The Pearl of the Orient

Shanghai, one of the biggest cities in the world with nearly 20 million people. It’s so big that I can not even tell you for sure whether the city ends or not. I saw not clue to give me any idea. All I saw were buildings and people. It was a fascinating feeling to think that I was in China being in Shanghai. The city is the biggest and most modern I have been in. It makes Hong Kong look like a neighborhood and Taipei like an old man. I can’t believe that anything would make those cities look that way, but then again I had never been to Shanghai. The only thing that really made it different then being a big city in America was all the Chinese, although English was not absent.
So as you can imagine, my trip to Shanghai was pretty unforgettable. I awoke at 6:00AM on Thursday morning, November 6 to catch my 7:50AM flight from Chengdu to Shanghai. I was so excited I didn’t even feel tired. I think I woke up with an adrenaline rush. My flight was short at a little over 2 hours. Then I had the pleasure of taking the fastest train in the world called the Maglev, it runs on new magnetic technology. This is the first of its kind in the world and China is going to build one between Shanghai and Beijing.


I would be staying with at my friend Eli’s house, although he is studying in Chicago at Wheaton University. I met his mom at the Maglev station. His mom is Chinese, well American now, but grew up in Malaysia, Taiwan
, and Hong Kong. His dad is an American, white man who grew up in Pennsylvania. So Eli is the best of both worlds! I dropped my things off in Eli’s room, my room for now, and went to lunch at Eli’s favorite restaurant. I forgot the name… but we enjoyed the food and stories. I can tell they really love Eli. He’s also such a momma’s boy.

My personal adventure in Shanghai would officially start when I was dropped off at the Subway station. I had a slight idea of where I wanted to go and I had a map to take me there. I waded my way through a crowded river of people in the Subway station and somehow found myself on the right subway line heading to the heart of the city. My destination for Thursday was the People’s Park. I spent a lot of time taking pictures and gawking at the tall buildings. The weather was poor so I decided not to go up into any today. Instead, I explored the park and its close surroundings, even finding Nike Shanghai. I started talking with some Chinese tourists in their twenties and we all went to a famous tea house for famous tea ceremony and delicious tea. Hao he. It was really expensive though I don’t have a whole of money to spend to I just tried one.

After the tea ceremony, it was getting to be about dinner time so I took the subway all the way to the last stop then taxi the rest of the way to Showalter’s house. They live in the east part of Pudong, if you know the city geography at all. My dinner was sitting on the table when I got home. Then I studied Chinese and watched a cool Shaolin monks recorded performance that I had borrowed from a teacher in Chengdu. I wanted to get an early start on my Friday so I went to bed at midnight.

My day Friday was planned out a lot better than the day before. I ate breakfast at the Showalter’s house, then took a bus to the Subway station. I got off at the East Nanjing Rd. stop. East Nanjing Rd. is one of the busiest roads in Shanghai. It is known as a shopping street. I didn’t do any shopping but there was plenty of eye candy. I took some photos.

From East Nanjing Rd I headed straight for the famous Bund. The Bund is a road along the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The buildings were built by foreigners years ago in a colonial style. Now, the buildings still stand but for different purposes. The majority of the buildings are government buildings and banks now. One of most famous buildings is the Peace Hotel. Unfortunately I couldn’t go into the hotel because it was being renovated. While on the boardwalk, I started talking to a Chinese guy that is a middle school math teacher. His friend worked at a tea house close by so we went to pay her a visit. I got to drink as much tea as I wanted and as many varieties as I wanted all for free. It was great. Then he helped me map out how to get to Old Town (the old part of Shanghai).


I got to lost on the way to Old Town because it was decent walking distant that required turns that I seemed to miss. With some success through asking questions, I was able to find Old Town. Although it was much bigger than all the high rise buildings elsewhere in the city, I wasn’t particularly impressed. This is the China that I’m used to seeing. After walking through Old Town and taking more pictures, I decided to take a cab to my next destination. It was walk-able but harder to locate. I just wanted to save myself the trouble and paid 13RMB($2) for a cab.

My next destination was Xintiandi. This part of town was renovated to look like the old Shukamen houses in Shanghai many years ago. The Shukamen houses were very big and lived in by wealthier Chinese people. After many years, these houses became dilapidated. A group of investors bought all of them and renovated them to make Xintiandi a very trendy and modern area with shops and restaurants. They look like old Shukamen houses though.


I stopped by the Memorial site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This is the place where Mao Zedong and other important people founded the Communist party way back when. The house has been turned into a museum. I would stay the highlight was the wax statures of all the founders hovering over a table discussing things. Nearby the this memorial was a replication of an old Shukamen. The inside was furnished with antiques to make it look how the old interiors looked. I really enjoyed spending some time here.

Then at night, I took the Subway up to the Shanghai Circus stop. I bought a ticket to Chinese acrobat performance “ERA Intersection of Time” for 180 RMB. I got dinner Dairy Queen while I waiting for the show to start. I’ve decided that finding Chinese food in Shanghai is rare. The show was flippin awesome. I definitely made a good decision by going. Unfortunately I could take pictures during the performance. It was cool to see all the stunts, some involving trampolines and some just people climbing over people. Overall, it’s really hard to explain everything that went on. The show ended with 7 motorcycle drivers all driving at the same time in a huge metal ball cage. After the show, I made the long journey back the east side of Pudong. It was after 10PM when I got home.


The weather cleared up a bit on Friday so I went to the new area of town. Here is where a lot of the famous big buildings are towers are. They are working on building the world’s biggest building here. They are also currently working on developing the area along the river for the World Expo in 2010. This includes building elevated highways everywhere. Hopefully that will decrease the congestion.

I decided to go to the Jin Mao Tower first. The Jin Mao Tower was the third biggest building in the world when it was completely in the 1990s but it is now somewhere between 4 and 7 now. Also with all the big buildings being built, I have no idea where it will stand in the next couple of years. I do know that it is currently the second tallest in Shanghai because right next to it is the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is currently behind only Taipei 101 in height. I decided to go to Jin Mao instead of WFC because the entrance fee for Jin Mao was 60RMB and the entrance fee for WFC was 150RMB. That was enough to win me over. I also wanted to see the highest hotel in world which is located in the Jin Mao tower from the middle to upper area of the building. I got to see the lobby but was stopped by a security guard from going up any higher.

On my way to the Jin Mao, I walked with a Chinese guy studying to get his Masters degree in Shanghai. He had an interview with a company at the Jin Mao. After seeing the great view from the Jin Mao, I met up with him again for lunch. I wanted to go the huge mall called the Super Brand Mall. It was cool to talk with him and grab lunch. He paid for me and then he had to go back to school. I stayed in the mall and spent time exploring it.


There was an NFL China booth set up in the main part of the mall that was taking surveys to see how people in China like American football and if they liked the couple of NFL games that were aired on TV in Shanghai. To promote this booth, there was football tossing booth with a metal ring to throw the football through. I decided I would go down and through a couple balls through the hoop. When they saw that I could do it so well (actually make it and throw a spiral) they asked me to join the competition. I said ok even though I was pretty nervous. They had a microphone out and started attracting attention. A crowd formed and people watched as I threw 17 balls through the hoop in a minute (I was on my game) and won the competition. A couple of the other guys did a pretty good job but they just couldn’t make nearly as many as me. I got a free NFL shirt for winning.

In the afternoon, I spent my entire time at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. This tower is the fourth largest tower (not building) in the world. The TV Tower has a lot more to offer than I originally thought. It also has long lines and slow elevators. It was fun to have more views and also ride a roller coaster! But it was a very short rollercoaster but surprisingly good for Asia. After my time at the TV Tower, I made my way back to the east of Pudong to meet Eli’s parents for dinner.



We ate a Japanese and Korean restaurant. So I had sushi and Korean BBQ at the same meal. Then afterwards we grabbed some Coldstone ice cream (Yea, it’s Shanghai) and then went to Eli’s school to watch a school play. I was glad to see Eli’s school which was really nice, but don’t forget that it is an international school. Then we went back to their house to relax.

On Sunday, I had some time before church because church is in the afternoon. Eli’s dad is the pastor of the international church that only foreigners can go to. I took advantage of my time to go to People’s Square, but I accidentally went back to the People’s Park nearby. But I found something really funny, there are people’s parents out with profiles of their son or daughter trying to match-make them with someone else. It was like they were for sale. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. While I was looking at this, I as approached by some young Chinese tourists, again. They wanted to speak in English. We went to the same expensive but famous tea house as first day. Afterwards, I said good-bye to them so that I could go the Urban Planning Center. Here there is a giant model of the entire city. There are a lot of other things to check out as well. I didn’t have much time though because I had to get back to go to lunch with Eli’s parents before church.

I met them at the last stop of the subway station then we drove to near where the church is to eat. We ate at a western style restaurant where I ate a hamburger. We ran into some people from the church and Eli’s dad arranged for me to have dinner with them. Then after lunch, we went to the international church. It was fulfilling.

Then after church, I had dinner with some of Eli’s friends. All of their parents worked for big companies in Shanghai. The whole experience of church and the people really felt like home. It was so weird to think that I was in China. We also ate at another western restaurant but this one was probably overpriced but in America it would have probably still been more expensive. Then one of their drivers drove me to the Maglev station and I made the journey home.


Wow. What a great trip! I pretty much assumed Eli’s spot in family for four days! Not really but it was fun.
I stayed in his room, I played with his dog, I had dinner with his family and I even went a play at his old school. Shou! (As Eli would say!)