By: Daniel Flynn
Food
When we sat down for our first meal after we arrived in Beijing, all I can say is that I completely forgot that we were going to have to use only chopsticks for a month. I am not saying that as a bad thing, rather I prefer using them now. This was only one of the differences that set our food culture apart from the Chinese. Even though it is completely different, it is absolutely amazing in its own ways. meals are much more family oriented, usually with seating at round tables so that interaction is easier. I even saw lockers for cell phones at one restaurant so people could lock their phones away while they eat.
Now the food itself, tasted incredible. It was difficult to eat sometimes because we were not used to using chopsticks and some of the meat had a lot of bones, but the flavor was unmatched. It was quite interesting, you could look at a dish on the table and maybe guess what it would taste like, and then when you actually eat it, it tastes completely different. I am a pretty adventurous eater and I was very open to all these new flavors and foods that I had never had before. I would try everything because I would never know what to expect.
Transportation
During my time in China, we spent a lot of time traveling, whether it be on a bus, train, boat, or plane. Each of their forms of travel seemed to be different that in the United States. The best way I can think of to describe the driving traffic in China is “organized chaos”. In the bigger cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, it was almost hard to tell if you were coming or going with the amount of moving cars around you. Their traffic laws seemed quite a bit more loose and citizens rely on their horns to tell where they are going more than their turning blinkers.
When it came to traveling on trains or boarding at bus stations, it seemed as if you were in an airport. What I mean by this is the mass amount of people in the country leads to a mass amount of public transportation, so every bus station and train station we walked into were so big that it felt like we were in an airport terminal.
Another cool thing that we experienced were sleeper cell trains. These trains pack as many beds in the train cars as they can. We took one that lasted all night and another train that lasted all day. It was quite interesting because I had never seen people travel like this before
Going with the topic of trains, we were able to ride the high speed trains and reached an incredible 187 mph! China also utilizes magnetic levitation trains, which can reach speeds of almost 300 mph.
Number 7 Middle School
While in the northern city of Dalian, we were given the opportunity to visit a local middle school and learn with them. This was one of the best experiences of the trip, as each of us were paired with a child from the middle school for the day to learn together. It was quite impressive as almost all of them could speak perfect English. We visited on a Sunday, which happened to be Mother’s Day. We had a lesson on the history of Mother’s Day so we learned some of their Chinese traditions for the special day and we taught them some of ours. Some of the students also put on an incredible dancing and singing act for us. After all the lessons and festivities, we had lunch with the students in the cafeteria and then headed home.
The Yangtze River Cruise
While on this cruise, I saw some of the most naturally beautiful things in my life. The river in itself was breathtaking. Traveling around windy river bends with mountains on bothsides, it could not have been more amazing. On each side of the river was a natural line where the trees and grass stopped growing, and this line is where the water reaches during the flood season. While on the cruise, we made different stops everyday, first with the Three Gorges Dam, the biggest dam in the world. The next day, we boarded smaller boats to voyage up the Shenlong stream, giving incredible views of the mountains. On the last day, we visited a breathtaking Buddhist temple up on the side of the mountain. The cruise was exceptional.
The City of Shanghai
Shanghai was nothing short of immaculate. the city itself has 24 million people in it. The city seemed to go on forever when looking out at the horizon, which hopefully was not smoggy. During our time in this city, we saw amazing works of engineering such as the Shanghai tower, which is the second tallest building in the world. If only I was not so afraid of heights, I would have went to the top for myself, but i had to hear about the view from my friends. Even standing at the bottom of the tower, it was possible to tell how complex and tall the building was. It makes up part of the Shanghai city skyline, which is visible from a certain part of the city titled, “The Bund”. That skyline view is like no other. Every single building is lit up with different color lights, truly a sight that is worth seeing in person.
We ventured out from the city a little ways to visit the Shanghai Disney Resort which was absolutely amazing. I cannot say enough good things about this city. Disney was so incredibly well done and detailed, it felt like we were in Disney World back in Orlando, Florida. My favorite attraction at the park was the Tron roller coaster. I have never been on anything like it.
If I could return to china one day, and I really hope I do, I would like to go back to Shanghai.
