Last weekend we had a short vacation so we could travel and be tourists here in China. Seven of our group of 13 girls decided to go to Shanghai and see what all the fuss is about, and along the way we discovered there is a lot to fuss about. But our trip started with an ordeal I'm not sure I'd wish on many people: a 16+ hour train ride on "hard seats."
At first I didn't think it would be that bad, I've been on uncomfortable transportation before and have managed. I've been on trains and on buses overnight and while they take some getting used to, I've gotten enough sleep to still have fun. Until this train. The seats were set up back to back so there was no leaning back and little lean at all to the seats, and then there was a dinky little table by the window that wasn't big enough for a pillow and the seats were pretty close to each other, so not a lot of leg and luggage room. That wouldn't have been that bad, except we were near the back of the carriage and on Chinese trains they allow smoking in the entry way. There are no doors, so the smoke drifted to us sitting two rows away. A couple of the girls have asthma that immediately began to act up, and after the first hour all of us had headaches. Not surprisingly, Kelita immediately fell asleep and was out for a few hours but the rest of us sat there trying to get comfortable and tired. We played some quiet games and by about midnight when people were sprawled on the floor asleep we followed suit and a few of the girls laid down on the floor to sleep. My only other voluntary memories of that train is that I got out my bandana to block out the smoke, which helped a lot; Kenzie gave me a melatonin which I think immediately knocked me out until we got to Shanghai; and the train was going at what felt like 5mph for a few hours, so what was supposed to be a 16 hour ride turned nightmarishly into 20 hours. But then we got to Shanghai and were free of that leg of our adventure.
Shanghai is gorgeous. After eating, checking into our hostel and dropping off our bags, we went out to see what Shanghai is like. My first thought was how spectacular the buildings are. We walked to the Bund, which is really close to our hostel, and I couldn't get enough of the view and the feel of the city. The Bund is known for its view of downtown Shanghai, but I kept wanting to turn around and look at the buildings on the side we were on. They are so ornate made out of stone. I loved walking past them every day on our way back to our hostel. On our first night though, we didn't want to let it go to waste, so we decided to find and go to the top of the financial building, to the observation deck. I'm not sure if we could have arrived there at a better time if we had planned it because we arrived at the building around sunset, and we got to watch it set and the lights of the city turn on while we were up there. It was so beautiful and I'm so glad we got to see that! Once we got down we wanted to wander around a little more, and try to find dinner but we were also fighting the exhaustion left on us by our train ride. Since it was vacation time, we wanted American food! But it was surprisingly hard to find any in such a big city...
On our only full day in Shanghai (dang trains!) we spent the day wandering the neighborhood of the temple of the gods and the yuyuan gardens. The buildings are what everyone imagines Chinese buildings to look like so of course I was happy to be there. The temple of the gods is huge. We walked in and saw the courtyard with the big temple on one side and a few smaller shrines on the sides. I went to look at the shrines and one of them is the god of accepting fortune, so of corse I took a picture with it. But then I walked into the big temple and realized that it went on farther back than I thought. It was cool, but I am still confused who all the statues were and why they are there. I've researched Buddhism a little since then, but that has almost confused me more because there are so many aspects to it. The YuYuan Gardens are beautiful and also a lot bigger than I initially thought. I'm definitely going back to those gardens when I go back to Shanghai. We spent the rest of the day looking in the shops and bargaining, even when we didn't buy anything. Just practicing.
We spent the evening on Nanjing Road, which is the longest shopping, walking street I've seen, but it is beautiful!! We bought lasers there which I've already used in the PreK class to stop them from crying. It works wonders!
Our last morning in Shanghai we all went to the Jade Buddha Temple. It was the day of the Mid-Autumn festival so there were a lot of people there but it was still gorgeous. The jade Buddha is huge, but pictures aren't allowed. He's not the fat Buddha though, but the skinny one (I didn't realize there were different Buddhas either...)
After the temple we split up. I wanted to try and find the gadget market, so Regan and Shalee went with me to try and find that. We took the subway to the Science and Technology Museum stop, which is where they say a market is. We had no clue where we were, but we saw a guy selling kites, so we bought one and tried to fly it for a while. Then we wandered over to the museum, which is huge! If I had had more time in Shanghai, I would have gone back to that museum! But by happenstance we found the pearl market. Which just ended up being a market. Where NO ONE ELSE seemed to be. It was amazing to not need to fight any crowds, but because we were the only ones shopping that day, the shop owners were like sharks chasing us down with their merchandise. I tried to bargain as best I could, but there are a few thing I bought that I still think I could and should have gotten for less.
Then it was time to travel back home on another train. Luckily we had beds that time, and that made the 16 hours sooo much better. Except Kenzie gave a few of us Dramamine and melatonin. We were out for the full 12 hours and then some...it took me two days to fully recover and wake up.
Shanghai was a great vacation, but there was not nearly enough time for all the things I found to do there, so I know I will be back some day. I was so glad to be back with my kids for the end of the week though! I missed them, even if they were being punks all week, falling over each other and barely listening to me, and I guess not listening to Kenzie at all. I wish I got video of them on Friday though, when we were dancing. I played gangam style on my speaker, which is a Korean song, but they all know the dance and were dancing it. So cute. But I guess that's not a metropolitan adventure in Shanghai.
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