It's Cold

^Our 4th year Chinese class.  We're all still wearing our jackets.

            Probably the most defining characteristic of our stay so far has been the frigid cold.  What I mean to say is, its really cold, both inside and outside.  There is no escaping it.  Our Chinese marketing teacher told us about an old Chinese law that essentially says, the Chinese government will subsidize heating systems in buildings to north of the Yangtze River, but public buildings to the south of that river cannot legally install heating systems for an entire building.  So in short, the temperature inside is roughly the same as it is outside.

            However, that is about the end of any concern I might have.  Shanghai is a beautiful city.  I really can’t say I’ve seen much in the United States that compares to its beauty and it definitely puts New York to shame in some respects.  Considering everything was essentially built in the last 10 years, the entire city has the most modern technology from the accessible metro system to stunning architecture.  I have a few stops to make this weekend such as Nanjing Lu, The Bund, and The World Financial Center, but here’s a quick rundown of the past week!

            At the end of last week, our wonderful Resident Director, Wang Kai took us all across the city, got us set up with cell phones, and introduced us to the neighborhood.  We ate at some awesome local restaurants, and I’ve really been enjoying the food, especially the Enoki Mushrooms (金针菇) and XiaoLongBao (小笼包), both of which my friend, Sunny Shih, would be jealous about.

^Enoki Mushrooms and beef

Recreation

            We went to a local park and it was amazing to see how the Chinese enjoy their parks, from using an exercise area, to playing cards at a picnic table (obviously everything is a life or death situation with these card games).  If only we had a few more parks like this back in the states.

^Chinese playing cards at a local park.

            We also went to the beautiful Shanghai Theatre, located at the Ritz Carlton, to see an acrobatic show.  Our buddy Cong got up to participate in the show by getting strapped to a board and then blind folded.  Cong was told that the guy on stage would throw a knife and pop the balloon between his legs, but once blind folded they simply stuck the knife in the board.  Cong was so scared that he actually unstrapped himself and got off stage.  We all vowed not to tell him, so maybe he’ll eventually read this and know what happened.

^Cong on stage at the acrobatic show.

            In China, you can find pretty much anything we have in the states, some things legit, while others a little more like a knock-off good.  Take basketball for example.  We went to see a Shanghai Sharks basketball game (the team owned by Yao Ming), and the whole experience had a high school-ish feel to it.  However, one funny thing did happen.  JR Smith was playing for the other team, and the one black guy in our Alliance program, Mudhi Sharif, called out to him from the crowd saying, “I’m from America, I’m from Minnesota bro!” and then JR acknowledged him.  So after the game, Mudhi convinced the security guards he was JR’s rich cousin and got into the locker room!

Culture

            Everything has a set of ears on it.  iPhone cases, headbands, shoes, belts, keychains, cars; they all have animal like features, and I guess it likely has to do with how much the Chinese love animals.  A lot of this cute and cuddly culture was probably adopted from Japan though.  Below, you can see the entrance to the local HongKou (虹口) mall, which also has bright colors and animals.

^HongKou Mall

We also went to YuYuan (豫园) Garden to see the lantern festival (上元节) on one of the last nights of the Chinese New Year.  The red lanterns absolutely blow you away, and in addition to that, there was a huge display with dragons, fish, Chinese men and women with traditional clothing, and then… a Pepsi logo in the waterfall.  Bad marketing move Pepsi, that was a no-no, this is the most traditional time of the year.

^YuYuan Garden for the Lantern Festival, Pepsi logo in the waterfall.

Prices

The local shops pretty much have any daily item you could need, and the local prices tend to be a little less expensive than Walmart (沃尔玛) or Carrefour (家乐福).  But I know that before I came to Shanghai, I had the misconception that you could live the high life in China, while paying prices that are a fraction of what they are in the West.  Well, a few of us have been pretty wrong about that, we’ve been burning through cash.  After paying for all of our initial expenses, we have all spent about 1000-2000 Yuan on things we really can’t account for.  The fixed costs, however, were roughly: housing – 200 Yuan, cell phone deposit + minutes – 200 Yuan, internet service – 300+ Yuan, gym membership – 300 Yuan, Metro card – 100 Yuan, and then about 600 Yuan on things for the room.  Beyond that, we’ve been eating out a bit and its very easy to spend a lot on food.  So if you’re beginning to think about expenses for your study abroad, be sure to save a few extra dollars!