Moving into the dorm

Well my program has officially started. I am all moved into my room and am currently waiting for my water heater to warm up so that I can take a shower and go to bed. In total there are 41 students attending the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics program. I think I have for the most part met everyone, but I can only remember a select few names at this point.

Here are some of my first impressions: It’s cold. There are very few girls here. Why are all the guys so tall? And is there anyone who has studied more Chinese then me? 

While Shanghai’s weather has been close to 60 degrees over the past few days, it’s gone down to about 40 degrees now. While this is not that bad for Chicago in the winter, it definitely seems a lot colder when the building you are staying in lacks central heating. Each room has a small heating/ air conditioning unit, but it barely heats up the room. I have had it on for the past 8 hours and the room is still quite freezing. I am going to be sleeping tonight bundled in lots of layers! 

As far as my fellow classmates, it seems like it will be a good variety of students. It almost feels like freshman year all over again where everyone is trying to get to know one another and see who they’ll end up being friends with. After dinner we went to a grocery store where pretty much everyone bought some type of alcohol to drink. There was also a group who wanted to go out to a club on the first night. Luckily, many people stayed behind so I didn’t feel left out at all since I was already kind of tired. It was nice to just hang around and talk with the other students, finding out why they had chosen China to study abroad. 

 

 

My next observation is about the number of guys in the program. They must number at least 2/3 of the entire group. I don’t have the exact numbers yet, but girls are definitely in the minority.  

Another thing that I am noticing is that there aren’t that many people with high levels of Chinese. In fact, as far as I know I may be the most advanced person here. I really hope not, but we shall have to wait and see. There are quite a few students here who haven’t even taken Chinese at all! I’m slightly worried that this will hurt my practice of Chinese, but then again we will have Chinese roommates, plenty of Chinese language classes, and *fingers crossed* an internship. 

  

My room itself is pretty nice for Chinese standards. There is a TV, fridge, water cooler, and even a balcony. While the bathroom leaves much to be desired, I think it will be just fine once I get used to it. Only problem I can see that may come from my bed is that the comforter may not be warm enough. Luckily that is an easy fix.

Tour of Jewish Shanghai

Today my dad and I went on a fascinating tour detailing the historical presence of Jewish people in Shanghai. Our guide was an Israeli who has been living in Shanghai for about 10 years and is dedicated to restoring the artifacts associated with the important, yet little known history of this period. Ultimately there three waves of immigration of Jews over a 100 year time frame. The first came shortly after the Opium war in the 1840s when a few Jewish Iraqi businessmen saw Shanghai as an opportunity to grow their companies. These men ended up creating corporate empires, producing much of the early wealth in the city. Our tour began in the Peace Hotel which was owned by the Sassoon family, one of the most prominent names involved in the Jewish history here.

This hotel is absolutely exquisite. It was built in the 1930s and has retained much of its original style. The art deco layout made me feel as if I was stepping back in time and it was also hard to believe that I was still in China. 

Many of the other old style buildings located on the Bund were also associated with the wealthy Jewish families. This area was the center of financial power at the time and the Jews were at the forefront of the innovation. 

The second wave of immigration came from Russia in the early 1900s due to growing persecution in their home country. The amazing part about Shanghai was that it was an open port, meaning that a person did not need official papers to come to the city. These Jews ended up settling in a poorer part of town. With them they brought much of their European lifestyle to the Chinese streets and began to establish their own businesses and community.

 

The third wave is perhaps the most interesting of the three sagas as it pertains to the fleeing of the Jews from Nazi rule in Europe. In the 1930s, the Jews were running out of places to resettle. Shanghai, due to its open port status, was a prime location that if they could get to the city they would be allowed to stay. Our tour guide is something of an expert of this history. He is actually compiling all his research into a book. We walked around the neighborhood that once was the central location for Jewish immigrants and what later became known as the Jewish ghetto during WWII. 

While the conditions in the Jewish ghetto were unpleasant and disease ridden, these conditions did not compare to the situations facing European Jews at the time. The Jews were for the most part confined within their neighborhood, but some were allowed work permits to leave. One of the most helpful parts was that the Japanese who had taken over Shanghai at the time did not possess anti-Semitic feelings such as those that existed in Europe. In fact, the general attitude toward the Jewish people was somewhat positive as they were seen as a way to gain future business connections with the western world. This outlook may have helped saved the Shanghai Jews from the same fate as their European counterparts. The Germans had urged for annihilation, but the Japanese never acted upon their suggestions.

It is estimated that as many as 20,000 Jews escaped to Shanghai during the pre-war period. This large number was greatly due to efforts of a few men who provided travel permits for those wanting to leave. One man in particular by the name of Dr. Ho issued such permits, saving close to ten thousand lives. The unfortunate part is that his efforts have only just been coming to light which research done by his daughter. Throughout his life he never advertised what he had done and no one knew how much he had helped. 

It truly was fascinating to hear about these stories. We were able to walk round the residential streets where the buildings that the Jews once lived in still stand. The tour concluded in an actual apartment that was bought by a Chinese man from a Jewish family in 1947. It was extremely striking to see the extreme poverty present in these tiny rooms; even more so knowing that people in this neighborhood still live like this today.

 

Keep in mind, this area is located only five minutes away from the Bund, one of the wealthiest places in the city.

One of the horrible things about this entire story is that in 1949 with the communist revolution all the foreigners were expelled and their legacy was completely destroyed. Another unfortunate part is that this area is in danger of being torn down to make room for new high rise buildings. Our guide along with the small Jewish community in Shanghai is working to preserve what is left and expose the rich and important history of this area. The Chinese government did allow for a museum to be built dedicated to the Jewish refugees so hopefully some areas of this neighborhood will be preserved, but for how long, nobody knows. 

Sightseeing in Shanghai

Over the past two days my dad and I have begun to explore the city and visit some of the many tourist destinations. We ended up taking a guided tour on Sunday which gave us a great overview of the city. Besides my dad and I, there was only one other man from Sweden in the group making it really easy to ask questions and understand what we were being shown. The tour guide was also really cheerful and I could tell she very much enjoyed her job. While her accent took some time to get used to, her English was quite good. I think my dad just enjoyed having someone else who could for the most part follow his jokes and social commentary. 

We went all over city seeing sites such as the famous Yu Garden, the Bund which offers a wonderful view of the Shanghai skyline, and a Buddhist Temple. 

The garden is really a taste of old China with gorgeous traditional buildings and landscaping. The area that the garden is located in is called Old Town which hosts hundreds of little shops perfect for buying souvenirs and Chinese snacks such as dumplings.  

Visiting the Bund was quite impressive, especially since this was my first glimpse of the financial center of the city. This section of the city really only started to be built in 1994 and it has just exploded ever since. Later in the day we visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition where they have an architectural model of the entire city. My dad and I were completely blown away by the vast scope of the city and its wonderful architecture. It was fun just to walk around the model pointing out some the buildings we were familiar with, for example our hotel. It will be fun for me to come back after I’ve been in Shanghai for a while and see how much more I recognize.

We went to the Jade Buddha Temple which was also a great experience. Because it’s the middle of the New Year celebrations, the temple was very crowded with people praying for good luck and prosperity. One of my favorite parts of the tour was going to the temple’s herbal tea house. We were able to try out different teas and learn what each one was good for. While the teas were great one of the amazing parts was the guide from the tea house who presenting us the tea. Her English was by far the best I have yet to hear spoken in China by a native Chinese person. The most amazing part was that she said she learned it only from watching American movies and then later working at the tea house. Once she found out I spoke a little Chinese, we had a great time talking with about the benefits of studying languages and how both the United States and China have a lot to learn from each other. It ended up being so much fun!

The tour lasted until about 4pm and afterword my dad and I were exhausted. Our jet lag was really at its worst. My dad ended up going to bed at 7pm and I followed him soon after at 8.

Monday was really dedicated to trains. Somehow my dad found out that Shanghai has its very own train museum so, of course, it was a requirement that we check it out. The courtyard of the museum was complete with a steam engine and a private passenger railroad car- my dad was oh so happy. The inside was filled with the history of the Chinese railway and the advances that they have made until the present with their high speed trains. When we were through and returning our audio tour, I was trying to explain to the man working there how much my dad loves trains and that he was really impressed with the museum. This man then led us to a train car which turned out to be a train driving simulator. He booted up the system and then let my dad pretend to drive and even blow the horn! We then had a great talk about how advanced China has become in their technology and how American can really learn from what they are doing with their trains. These talks with some of the locals have been really great experiences and I’m excited for all that is waiting for me in the next four months! 

To top off the train filled day, my dad and I took a high speed train to the town of Suzhou which is about 2 hours away by car. The train ride however only took about 20 min. Unfortunately, we didn’t actually see anything of Suzhou except the train station, but it made my dad happy to go 320 km/h (200 mph). I’ll just have to come back on my own sometime.

Foodwise I’ve been humoring my dad and eating quite a bit of western food. We had Subway for dinner and our lunch was at the Park Hyatt which is located on the 86^th floor of the tallest building in Shanghai. It was all very fancy and the food was quite good, but my dad was kind of frustrating because he kept of confusing the waiters with his questions and instructions. He was insistent that since this was the best hotel in Shanghai the staff was guaranteed to speak perfect English. He did get to enjoy a nice burger so all is right in his world.

That’s all for now as I need to get some rest as we are taking another tour tomorrow, this time a tour on the Jewish history of Shanghai. Should be quite interesting! Hopefully the fireworks outside won’t keep me up all night like yesterday when they were going off all through the night~

Thanks for reading!

-Rachel 

First Day in China: Eating, Hair Straighteners, and Trains

I have now been in China for over 24 hours and what I’ve seen has made me very excited about the next four months. The city feels very vibrant and it has been very interesting trying to navigate not just the city itself but also the language barrier. Stumbling around today trying to buy food and subway tickets made me realize just how rusty my Chinese is! It will be fun to see how well I will be able to communicate at the end of four months. 

The trip started out very smoothly with a great plane right over. Due to the snow in Chicago, most of the connecting flights weren’t able to get in. My flight ended up having only about 30/40 people on it, keeping in that this is a 777 which can hold more than 200 people. Since I was traveling with my dad we were able to be upgraded to business class which was amazing. Our section was even less crowded with only five people. My dad and I were able to spread out and relax quite nicely. I had my own seat for eating and another for sleeping!  You can’t get much better than that. 

We landed at about 5:30 at night in China and got to the hotel around 7:30. While quite exhausted we were also hungry so we decided to try the Starbucks that was connected to the hotel. I am proud to say the first time I used Chinese was to order my dad a glass of milk! I still have to work on how to say skim, 2%, and whole, but for now I’ll just take whatever they give me. It’s hard to be too picky in China. 

So our first full day can really be summed up in three parts: Food, shopping, and train rides.

Breakfast consisted of fruit and pancakes at the hotel. I know, not too original, but for the first meal I thought we would play it safe. Only problem was that in China, pancakes are kind of original. Even though they were on the menu it turns out not many people order them. We ended up waiting quite a long time only to find out that the machine that they use to make them had broke. However, instead of letting us know that there was a problem the waiter just brought us banana chips to try and tide us over while the kitchen tried to figure out what to do. I classic example of saving face. Eventually we did get our pancakes, and they were pretty good, but I’m still not quite sure how they ended up solving their problem. Judging by the uniform size of the pancakes I’m guessing they got their pancake machine to work. I wonder if they sell those in America…

Lunch was also quite the adventure as my dad and I decided to try and find some Chinese noodles. There is this giant 9 story mall connected to our hotel that we decided to explore. After some wandering we found a popular noodle restaurant. My dad played it safe by ordering just a plain bowl of noodles for only 8 Yuan which is about $1.20. I decided to try a dish which I knew had pork in the title. Unfortunately I somehow ended up with clams. Something tells me that I am going to have to quickly get used to eating seafood. My dad’s noodles were great though. They tasted like Matzo ball soup! 

After lunch my dad wanted to check out an electronic store to buy me a phone for my time here. Let me just say, China has every model of phone you could ever imagine. After getting kind of overwhelmed with all the choices and the huge language barrier, I just decided to wait until my program began next week to buy one since I’d at least have someone to help me navigate this somewhat daunting task. 

On our way out we went by the household goods section and I saw that one stand sold hair straighteners. The one I brought from home has a plug that doesn’t actually fit in my converter so I was in the market for a new one. Unfortunately, either hair straighteners are really popular that the stores can’t keep them in stock or they are such a novelty that it’s rare to have them on hand. Whatever the case, I had the staff running back and forth trying to find a model that they could sell me. Once I finally had confirmation that there was one I could buy I had to go to a separate desk to pay. Only problem was that my dad wanted to use his credit card. Cash is really the way to go in China and it ended up taking us more than an hour to finally purchase the thing. So many mix ups occurred throughout the transaction.  The computer had the wrong price, the phone system to authorize the payment wasn’t working right, and of course no one spoke a word of English. Luckily a saleswoman took pity on us and stayed with us to make sure the process finally got completed. 

 

Now it is important to know that my dad is a person who loves to always be in control. This language difference is really hard for him. All day he really didn’t quite understand that while someone might greet him with a “Hello, how may I help you?” they don’t actually speak English. He would then go on using words and idiomatic phrases while the Chinese person would give him a nervous look. I don’t quite expect him to get better at this during his short trip. 

The last part of the day consisted of riding the subway system and the Maglev train. The subway was pretty crowded but not as bad as it would be on a normal day. Due to the New Year, the city is pretty quiet. The Maglev in particular was quite impressive. This train runs a route of about 20 miles back and forth from the airport. It’s really just a giant toy that they Chinese bought from the Germans. This said toy can go up to 420 km/h or roughly 260 mph and levitates over magnetic tracks. Needless to say my dad thought he had died and gone to heaven to ride it!

So that pretty much sums up our first day. Dinner was quite tame at Pizza Hut, which is actually a nice sit down restaurant here. You can even get steak! Perhaps I’ll try it in a few months when I’m really starting to miss straight up beef. 

Thanks for reading and I’ll try and keep you all updated as this trip continues!

-Rachel

And so it begins…

I can’t believe this day has finally arrived! At the beginning of January it had felt like I had all the time in the world until February 3^rd, but the time has definitely flown by. This past week has been a whirlwind of shopping, packing, eating, (I made sure to partake in all my favorite foods before I left!) and SNOW. But after all that craziness, it is now time to begin my semester abroad! 

I am currently sitting in the Admirals Club at O’Hare airport waiting for my flight to take off. Originally the flight had been scheduled for 10:30am, but with all the snow we got here, the airport is just barely operating. As you can see, the board is filled with canceled flights! 

Speaking of snow, over the past two days Chicago got hit with more than 20 inches of snow! The entire city was shut down all of Wednesday and things are not going to be back to normal for a few days. With all the wind that we’ve had, the snow drifts have been insane! I am looking forward to the weather in Shanghai where it is supposedly 45 degrees! On Sunday, it could get up to 65! So much better than the current 6 degrees in Chicago! Here is what was needed to get the road in front of my house plowed. In the backyard, the snow was taller than the fence!

So I am taking advantage of the extra time I have to get this blog started. My flight is now leaving *fingers crossed* at 1:00pm. I really hope to be posting here quite frequently. As facebook is not easily accessible, nor is YouTube and Google, email will be the best way to reach me while I am in Shanghai! 

The address I will be checking all the time is: rosensra@shu.edu. 

As far as photos go, I’ll be uploading them to my Picasa account. You can find the link here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/116438207687848512828/ShanghaiAdventures?authkey=Gv1sRgCJyS4arKt-awfg&feat=directlink

Well, not much longer now here in Chicago. I am going over to Shanghai six days ahead of the rest of my group which will allow me time to adjust to the time difference and start exploring the massive city that is Shanghai. My dad decided to travel with me and spend a week in Shanghai. He is always one up for traveling adventures and the intricate subway system was too much for him to pass up! It will be fun to show my dad what China is all about. I’m sure we’ll have some good memories from our brief trip together! 

Before I forget, 新年快乐! (Happy New Year!) It’s fitting that I fly to China on their new year. The unfortunate part is that I will be missing out on most of the festivities!

Ok, time to get ready to go. I’m hoping to sleep through most of the 15 hour (yikes!) flight. I also have plenty of good books stocked up on my nook! 

I’m starting to get excited!! I just hope I’m not forgetting anything…

But the end it doesn’t quite matter since everything is made in China anyway!

Talk to you all from Shanghai,

-Rachel