Lack of Better Editing Shanghai Files

Ugh I'll never get these entries done!

I've separated them with whatever sanity I have left since I won't have time to edit them when school starts. Written in stream of consciousness. Booyah!

July 1st

Day 3 at Shanghai

Transportation

Yes! I am at the business epicenter of China, Pudong. It very much resembles the fast paced life style of New York City. People keep moving and it is packed! I feel congested because of the many people who live in this city and the heavy pollution. The traffic is mindboddling.Bicycles and motorcycles are just as common as cars, that there are two lanes: One for cars, onefor bikes and motocycles. Motorcycles run as fast as bikes, approximately 10-15 mph. There is no such thing as yielding to pedestrians. In fact, they spare you no mercy. My parents and I were walking back to our 5 star Hotel complex at Four Points by Sheraton at Daning/Puxi, and the drivers didn't honk, only waited for us to realize that "omg the car is driving on the street and looks like it is about to hit us." I realize its a way of life. The thing that I really like about being a pedestrian is that they time how long pedestrians are allowed to cross. There is a 15 second timer telling you when a car is allowed to cross the street. I've learned to run across.

Transportation and hotel efficiency

When you buy a metro card, you swipe it through a scanner. To get off the metro, they take your card away, so it is recycled back into the system.In hotels, it requires insertion of hotel cards in order to access electricity.

China V. US
I was able to access my laptop for the past two days since June 29th, only to have my laptop run out of batteries. The American electrical outlet is not designed the same way as the chinese outlet, so I had to find the converter before I could access electricity for my laptop.

Maybe China understands capitalism better than the US...
I am bemused by the aggressiveness of Chinese people in general. I decided to term it "overt capitalism". Once they know you are a foreigner, people will attempt many tactics to make money off of you or try to rip you off with their fake stuff. I don't think the culture is neccessarily backwards, but I don't like the persistent nature of people trying to sell me their business. The people at the hotel continually tried to convince us to takeone of their tours. The unofficial taxi drivers will follow you for many meters to convince you to ride their taxi until you either cave in, ignore them, or start running. I thought it was stalkerish but I began to accept that they do that to everyone. Unless I have a scent of a foreigner. Probably not, because people normally talk to me in Shanghainese, which I don't understand, so then they switch toMandarin, which is more on my turf. A lady on the airplane asked me to fill out her baggageform in chinese. Because I sat next to her, I ended up having a conversation with her in Mandarin and I somehow started to translate between the food options she wanted on the plane.Again duality, still American but look very chinese. My clothes are different because theyare very western, but I'm sure my wardrobe will change once I find cheap items to buy.

Stores and Prices
There are stores running from miles and miles, but not every store is busy. Its hard to find cheap clothes of good quality. I'm trying to price discriminate between bottles of water. I think a fair price is 1.5 yuanat a vending machine (and 7.53 yuan equals one American dollar).

Food and culture clash

I should've brought my granola bars and Quaker Oatmeal.

I miss Western snacks! Common fruits in America are expensive! Cherries are priced high, so I end up switching to fruits like Lycee and mangosteen. You should wikipedia mangosteen. That fruit is delicious and cheap over here. It resembles a miniature orange, only white, creamy, and full of juicy/sweet flavor. I missoranges. No hypermarket sells oranges. Also transactions are different. Like I would have to go to the produce lady, get a receipt from her, then go to the cash register lady to makea transaction. Things aren't cheap here, but that's because we went to Pudong to do our shopping. Pudong is where the torch will be lit for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. We went to the famous Bund, and walked on Nanjing Lu. It models France, so everything is priced like it were in Euros, which has a higher value than that of the American dollar.I found another street North Si Chuan Lu which is cheaper. That's where the locals go,I plan to go there today to make a killing or save money from the deficits suffered yesterdayfrom purchasing all the overpriced stuff at People's Square to the Bund on Nanjing Road. That is clearly not the bargaining district. Western culture is prevalent on Nanjing Lu, but I do occassionally notice Jay Chou songs playing in the department stores.

Here, everything is pockey sticks gallore. I'm trying to find cereal.

There are no such things as nutritional facts. I am just expected to pop things right into my mouth. Sometimes I fear obesity because of the unknown contents of what I am eating, but I also don't fear it because everyone I have seen is relatively thin. There aren't high contents of MSG. Alot of their food lacks the crazy sweetness of foods in the states. Like the high quality bread. It tasted like cheese cake, only there was no flavor. So I pretty much tasted the texture of cheesecake. The street vendor's corn at Wai Tan was rather stale, but that's because its been out for more than a couple of days. We paid 3 yuan (less than 50 cents), so I guess that's fair in America. But there are tradeoffs between quality and quantity.

It's actually been particularly hard finding good food that my parents and I wait hours until we find a nice restaurant to eat. By then, I'm normally satisfied with eating everything in sight. Waiters are really agressive with us ordering food. If we order less than they expect, they would insist that we order more. My dad runs the philosophy of Ru Xiang Sui su, do as the romans do, so we ordered alot of food. I think even at cheaper prices, the fact that we order so many dishes leaves us with the same amount had we been in America. We didn't doggybag it though because no one else did it in the restaurant. Neither did we pay tip because it is a communist country.

Jet lag
Yeah I didn't experience it. I didn't go to sleep the night of my trip. I really liked how I followed the sun for 17 hours while I tried to get here. It was cool how we crossed Spokane, the PacificOcean, Tokyo (Nhut is there). There is exactly a 12 hour difference between here and Philly.That means I know exactly what you are doing.

"Life is short, so stay awake!"
I normally do follow my own philosophy.I don't like to sleep early because 1. I will be in Shanghai for another day, 2. I missed a relative who works in Shanghai. She teaches English to Mandarin students. I missed her visit and I also wanted to check out the Bund at night because that's the only time whenthe lights are on to the extreme. But no I went to sleep.

AT NANJING LU

Beijing 2008
We went to the Beijing 2008 store yesterday. There are alot of interesting looking mascots. Accross the street, people were rehearsing for the Beijing opening ceremonies. In fact, the flag bearers were twirling, and people were dressed up in their costumes. Alot of people resembling my grandparents were dancing on the streets in groups, like what they do in the Teochew Association. My dad says its a local activity for excercise.

Umbrella-ella-ella
Another thing I really respect about the economical nature of the chinese people is howthey use umbrellas. Instead of worrying about putting sun tan lotion and hats, they useumbrellas to cover them from sun exposure. Umbrellas are rather trendy, in fact the morefashionable people use the more fashionable umbrellas. I got one of my own. Haha againru xiang sui su. McDonalds and KFC are just as trendy. People were there at 7 AM for breakfastand it was packed. Its probably because both western stores run 24 hours a day.It caters to families with the same low price. The difference is there may be two floors of a McDonald's chain and it looks like a high quality restaurant.

Conned
Watch out for counterfeit money.
Yesterday, while we were at Nanjing Lu,a female state representative talked to my dad and said he resembled her brother. Then somehow,she tried to convince him to purchase silk. She said the silk was very cheap, and two women agreed with her.It sounded like a version of the Shrek movie when Gingie's legs were cut off with the short king."Do you know the muffin man?" The muffin man. Then muffin man. I thought it was funny, but Idon't really like the pushiness of making a sale.

Cheap form of Communication
Oh yeah, skype rocks. 4 cents connection fee plus two cents per min afterwards.

Recycle/claustrophia/people look/pollution
Even the hobos on the street come up to you to take your plastic bottles so they can make a few RMB. One thing is for sure, they are rather economical. By 10PM, lights begin to close down.Even in the most commercial area, they really conserve electricity. That is the difference betweenNew York and Shanghai I think. Oh besides the fact that because the population is so big,the trams are really crowded. You really get up close and personal with the people you ride with on the metro. Also, when you are merely walking, you might just end up hitting someother pedestrian because there are so many active people. Everyone looks the same to me. Samesize, same look, same modest clothes. People don't normally wear makeup here. They are humblelooking. Pollution is rather bad. If I looked outside everyday, I would sayhazy and humid. My dad says its hard to breathe. I think I can get used to it, as long as I have some form of oxygen.

Shou La Mian- Hand made noodles Restaurant (Observations)
You actually have to pay upfront before you eat. Alot of young girls who work there. Most people who work in the restaurant are very young. Very efficient but very crowded.

Stream of consciousness

1. The locks at the hotel are different.
2. Bring toilet paper, but public restrooms are unbearably stinky.
3. My laptop can't read chinese so that's a problem when my residential director asks me to spell my name in chinese characters for my ZUT id.
4. No MOSQUITO BITES WHILE IN SHANGHAI (next stop Hangzhou).

Overall Evaluation
I know Shanghai has a really in your face kind of culture, but I like it. I like the constant advertisements and being surrounded by Chinese words.There is a large learning curve for my Mandarin studies by being in this environment.It helps to have a Palm Pilot that has a built in chinese dictionary so I will enable me to recognize words with a touch of a button. Everyday I wake up realizing I am in Shanghai(which is a little unsettling) but then I adapt pretty quickly to those changes. I realizeat some point, local culture will seem common to me, but then I'd forget my observations.So I decided to log them as a stream of consciousness before my converter fails on me andI can't write again.