Goodbye, Shanghai

It’s a bit hard to believe we’ve been here for 12 days (and blown about 18% of our alotted TOTAL budget for our 5 month trip–oops.) The other day I sat there and thought, “my god, I have another 5 months of this?!” but at the same time I’m extremely grateful to have the next 5 months to think about the future.

Anyways, our final day in Shanghai was spent with friends. An old college friend I had recently reconnected with took us to a Shanghaiese restaurant that was pretty popular with the expat crowd. The food was great and we then went to have stir-fryed soup dumplings (delicious) as a snack. After that we checked out Xintiandi, which was a really weird experience. I felt like I was in Los Angeles, but it’s not because it looked like it, per se. That’s just the only place I can think of that’s about 40% white, 40% asian, and 20% other stuff. It was hip, busy, modern and so unlike any of the other places in Shanghai I had been. We finished with a very cool, expat popular lounge.

All in all, Shanghai has been a fun experience. It’s been interesting seeing such a vibrant Chinese city that really does feel like its on the verge of something. Back in the 1920s, Shanghai was the jewel of Asia. It was a fashion and cultural capital. Then it slumped and became sort of a backwater…it’s really fascinating getting to see the city reawaken. There’s construction EVERYWHERE and I’m pretty sure the next time I come back it’ll be completely different.

My friend Adriel asked me what annoyed me so far about Shanghai (he asked because I’m a hater who finds faults everywhere I live) but I couldn’t really respond. It was hard to say. Yes, service sucks–but I expected that. I suppose the fear of dying in a fiery crash everytime I get into a taxi sucks, or maybe knowing everytime I cross a street a bus or taxi might run me over and keep driving is a bit annoying…but hmm.

Anyways, tomorrow we leave for the next stop on our little adventure, Suzhou. It’ll also be our first experience on a Chinese train, so that could be a fun entry for tomorrow. Haha…