The End (Take Two)

Today is my last day in China this time. I have no idea how four weeks have managed to go by so fast. I have, like always, had an amazing time in China. There are a lot of things I look forward to coming home to, but I also realise that Sweden is nowhere near as interesting as China.

Nobody parks their scooter in restaurants back home.

No Swedish buses have Playboy seat covers (I hope). 

In Sweden you never see couples wearing matching T-shirts. 

And nobody drives around in a Hello Kitty car. 

Hangzhou Trip

The main event this weekend was a trip to Hangzhou, a city located about 200 kilometres south-west of Shanghai. Hangzhou is famous for it's beautiful scenery, especially by the West Lake. The city itself is just a typical Chinese city, but the environment surrounding the West Lake is absolutely amazing.

The train from Shanghai to Hangzhou takes only 55 minutes. It's all super modern, just like the huge train stations with boarding gates just like in airports.

Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station

As you can see, there's a reason why Hanzhou is famous for it's beautiful scenery. 

Hangzhou is also very famous for the Longjing tea that is produced nearby. It is pretty expensive, but apparently a must when you are in Hangzhou, so therefore we visited a traditional Chinese tea house, rebuilt in 1985 as an exact copy of the previous tea house built there in 934 AD.

Weekend Adventure

Yesterday I went to the Hongkou district with some Norwegians to visit a park and a genuine Chinese market street. The weather was (unfortunately) lovely, which meant 36°C and sunny. There were not many people in the park, except for a large group of elderly playing mahjong and Chinese chess. 

The market street was narrow, crowded and stinky. It was packed with vendors selling everything from sheets to eel. We were the only foreigners there, all with a very Scandinavian appearance, which made the Chinese look even more at us.

I ended up only buying some fruit, but I helped the Norwegians bargain for some sheets and cleaning utilities. It was an interesting day that made us all extremely tired. However, I like making these types of excursions to non-typical tourist attractions, because it gets me closer to the "real" China. 

 

 

River Cruise

For the first time since I got to China I have had some trouble accessing the internet. Therefore, I am a little late with my update.

Two days ago the university arranged for the summer course students to go on a river cruise on Huangpujiang, the river that divides Shanghai into Pudong and Puxi. A lot of students were going, and I went with my two Japanese room mates.

It was a beautiful scenery. Pudong, the finance district, with all its buildings were lit up beautifully. On the other shore the colonial western style buildings were also illuminated.  Below you can see some of it, as good as my camera could caption it in the dark.

Beside my room mates, I also met up with some other friends from school, among them a huge group of Norwegians!

Maki, Japan, and Adrian, Norway

Pudong by night

Valeria, Italy, and Michelle, USA

Valeria and I

Oriental Pearl Tower

Room mates, Norwegians and I

Espen, Norway, 197 cm next to mini Chinese guy

Frank, USA and Espen, Norway

Friday thoughts

Firstly, I am posting a picture of the Fudan University main building as promised.

Pretty impressive, huh?

Secondly, I'm going to list two things about China that I find strange. The first think is that every time you walk into a store (the larger kind), there is a person helping you find the thing that you want to buy. That person then writes you a note that you take to the cashier to pay for the item. You thereafter have to go back to the first salesperson to collect the item, after showing the receipt to prove that you've paid. Isn't that strange?

The second thing I find strange is Coke float. I know this is something that is originally American, but the Chinese are crazy about it! For those of you who don't know what  Coke float is, I can tell you that it's basically a Coke with a scoop of ice cream in it. You can order it almost everywhere here, and they have so many different types, I've even seen a green tea float!

Now I have to go and put make-up on, I am going out with a bunch of other students to discover the Shanghai nightlife. Again!

Cancelled class

Late last night I received a text from the school saying that classes were cancelled today because of the typhoon. I have never experienced a typhoon before, and when I got the text I realised that it actually was kind of serious! So I slept in this morning, for the first time since I got to China. I have woken up before 7am every day, didn't even get chance to sleep the jet lag off. Right now the wind is so strong the trees are bending, there is a wall of rain blowing from west to east and you can hear the wind really loudly outside the window. I don't know how long this will last, but I'm sitting here in my room eating, studying and watching Glee. My food supply consist of instant noodles, cereal with milk, dried pineapple and peanuts.

Hopefully this will be over soon so that classes can be held like normal tomorrow. However, if I know the Chinese right, they will just make up for the missed classes by having them during the weekend instead. I will let you know.

Webcam and Typhoon

Second update from today: I just got home from Suning, an electronics store I went to to buy a webcam (my computer refuses to let me use the built-in one). I cannot describe how huge it is. Four floors with tons of products. Here are some pictures:

Also, this was put up outside the elevator when I got back home:

I guess I'm staying in tonight...