Journal Day 6: June 12th

Journal Day 6: June 12^th

What did we do today?

v Out of hotel in Xian

v On bus to airport

v Land, got bags

v Lunch

v Went to the Bund… saw the Expo across the river

v Went to a retirement village, we got to go into these ladies’ homes

v Market… strange food ~ lots of fish… many we could not identify

v Acrobatic show J very cool! (I actually had seen this show perform at Navy Pier a few years ago! It was awesome to see them again, and in China too!)

v Dinner

v Hotel

Prompt: Initial Impressions of Shanghai, Where do you see elements of East meets West?, Reactions to the market and the family visit.

When we flew to Shanghai this morning, we were in the outskirts of the city. The land was relatively flat and the buildings were close to the ground. When I saw this, I thought the city was going to be smaller than the other two we had been to. My view began to change when our local tour guide showed us the bullet train. Only beaten in speed by the bullet trains in Japan, the magnet powered train here in Shanghai goes on average zippy 250 mph. The buildings kept getting bigger and bigger the closer we got to the city. Soon they were towering above us; huge fully-grown skyscrapers.

I found it interesting how the city of Shanghai got its name. To shanghai means “to induce or compel (someone) to do something, especially by fraud or force”. However shanghai usually refers specifically to kidnapping a man for compulsory service aboard a ship, especially after drugging him. In this city many people were hijacked, stolen and put on ships for labor. This began in the 1920’s and continued until 1949 (Mao Zedong stepped in). They shanghaied them into service, hence the name given to the city.

Along with the World Expo came new buildings and thousands of people, but it also increased the pollution level. (The line to get into the Expo daily is over a 2 hour wait! That was the longest line I have ever seen in my life.) It was hard to see some things behind all of the smog; but it was beautiful none-the-less.

I see the elements of the Eastern ideas meeting the Western ideas in many areas. Firstly, Shanghai Dialect is different than the languages used in other regions in China. It is apparently very different from Mandarin as well. There are some words in the Shanghai Dialect that are the same in English (ex: “stick” is the same word in both languages). I thought this was very interesting, because you could directly see where the culture of Shanghai was affected by being a port city, and how it was influenced by Western cultures.

The buildings here are different than the rest of China. There are ancient and modern buildings like the other cities, however there are many more houses here. These houses have a distinct European style. Many of them look German. I was pretty shocked to see this. I had no idea there would be so much of a Western influence in Shanghai.

I thought the family visit was really fun! It was really nice of those ladies to invite us into their home. They were very welcoming. I liked being able to see how these people live every day. It was a small house, but it was homey. They had 2 (maybe 3?) bedrooms, a living/dining area, kitchen, and a bathroom. The ladies were retired and lived in a retirement community. The government gave them money for their rent and their daily food supplies. I thought this was interesting... What are the positives and negatives of having this option? … … … We were all asking questions to the ladies; I ask her if she liked to listen to music. She said she didn’t, but maybe she thought I meant American music, because later she showed us her piano… hmmm… so, I don’t know.

The market was cool to see. There were dead fish guts, eels, frogs, and a mixture of spices, fruits, and vegetables. In the end it all equaled out into a strange assorted flavor. It was really crazy, made me dizzy, and made me lose my appetite, but it was still fun!

All-in-all it was another wonderful day in China! Wow ~ How often do you get to say that?!