we found the glass-bottomed observatory we all almost peed ourselves.  Zach had an extreme fear of heights but he conquered it and we all probably acted pretty gay jumping around, 360m above ground, with nothing between us but a piece of clear plastic.  Pretty cool.  This was probably the best part of the trip, if only because we a.) planned it ourselves, b.) exercised group management (more than 4 people = major hassle), and c.) everything worked out really well.  Thanks to Yeong for spotting me the money to go up!

Early morning with the last of our lectures, an NYU professor teaching at their Shanghai campus, Dr. Greenspan.  She’s been living in Shanghai for a while now, and has made it her mission to find all the nooks and crannies of Shanghai—she even has written for a tourist’s guide book for the city.  Her work has focused mostly on “figuring out” the city and the direction it’s going in, and that’s what her lecture was on.  The lecture was very very interesting, and we went a half hour over the 90 minutes the lecture was supposed to last, just asking questions.

Apparently, the age of modernism missed China—while America, Western Europe, and the rest of the first-world countries were building skyscrapers and developing a credit system, China was struggling to get on its feet.  Now that China has found solid footing, it’s going through a phase Dr. Greenspan calls “neomodernism”—the same stuff that everyone else did a hundred years ago, but with modern technology and a few more people.  I guess I could kind of see it in Beijing, a little bit in Xi’an (which looked like Las Vegas at night!), but apparently Shanghai is where it’s at.  Pudong is a case study for neomodernism—what was once a swamp, even just 15 years ago, is now this bustling urbanopolis that is the ideal set for every futuristic movie made now.  The Oriental Pearl, the new Shanghai World Financial Center (we’ll go there tomorrow!) and the planned Shanghai Tower, along with the Liujizang district and an incredibly futuristic look at night, I can totally see how Shanghai can be called “The City of the Future”.  While I realize that Pudong isn’t a good representation of the entire city (and man—it’s a big city), Dr. Greenspan pointed out how the rest of the city is also finding itself, and not really struggling either.  Like the 798 Art Village in Beijing, there are art communities all over the place, there are districts that are known for something special, there’s a vibrancy to the city that I’m excited to explore a little bit.  This just happened to be the first every gay pride week in Shanghai.

However, we spent the afternoon in one of the less Shanghai-y areas of town—we went to the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Shanghai, which was next to the Plaza 66, featuring at least one of every designer store you could possibly imagine, and some you couldn’t.  Way to upper class for me—I walked around there a bit, gawked, and left.  The AmCham visit was really interesting—we met with one of the company executives, and then had a Q&A session with an AmCham member, the president and CEO of a company that handles risk management for new companies starting in Shanghai.  He had lots of advice to offer, lots of stories to tell, and not much encouragement to throw around.  It was really funny to watch—all the business minor people started really sucking up to this guy, trying to get “in” with him.  I’m probably one of them, I just hope I asked more tasteful questions than some of the others…

5am came surprisingly easy for me, as we woke up in order to make our 8:30am flight at the airport an hour away.  I ended up staying in last night, which was ultimately a good decision.  Today’s definitely a full day, getting to Shanghai, sightseeing, and getting checked in to the hotel.  Now that we’re Chinese-domestic-flight pros, checking in to the flight was much easier.  Most people didn’t buy a bunch of junk in Xi’an, so the same people had the same overages, and all was taken care of with ease.  I was excited that my new ATM card was waiting for me in Shanghai, so I splurged on breakfast.  Turns out my fresh orange juice—and after thought—was more expensive than my beef noodle soup.  Go figure, airport food is a ripoff globally.

The Shanghai airport is about an hour away from the main city, so we didn’t get to see much right off the bat.  That was drawn out by our detour through Shanghai Maple Automobile factory, our substitute for the GM factory we were supposed to see (thanks bankruptsy!).   We were taken to the show room (we had lots of fun with the half-cars), and then taken to their cleanest of assembly lines.  That one workshop supposedly puts out around 160 cars per day, and they let us watch as they installed engines, door handles, linings, etc—the entire car was made in front of our eyes.  SMA is a new car company, but they’ve already got some international deals and are hoping to make a major dent in the Chinese car market—one right now that seems about as diverse as American cars.  There are lots of Japanese, Chinese, and (surprisingly) German cars here, and it’s not uncommon to see Buicks, BMWs, and Mercedes driving around.  In Beijing, I’m proud to say that I saw my first ever Lamborghini “in the wild”.

We were told that Police cars and cars with white license plates (government officials and friends) have no traffic laws whatsoever, though it’s hard to believe that anyone follows any traffic laws here.  I think I mentioned it earlier, but I’ll say it again—I’m so incredibly impressed by the driving here.  It’s orchestrated chaos, and it seems like everyone’s running at breakneck speed, together.  I still have yet to see an accident here.

Our hotel—the Carolina Hotel—is absolutely ridiculous.  Actually, there’s nothing too special about it, except that it’s a complete 180 from what our accommodations were in Xi’an, and it’s very welcome.  Working AC, a mini-fridge, an incredible rain-style shower, and complementary breakfast every morning, along with a hotel staff that speaks English?  It’s a beautiful thing.

I think I’m going to meet up with my friend XiaoXia tonight to celebrate making it this far—there seems to be a lot going on tonight, and we’re all ready to party.

First morning in Xi’an-Professor Liu brought us bananas, so that was definitely a plus.  Things are just as cheap here (if not cheaper?), which is also a plus.  We don’t have a good water boiler here, or a fridge-two things we were given at Bei Da-so I went last night to stock up on water.  Three 1.5L and two 20oz bottles of water cost me a grand total of 7.60rmb, about $1.15 US.  All the sugary and starchy snack foods are so good too, and there’s SO MUCH ice cream.  Eating this crap on top of stuffing myself every meal, I’ll need an extra seat on the plane in order to get home.

We got to sleep in a little bit this morning-around 10:30am, we left to go meet up with a bunch of English-speaking Chinese students from Shaanxi (where we’re staying) to have the next of our “issue discussion” sessions.  There were about 10 students this time, and they all had the same major-teaching Chinese as a second language (in English speaking countries).  They were very interesting, and were overall very talkative.  There was one guy in particular, a recent grad school graduate, whose English was very good, and he asked us a lot of questions just as controversial as the questions we were asking him.  We asked about how their government officials got elected, he asked about the Iraq War.  Then he asked about gays in America, and we asked about gays in China.  Though he denied it vehemently, we all suspected that he himself was a closeted homosexual, and some of the girls got to know him well (every girl wants the gay friend, even internationally apparently).

After the discussion and lunch, we went to downtown Xi’an, a bustling metropolis, where there’s lots of “real history” as our tour guide liked to put it.  Remember a few days ago, when I was so bummed that the Drum and Bell Towers in Beijing were closed?  They have Drum and Bell Towers in Xi’an too!  Not as tall, but they were open, and we went in and climbed up.  Each tower had a drum show or bell show (respectively) that we got to watch (drum show was better), and they gave us a good view of the surrounding area.  Xi’an is in the process of building a subway system (part of the Y4 trillion stimulus package), so there was a lot of construction going on.  I imagine that’s pretty much the norm everywhere I’ll go in China.

Last item on the agenda for the day was the Muslim sector of Xi’an, featuring the Muslim Market and the Great Mosque.  The market was pretty much just like all of the other markets we had been to, except none of the street vendors were selling pork.  The Muslim people there for the most part weren’t Chinese, but just lived there, and probably had for a while.  While we were there, the skies opened-fortunately, I didn’t have my big camera bag and did happen to bring my rain coat, so all was well.  We ate some of Xi’an’s famous dumplings for dinner, along with tofu noodles and fresh vegetables (and they were delicious-pray I don’t get sick!).  We didn’t make it in the Mosque, but it was nice to look at.  Most of the group got pretty sullen and moody when they got wet, so we just went back to campus at that point (it was pretty late) and called it a night.  Only 2 more days here…

Getting to Xi’an was an absolute breeze.  It might have been the shortest 2 hour plane ride I’ve ever taken-Danika and I listened to some music and then we were there.  Crazy.  The 20kg (~45lbs) checked bag weight limit really messed a bunch of people up, as most everyone went crazy buying junk at the Pearl and Silk markets in Beijing.  Fortunately, it’s not too expensive if you go over, but it is a hassle.  One girl had her lighters thrown away, one guy who’s addicted to hand sanitizer had to throw it out, and another girl freaked out because she (edit: thought she) lost her debit card.  I, fortunately, was completely drama free, and was very comfortable on the flight.  They even served dinner on the 2 hour flight.  They’re very nice.

We had lunch with all of our professors (laoshi in Chinese) at a nice restaurant before we left.  I really love the food here, and pretty much anywhere you eat, the food is served family style on a lazy susan.  Of course, all this means is that the gluttons (yours truly) get to stuff themselves silly at every meal.  If it weren’t for such big dinners, I’d probably lose a ton of weight here from all the walking I’ve been doing.

The place we’re staying here in Xi’an, at Shaanxi Normal University (Xi Da for short) are very similar to our international student dorm at Bei Da, except it’s disgusting.  Bei Da wasn’t nice, but it was clean-this place is shoddy and dirty.  It’s ok though, because we’re only here for 3 days, and the Carolina Hotel we’re staying at in Shanghai pulls a glorious 4 stars.  We’re one the 8^th floor though, which makes for some really nice views.

And… last night was absolutely ridiculous.  It took us a while to get going, but once we did we got rolling quickly.  We went back over to Pyro Pizza in Wudaokou-their happy hour is form 10pm to 12am.  5rmb (~$.80) tequila shots and 20rmb (~$3) pitchers got us where we needed to be mentally.   At midnight, we left Pyro-most people went back to the Lion King KTV for karaoke; Summer, Chavon and I went straight to Vic’s again, back at the Worker’s Stadium in Sanlitun.  Unfortunately, we had to pay the 50rmb cover this time, but we stayed there from midnight until 4am, so I guess it was worth it.  Craig, Chelsea, Danika and Yeong met us there around 2am, and we danced the night away.  After about an hour of being there, I needed a break, so I went across the street to the urban mall area.  Knowing me, I found my way onto a roof or two, and spent about a half an hour taking pictures from above.  I love roofs.  And I didn’t have to hop any fences to break in here (though I did squeeze through some bars in order to climb the second ladder).  No incidents here though.  The night ended great, and we got back to campus around 5am, as the sun was rising.  Champions.  We got to sleep until 10:30 the next morning anyways, so it all turned out fine.

Today was the 20^th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident, and it turns out the rest of the world cares way more than the Chinese people do.  My roommate and I woke up at 4am this morning to make it to Tiananmen Square by sunrise at 4:47am to see the Red Army Guard raise the Chinese flag next to the monument of the People’s Heroes.  I expected way more people and way more tension than were actually there.  We were disappointed that the guards wouldn’t actually let us into Tiananmen Square because we didn’t have our passports with us, but we made friends with other passport-less foreigners and watched from across the street, which turned out to be a better view anyways (with my nice 200mm lens!).  After the ceremony, some police came up and questioned us-fortunately, a friend that we made spoke enough Chinese to be able to answer their questions.  They yelled at us for not having our passports (apparently it’s the law to carry it on you) and later came back and made us show them the pictures we had taken.  We fortunately didn’t have any pictures of police brutality or anything so they let us go in the end.  Afterwards we walked next door to the National Opera House which was incredibly beautiful.  They designed it to rival the Sydney Opera House, and I think they did a good job.  There was absolutely no wind, which was a downer for the flag raising but worked out perfectly for the water that surrounds the Opera House and gives the perception of an “egg”.  The water completely surrounds the theater-the entrances are all below ground.

This morning was our last actual day of Chinese class-we learned how to ask for internet and hot water in a hotel room.  It’s been really great learning, our teacher Joyce has been incredible, and I’m absolutely not looking forward to our “final exam” tomorrow.  We have to do a skit with all of the students in our class-5 people total-using all of the vocab and expressions we’ve learned the past eight classes.  We’re doing a “Wizard of Oz” skit, with our one girl (Summer) being Dorothy, and everyone else being the other characters (I’m the Tin Man, trying to exchange money at a bank.  Somehow that’s similar to finding a heart?).  With very limited time and expertise, I think our play’s pretty solid.  Now to memorizing the lines…

This afternoon we went to 798 Art Village, quite possibly the trendiest and most liberal part of Beijing.  It’s this small district centered around 798 Street where all of the contemporary artists in Beijing hang out and do… art.  Everything is incredibly accessible and public, and it’s a major difference from most Chinese art we’ve encountered so far.  There are tons of sculptures all over the place, and really beautiful wall art (the less cultured would call it “graffiti”).  I spent about 30 minutes taking 77 pictures of a long wall covered in graffiti-the panorama stitch turned out great.  Zach and I roamed around, taking pictures mimicking the statues, and made friends with a kitten.

The end of the day was spent at the theater-we went to go see an acrobat show, like the ones that travel the states.  The theater was pretty shoddy but the performers were breathtaking-everything you could imagine that a body can do, and some things you couldn’t imagine.  Now, we have to polish up our play for tomorrow and start memorizing lines… wish me luck!

First and foremost, I want to gripe about the internet here.  China’s supposed to be using more internet bandwidth than the United States, and yet my connection speed here is miserable.  Uploading pictures to the blog is a horrible hit-or-miss process, and I have to upload pictures multiple times to get them all up, even after reducing the file size tremendously.  Downloading anything is near impossible for me, and I’m dying from the extreme internet censorship here (No YouTube, Digg, or Blogspot/Wordpress, but I can use Wikipedia to learn all about the T-Square incident.  Real effective).  Skyping is difficult as people can usually hear me but I can only hear about half of what people say when the connection gets really bad.  At times, the internet just dies entirely.  Very frustrating for someone like me.

We had class for the first time this morning since Thursday, but frequent breaks made it go by quickly.  I’m enjoying class, but 8:30am is rough for me.  I’ve never taken a class at Vandy earlier than 9am, and I tend to only make 1/3 of those classes when they happen.  I’ve made it on time to all of my classes here so far though (keep your fingers crossed for me).  Having a roommate on the same schedule helps too.

This afternoon we had another round-table discussion with PKU English-speaking students, and this one wasn’t much better than the first one.  Fortunately, Professor Liu shortened this one to an hour in total rather than the last one which was an hour and a half.  I do enjoy the conversations but sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to find something pertinent to talk about.  My only comment during this conversation was a (seemingly funny!) joke about family life.  There was a lot of pot-stirring about Chinese repression-it was interesting to note that the students knew that there was repression and that the media lies and all that stuff but they really didn’t care.  We care about their lack of human rights way way more than they do-I say, live and let live.

Final stop of the day was the Silk Street shopping market-again, very impressive.  Bigger and more standardized than the Pearl market it seemed like, but there was a lot of the same stuff.  I bought a new wallet this time, but didn’t have enough to buy anything else.  I can’t wait until I find a way to get more money so I can start buying things here-the fake stuff is incredible (both quality and price) and I’m scared I’ll lose all my money.  And I can’t wait.

Last. Night. Was. Ridiculous.  After the entire group passing out at around 9:30pm on Friday night (I slept from 8pm-8am), we decided that we needed to go out hard last night.  I had heard really great things about a specific area of town called Sanlitun, specifically a bar called Vic’s right in front of the Worker’s Stadium.  Along with everything else in China being absurdly cheap, pre-gaming is like a dream.  No alcohol permit is needed to sell, so every shop possible sells whatever you could need, and domestic drinks are absurdly cheap.  Beers are around $.30/12 oz can, and their liquor (bei jiu!) is about $.50 for a flask-sized bottle.  I’ve found that I like “jing wine”, which tastes like a fiery whiskey (70 proof) and I hate ergoutou (92 proof), which smells like rubbing alcohol and tastes worse, with the consistency of corn syrup.

We made it downtown thanks to Yeong, who wrote down the Chinese name for where we were headed on pieces of paper for each of the 3 cabs we had to take.  We hopped around a bit before meeting up at Vic’s, with new friends in tow—some Germans, some other Germans, some Australians, and a homeless kid.  Somehow, half of us got in free (including yours truly, which was nice for recovering from money stolen), and just danced there until the wee hours of the morning.

Waking up this morning was not the first thing I wanted to be doing, but we had to go to a Chinese village so up I got.  We took a bus to find this place in the mountains, a place which apparently changes so much our driver who was just at this place took a while to find his way there.  We were here to see what it was like for a Beijing village suburb—the government pays to keep them here, farming nuts and just subsisting, pretty much.  They make just about as much as the people we visited in the slums, but lived a much nicer life.  Their houses had two rooms.  They did have exercise equipment, cars, and soon they’ll even have internet.  We had a little Q&A session with one of the members of the village council, which was very informative, and I thoroughly enjoyed the provided massage chair while we all talked.  Lunch was provided by the village, and was delicious—a half a chicken (legs included), green beans, fresh baked bread, and other local delicacies.  We opted not to go hiking in the hot, arid countryside, and now will have a lazy Sunday to enjoy.  It’s much needed—lots of go go go recently, and it’ll pick up soon with a very busy week this week.  I can’t wait.