Guilin - Update

Yes, I know, I’ve really fallen behind on my blog posts. I guess I overestimated the amount of free time I would have as the summer continued. Well, one way to look at it is that I’m so busy experiencing things to write about, that I haven’t had the time to actually write about them.  But now that we are officially done with our summer program, and I’m on my own exploring Asia with two of my buds (Mike & Jack) I can finally write about my adventures.  No worries, I’ll catch you up to what I’m doing right now in a bit.

So rewind back to the beginning of the month, to the 4^th of July, where we started another one of our long voyages across the country. We boarded our train on the night of the 4^th worn out from the day that ended up being my least favorite 4^th of July in my life.  A quick summary of how the day went: industry visit to an air-conditioning company - four hours in heat that was so dangerous that the employees were given the day off - a traditional Chinese lunch consisting of boiled frogs, duck tongues, chicken feet, spicy octopus and a full chicken (including the head) in a pot – class – hour long cab ride to the train station – train ride. It was basically the opposite of every 4^th I’ve ever had in the US, but I guess I now have a stronger appreciation for those kinds of occasions.

Back to the trip - we’re on the train, in hard sleeper beds (thank God), and after a calm, and practically relaxing trip, we arrive in Guilin.  We all decided that we wanted to go to Guilin after hearing rave reviews from previous students on this trip, and from one of our professor’s.  Guilin is a city in southern China, relatively small in China (only 5 million people), and known for its ridiculously unique scenery of mountains that look like the bottom of egg cartons.  

The first day out we were determined to spend as much time in the mountains as possible, so we booked a tour through our hostile that would take us to the Li River. In China there’s a saying that goes “If you want to see mountains – go to Huangshan, if you want to see water – go to Jiuzhaigou, and if you want to see both – go to Guilin”.

After this trip, Guilin has taken over Shanghai as my favorite place in China. We rode in groups of five in motorized PVC rafts for about two hours up and down the river, soaking in the scenery and goofing around on the raft.  It was such an awesome ride, where I kept finding myself feeling like I was dropped into a National Geographic television show.

We then went to a tiny country town and loaded up two by two into personal bamboo boats. A personal driver pushed us up and down the river with a bamboo pole, which was just about as “Chinese” of an experience as someone could possibly get.  Along this ride, we stopped at a farm and all got off to check out a farmer’s water buffalo.  When we mustered up some courage, we all hopped on the massive animal and rode it around for a while. We also were able to watch a fisherman use an ancient Chinese technique of catching fish where he ties off a Commerant bird’s throat, so the bird catches the fish, brings it back, but isn’t able to swallow it so the fisherman gets to keep it.  Overall, it was another very eventful ride, complete with squirt guns, which we of course used to soak each other.

Eventually, our group made it to Yangshuo, a town about an hour south of Guilin, where we had purchased tickets to see the “Impressions” show that we had heard such great things about. The famous Chinese director that designed the Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies also made shows for a few select Chinese cities, which are known as “Impressions” of the respective city. The show however was very disappointing compared to our high expectations. 

Afterwards, we were tasked with finding our own transportation back to our hostile in Guilin.  Only knowing basic Chinese words and phrases, we weren’t too confident we’d be able to make it back.  But after locating the “bus station” (parking lot with empty busses) we walked around saying “women xiang qu Guilin” (we want to go to Guilin) enough times that a lady heard us and fired up a bus just for our group…a great victory for broken Chinese.

When we arrived in Guilin, we all decided that we couldn’t spend two and a half months in China without seeing the iconic rice terrace mountains. So we made a day trip out to a remote village and spent the day climbing and hiking around, admiring the ancient engineering that turned rocky hillsides into productive crop makers.

The way back was tainted by what ended up being the worst train ride yet. I won’t go into the gory details, but I’ll just say that bodily fluids were excreted very near our seats, multiple times. Thank the lord I’ll never have to do a ride like that again in my life.

So a quick update on my current situation, I’m on a train (soft sleeper bed – hell yeah) headed to Guangzhou. From Guangzhou, Mike, Jack and I will transfer to another train that will take us to Hong Kong.  There we’ll stay 3 nights in Hong Kong, take a ferry across to Macau, and spend a night there. After that we fly from Hong Kong to Phuket, Thailand, where we’re going to have a 4-day bro-fest on the beach.  When that’s all over, we fly back to Shanghai, and spend our final 24 hours there before flying back home with a stop for 12 hours in Dubai. It’s probably going to be one of the wildest weeks of my life, and I’m beyond excited for it.  

Midsemester Break - Beijing

Man, it’s been a busy few days over here.  Both Thermo and EPD are getting into the real heart of the course, but we've still been able to do a lot with our free time. Now that I’m back on a long train ride, I’ve finally got some free time to write. Last weekend almost our entire UW group shipped off to Beijing for our long mid-semester break to check out one of the most famous cities in China.

We didn’t waste much time before getting to the important sights of Beijing. Right away we decided to hit up Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, two of the most recognizable places in China. They were very crowded (to be expected) and just like usual, I underestimated the size of these places. It took us probably two hours just to walk through the Forbidden City. The entire palace is gigantic, with huge courtyards and temples one after another repeating ten times over.

 Tienanmen Square

Later that night we wandered around our hostile’s neighborhood, which was supposed to be one of the more happenin’ places in Beijing. We ended up finding a really cool street with tons of restaurants, bars and vendors (including an awesome Mexican place…first time I’ve seen ranch sauce in China). We also discovered an indoor market that sold basically everything someone could possibly want in China, so it’s safe to say we dropped some serious Kuai there.  I’m still amazed at how real all of the knock-off products look.  They seem like the real deal until you realize you just bought a pair of Nike’s for $10…too good to be true. Simply bargaining for anything is a ton of fun. It’s like playing a verbal chess game with a Chinese woman each time.  Usually the price they originally offer is about 4-5 times more than what I end up paying for the product. The salesladies are really good here too; way more difficult and fun to bargain with than any other place I’ve been to.

Beats by Dre all over the place

Friday morning we booked a day trip through our hostile to go to a little place called the Great Wall of China.  This was one of the things I was most looking forward to doing during my summer here, and it didn’t disappoint. When we got there we were initially pretty bummed that it was foggy, but it ended up making a pretty cool scene for the day. One of the things I overlooked was the steepness of the wall. There were very few flat parts, and it wasn’t uncommon for there to be two foot high steps, making for a pretty steep slope. Some of us were able to make it to both ends of our area in the time allotted, but I decided to relax at first, and then run from one end to the other to check out the impassable part of the wall.  Because the Great Wall is so long, they were only able to restore sections of it for tourism.  Once you do get to the end, the Wall is crumbling and overridden with vegetation.  After a very sweaty, hot day of climbing the wall, we had another treat in store: a toboggan ride down the mountain. This self-controlled thrill ride was practically as fun as any roller coaster I’ve ever been on. A bunch of us went down in a pack together, and we flew down the hill at alarmingly fast speeds and had the workers hollering at us the entire way down. Oh man, it was a ton of fun.

The fog made a really cool effect for some of the pictures I was able to take

A never ending stair workout: the Great Wall of China.

I was able to snap a picture during the toboggan ride. 

Some other highlights of the Beijing trip seeing Olympic Park, which also almost felt like I had been there already after seeing it so many times on TV. The water cube and the bird’s nest really are amazing buildings to see in person. Sadly we weren’t able to get into either of them, but just hanging outside of the places that Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps made history in was really neat. 

We also made a stop at the Beijing Zoo and got to check out some giant pandas. In case you didn't know already, China is panda obsessed. Everywhere you go you see pictures, t-shirts, hats, drinks, ads, phones, EVERYTHING with pandas on it. So the pandas were cool and all, but the real fun of the day came when my friend, Jack, and I were checking out some of the primates. One had just walked into a new room, so we were able to get up real close. I have recently decided that I want to make a movie of all of my experiences this summer, so I started taking footage of him. About 3 seconds in, the pretty sizable monkey stands up, and leaps with as much force as he can at the glass right in front of Jack's face and pounds on the glass while in the air. We were both so surprised by what just happened, that we didn't know what to do. I kept filming, and got footage of the monkey looking at me, then Jack, snarling at us and then walking away. It was insane. I've never interacted with an animal at a zoo like that, and I still can't believe I got it on video! Jack was legitimately shaking for the next few minutes because it caught him so off guard. Anyways, I'm going to try and figure out how to get that uploaded, and put it in my next post, because it's an awesome video.

 What a cuddly fella.

I said they like pandas, didn't I?

I know I’m not actually famous, but when you’re a semi-blonde American and in China, you basically are. I’ve been asked countless times to take pictures with families, children and even to hold a baby. Just yesterday there was a school group walking through our international dorm that mobbed two of my friends and I while we were passing by on our way to lunch. Immediately they all start screaming “HELLO! HI!” and jump up and down when they get a response from us.  The girls immediately pulled out their camera phones to get pictures of and with us throwing up peace signs. Not only that, but Chinese people aren’t afraid to let us know that we are different. Simply walking down the street will get me hundreds of stares and intrigued looks. If I do something especially crazy to them, like jog without a shirt on, I will get full blown halts and stares. I guess I have a better understanding what it feels like to be a minor celebrity.

One of the many pictures I've taken with Chinese people. 

So I realize that I've fallen a week behind on my blogs, and I'm sorry, but it's been insanely busy over here. Also, the heat in Hangzhou is starting to get a little crazy. It's been right around 100 degrees for probably a week and a half now. I'm going to try and fit in my next post about my trip to Guilin sometime this weekend. To give you a quick preview though, it is my new favorite place in China. The views were absolutely amazing, and scenery like nothing I'd ever seen before. Alright, well I gotta split and go play some basketball in 97 degree heat at 5:30PM. Gotta love it. 

Trip to Xi'an

Earlier last week, a few of us decided that we wanted to travel, and we quickly decided on Xi’an as our destination. We didn’t really know too much about the city, except it’s claim to fame as the home of the famous Terracotta Army.  So this trip basically had two phases: the long train rides there and back, and our time exploring n Xi’an.

This was our first time booking a trip on our own, so we were still a little bit unaware of the train situation. We ended up with a nice even number of 10 on the trip, which ended up working really well on the train.  Initially split up in random seats, I was able to befriend a Chinese dude and get him and his buds to switch with the rest of us, so we could all sit by each other.

There are a few things that are different about trains in China than in America.  First off, there are two different types of trains: high-speed and regular. High-speed trains are much nicer, cleaner, more spacious, about 2-3 times faster than regular trains, but also more expensive.  On the other hand, regular trains are more cost-effective, but much less enjoyable. One cool thing about regular trains is that you can choose 1 of 4 types of tickets: soft sleeper (nice beds and own cabin), hard sleeper (decent cots), a normal seat, or standing. Yeah…that’s right, standing.  

So both of these train rides were…how should I say this…an experience.  We got regular seats on a regular train, so we were in the lowest class of transportation possible, what we now fondly call “the cattle car”. We really didn’t understand what we got ourselves into until the first night on the train. It was kind of like we stepped inside a crowded, sketchy alleyway, and got stuck in it for 20 hours.

During the evening we played games and watched movies, and had a crowd of Chinese standing ticket owners – or standers - around us at all times. We were basically the equivalent of onboard entertainment for the passengers. We were the only foreigners on the whole train, and legitimately would have at least 5 Chinese people staring at us constantly. I honestly did not think I was that intriguing, but apparently on Chinese trains I am ridiculously interesting. If we were writing on our computer, they would be reading it.  Or if we were playing a game, they would stop and watch.  A guy walking past even picked up a card off of one of my friend’s laps without saying anything, looked at it, looked at all of us, and set it back down. I honestly had a guy try resting his butt on my shoulder while trying to block off my view of our showing of “Mean Girls”; safe to say I was not too pleased. Overall there’s definitely a different set of socially acceptable actions over here, which I’m not going to get into for the sake of keeping this blog short.

Hot, sticky, smelly, loud, smoky (because you can smoke cigarettes freely), and just all around uncomfortable, we got minimal sleep at night. Standers slept on the ground, in the sink, against walls, basically anywhere there was an open inch. Standers would snag an open seat faster than you could even notice, and then you would have to play the awkward ummmm-that’s-my-seat game and send ‘em back to the floor.  There was a nice wake up at 5 AM though, when the soup and mystery meat lady would haul down the aisle belting it out that spicy, salty breakfast was served.  Whenever a window was opened, it was amazingly refreshing to get the stench oozing from the squatting toilet room out of the air.

Finally, after rides of 20 and 24 hours respectively each way, we were ecstatic to get off the train. We definitely saw a different side of China that we hadn’t really spent a whole lot of time with before.  In summary, we survived, and it was an eye opening experience…but never again.

 We went crazy with the Ramen noodles.

Americans: pure entertainment.

 Probably the least crowded the train was on the entire trip

 Now to the fun part: the city of Xi’an. Unfortunately, we only had a short time in Xi’an, but we were able to see a lot. Before I got to the city, I knew absolutely nothing about it. As it turns out Xi’an is actually a city of about 9 million people, and is not solely a tourist destination for the terracotta army, because the army was only discovered in the 1970’s. Right away, we went to check out the army, which is actually about 45 minutes out of the city.  When we walked into the first, and largest pit, it was like stepping inside of a national geographic show. All lined up and standing tall, they were quite the sight to behold. Since the excavation of many of the warriors is still in progress, there were some without heads, missing arms, and some that were still completely rubble. Overall, it was super cool to see in real life.

Some of my favorite pictures of the Terracotta Army:

At night, we were all pretty tired, but because our hostile was so centrally located we decided to walk to the town center. The bell tower we visited was literally in the middle of the 4 main roads in Xi’an, with a 5-lane roundabout circling it. After we checked that out, we did some more sight seeing and shopping around town.

The next morning, we were able to do something has been one of my favorite things in China so far. Since Xi’an is a very ancient city, there is a 40-foot rectangular wall around the main part of the city. This 14 kilometer long wall is flat on the top, and the city rents out bicycles for people to ride on top. When we walked up to the rental, Mike and I saw that they had tandem bicycles, so of course we got one of those. So we rode around the wall, which even had some ramps and made for a very interesting ride on a tandem bike.  Overall the time spent in Xi’an was awesome, but there’s no way I’m ever taking a 24-hour train ride in a cattle car again.

Here's some pictures of our ride on the wall:

I’m currently on a high-speed train (thank God) headed to Beijing for our mid-semester break. I’ll be sure to give some updates on this next trip sometime soon! 

Wild Week

Well this week was insanely hectic. We had our first Thermo test on Thursday (after only 5 lectures) so basically all free time I had this week was put towards studying. However, we did do a few really cool things this week. On Tuesday afternoon our group was invited to go to Shanghai for a reception of a new UW opening in Shanghai. A bunch of us thought it sounded like a cool idea, so we all packed up after class, took the high-speed train to Shanghai, navigated the subway and made it to the event. Not really knowing what to expect, I dressed in a shirt and tie. Good thing I did, because the reception turned out to be on the 64^th floor of a skyscraper in downtown, with two entire floors rented out just for the UW event. We were also warned to pack snacks because food might not be provided, but I ended up getting thirds on the buffet line that included some of the most delicious food I’ve had in China. I also heard something from a friend that I never expected I’d hear on my trip, “Awww man, they just ran out of crème brulee”.  Mingling with business owners, deans of UW colleges, the chancellor David Ward, and other important people at UW for the night was an incredible experience. It was especially cool, because it was one that I never would have expected to have on this trip, being 7000 some miles from home.

 The view from the UW event. 

 The group of us that rode to Shanghai for the day, along with Professor Pfotenhauer and Chancellor David Ward.

Kings of Chinese public transit. Dramatically got separated from the rest of the group when the automated doors shut in the middle of our group while boarding. 

As a part of this study abroad program we have partnerships with various companies in Hangzhou, so our group can take industry visits and check out what it would be like to be an engineer in China.  Yesterday we visited Runpaq, a heating & cooling company that serves about 50% of the market in China. We toured the facility, saw some of their devices, and were given a presentation about their work. It was pretty interesting, but the real fun came after the visit. Earlier this week our professor told us that they had challenged us to a basketball game at the local Zhejiang campus. Not thinking much of it, 6 of us brought some athletic shorts and sneakers to the visit. We eventually made it to the courts thinking it would be a friendly pick up game, but what we saw was a little bit different. They had a team of about 15 guys, all wearing custom made jerseys, with about another 20 spectators to watch the matchup. The team we assembled included a guy who had never played basketball in his life, and another guy wearing cargo shorts. We were definitely less prepared for what came next, a legitimate basketball game, including 2 refs (one was a recently injured friend, Mike) and 4-twelve minute quarters. Once the game started, it was tons of fun. They were far more skilled than any other Chinese players we had faced before. They were quick, scrappy and surprisingly physical, but we had one big advantage: size. I was our point guard for most of the game, and I would have been the tallest player on their team. In the end, we outmuscled the Runpaq team 39-26, but it was a really cool experience. They were all really nice guys, and we could tell they loved having the chance to play against Americans. While I was off the court for a few minutes I was able to snap some pictures of the game.

 Fernando shooting a free throw.

 You can see the size advantage we had pretty well here. Jamen (shooting) is a good 5 inches above everyone else. 

Postgame picture with the Runpaq team and the ref's. Team America came out victorious. 

The group of people in China with me is really awesome. Basically everyone gets along, and everybody really likes to explore and have a good time.  There’s 21 of us taking Thermo and EPD, with another 3 ChemE students doing research, and everyone is really cool. We're starting to get past the "freshman pack" stage, where everyone hangs out with everyone all the time, and beginning to break into smaller groups. Even though cliques are forming, I still love hanging out with everyone here. It's a very diverse and interesting group of people, and I'm finding more and more about everyone with each passing day. Here's a full group photo (minus Jack):

 Well, that's enough writing for this morning, thanks for reading! Keep stopping by for more updates!

Long Weekends

One of the awesome perks about this study abroad program is that we only have class 8-12, and from Monday to Thursday. With only 4 day weeks, that allows us to travel and do lots of stuff on the weekends. This past Thursday, we went to Wuzhen (which I just realized I posted a picture of in my last post, but didn't really explain). So, as I said in the caption, Wuzhen is a city built on canals, similarly to Venice. Everyone with the UW program (27 of us, including professors) took the 2 hour bus ride out there, and got to spend the entire day touring the city. The city was really unique, we were given a tour that sent us all around. At times, the city seemed fake, almost Disney-world-like. I honestly thought it wasn't real for a while, but then I would see a lady hanging laundry, or a guy through the window kicking back and watching tv. At night, the city was especially cool with all of the buildings along the canals illuminated. Here's a few pictures from my trip to Wuzhen:

 Some houses along one of the canals. 

A worker asleep in one of the boats on the canal. Really cool to ride in one of these at night.

I alluded to the mountain behind the campus in an earlier posts, and today, Cooper, Ben and I hiked up it to take some pictures. Even though we went in the morning, the heat and humidity still got the best of us. Besides a drenched shirt, the hike was really enjoyable. In total the hike is a about 720 steps carved into the side of the mountain. It's actually the most popular form of exercise for us to run up the stairs of the mountain, I did it a few times this past week. Before we went this morning, we thought it was pretty clear, but it turned out to be a classic China day - foggy and hazy. 


For the first time since 8th grade, basketball is a big part of my daily life again. I play just about daily now, 4 on 4 pick up games with UW guys and Chinese students. The Chinese students, and just Chinese people in general, LOVE basketball and the NBA. By far the favorite team around here is the LA Lakers, and the favorite player is definitely Kobe Bryant. I guy I talked to today was actually really upset that the Lakers are out of the playoffs.  I’d probably say that they care more about the NBA on average than the average American person, which is really surprising, and a little funny. I can have a better conversation with a Chinese student about an American league, than I can an American. Another interesting thing about their infatuation with the NBA is that is the style of basketball they play. Us Wisconsin kids can do pretty well against them because of our size advantage, but the Chinese players are so good at ball handling, one on one and jump shooting it’s ridiculous. They legitimately play NBA style pick up basketball, which includes minimal passing and no rebounding. Not only do they play a different style, but they wear one too.  Yesterday a guy wearing two polo shirts, with popped collars, khaki’s, and flip-flops schooled the crap out of me one on one.  I honestly don’t get it, I looked like a fool.

Life in Hangzhou

Hey everyone!

I know it's been a while since I've updated, but it's been a really busy week. To catch up on my life a little bit here, I officially moved in to my room last Saturday.  We were given single rooms in the International student dorm, which is really neat place to live. It's a really similar set up to freshman year all over again, with a hallway of a bunch of Wisconsin guys. On a daily basis we get to interact with people from America (NC St., Michigan St., etc.) but also students from around the world (Austrailia, Spain etc.). The local students here have been really friendly and helpful, showing us where to eat, giving us tips and helping us settle in. People in general are really excited to talk with an American to practice their english and just get to know us. We started classes on Monday, and we've been having a ton of homework for our Thermodynamics class.  Besides the homework, everything is going great!

Hangzhou is an amazingly gorgeous city! I had always read online that it was one of the most beautiful in China, but it is honestly something else. The campus I'm living on (Yuquan campus of Zhejiang University) is situated at the bottom of a mountain and about a 15 minute walk from the West Lake area. It is ridiculously beautiful here. Even campus is far more scenic than I would have expected. All of the roads are lined with trees, providing a natural canopy when walking around. This is becoming more and more crucial because it's really starting to heat up here. The first few days were in the high 70's, sweatshirt weather for the locals. But now the temperature is creeping up higher and higher, and tomorrow it's supposed to 94. Not only is the temperature high, but what's deceiving about Hangzhou is how humid it is.  Because of the surroundings, the huge West Lake, and the natural climate for a city of this latitude (same as Jacksonville, FL) the humidity is extreme every day. It's rare for me to walk back into my dorm room and find a dry room.

The food around here has taken a bit of time to get used to. Let's just say appreciate Americanized Chinese food, because it is not the same at all.

Besides doing homework all the time, I have found some time to explore the area. On the way over to Hangzhou, we met at the airport in Shanghai, and a group of us opted to take the maglev train to the airport. Now, this is a little bit nerdier of me, but this was amazing. I studied high speed rail systems for an engineering class earlier at UW, and finally riding a maglev was amazing. A quick explanation of a maglev train is that it is levitated off of the track by magnets, and then shot down the track. The ride was so smooth, quick and amazing. We reached a top speed of about 300 km/hr (186 mph), and it barely felt like we were travelling at all.

Another awesome exploration was running to the peak of the mountain right behind campus. Before I came here I thought Hangzhou would be a medium sized city. Which it definitely is for China standards, not American. Hangzhou is actually the size of Chicago, and once I was on top of the mountain, I realized it. The city goes on for miles and miles, with huge buildings everywhere.

Man, there's just so much to talk about, but I can't do it all in one sitting. So I'll end it here for today, but get back to it tomorrow. Here's some pictures of the trip so far.

West Lake, amazingly beautiful.

 Our international dorm building. 

 Wuzhen, the Venice of the East, at night. 

Our classroom. Chinese desks don't work too well with long American legs. 

Exploring Shanghai

So after getting a few quick hours of sleep after arriving in Shanghai, we hit the city bright and early.  It was pretty rainy, but we survived. We went out and saw the city, which (not surprisingly) is massive. Every direction you look there are skyscrapers. It honestly feels like the city goes on beyond where the eye can see. It's nothing like I've ever seen before. Even when you go in an tunnel to get under a street that is blocked off and doesn't have a crosswalk, there's an extensive underground shopping mall system that seems to go on for miles. Across from our hotel is People's Park, which is kinda similar to Central Park in NYC in the idea that it's a set away green space to admire scenery, sculptures, ponds, amusement rides, and a really interesting/weird public work out center (complete with weights made of rocks).  Along with that there are museums and performance centers and a bunch of cool public buildings. We checked out the museum for a while, which was pretty interesting, but a little bit too historical for my attention span (sorry Mom). 

We also checked out Nanjing Road, a huge pedestrian shopping street (except for any stray vehicle that will run you over without blinking an eye). Honestly, the driving here is ridiculous. If you're crossing the street when you're not supposed to, or even when you are, you have to be ready to dodge at any moment. We've gotten a walk sign and almost had our knees taken out multiple times.  Part of the issue is that the street lights come with timers, just like most crosswalks do. So cars see that they only have 2 seconds, so they gun it to get through. Or, they see that they'll get a green in 2 seconds, so they're already halfway through the intersection. Another interesting thing: a TON of mopeds here. Definitely the vehicle of choice. Also, cars honk for everything, like to pass another car, or to change lanes, so there's always something honking. Anyways, enough about transportation issues.  Nanjing Road is the place to be. At night, it's illuminated with more flashing fluorescent lights than I've ever seen. It's not just the buildings on it, but ones blocks away even, so everything is illuminated at night. 

Other fun things I've learned about China: in general, everything is about 5/8 of the price in the US (rough estimate). Not learning how to say "no thank you" in Chinese class is a bummer (got asked if I wanted a "sexy massage" multiple times tonight). Doors that have "exit" above them, don't actually mean that they are an exit. Usually just mean it's a door to a closet, or a supply room. Finally, being an American over here is definitely exciting for locals. Me and some of the other guys were asked multiple times to take a picture with high schoolers, even a middle aged couple. 

Today we'll be heading inland to Hangzhou, where we'll be studying at Zhejiang University for the next 8 weeks. It's definitely going to be exciting to see where I'll be living for the summer!

Here's some pictures of the day in Shanghai:

 We walked to the river to see The Bund. It's the new, modern skyline on the other side of the river. Didn't have time to go over there, so we'll save it for another trip to Shanghai later in the summer.

 Nighttime on Nanjing Road.

 View from the top of our hotel looking down Nanjing Road to The Bund.

 An example of the underground mall system.  This was a 1930's historical section of it.

 Some of the colorful workout equipment in People's Park.  You can see an old man working out (?) in the distance.

 Cooper, Mike and I found bubble tea again, delicious.

Some of the bright, flashing signs on Nanjing Road.