SHANGHAI

Shanghai is what I would call a world city. There are people of all nationalities and lots of foreign culture elements along with traditional Chinese cultural elements too. There are all kinds of restaurants from Chinese street food to Michelin star foreign restaurants. We had a lot of free time to explore the huge city but we also had group activities. We went to the top of the second highest building in the world. There was a tall building museum on the bottom floor, which was very educational. Looking down from 600 meters and seeing this very big city under your feet was like nothing else. Next day we went to the ecopark, which is small city that only uses sustainable energy. It’s an important project for the future of sustainable energy. The day after we went to Suzhou, which was the prettiest ancient Chinese garden we went to. It was very large and hard not to get lost in. Disneyland was also a very fun day we had a day running around and having fun like kids. Shanghai is a city I would like to live in, especially after the exxon mobile trip and talking to a Penn State alum that works there. He only had positive things to say about being an expat in Shanghai.

CHONGQING

Chongqing a beautiful city on a river. The lights in the city at night and the building with screens on them made the city look like it was out of a futuristic movie. Walking along the river side and exploring the city was very fun. Our hotel was a landmark of the city and was unlike any other hotel I’ve ever stayed in. Because of the steep hill the hotel was on every level was ground level. That made it hard to find the entrance in the beginning but something I probably won’t have in any other hotel I stay in. We visited two factories the Changan Ford factory and a cigarette factory. All cigarette companies in China are owned by the government to regulate the production. The factory was not working at full capacity because they passed their limit for the month. The Changan Ford factory was unbelievable. It was very big and we were able to see cars put together from scratch and a new car being made every 50 seconds. Seeing the assembly line work at such a large scale was very interesting.

XIAN

Every city we’ve been to has had its own personality. In Xian you can really feel that it’s an old city. One of the main reasons why is because no building in the city walls is taller than the city walls. Which is different from all the other cities we’ve been to where the whole city was filled with tall buildings. First day we were there we cycled on the city wall. The wall was a great structure, it was intimidating with its huge size but also so elegant with the detailed designs on all the towers. It was an amazing experience ride around the huge wall where archers and Chinese soldiers used to guard the city. There were archer towers every 120 meters because the archers’ radii was 60 meters and this allowed the whole wall to be within thee radii of the archers. The wall was a great structure, it was intimidating with its huge size but also so elegant with the detailed designs on all the towers. The city had Muslim street where there were different kinds of food made my Muslim Chinese people which was very interesting. It was suprising how good the food was compared to the very cheap price we bought it for.

DALIAN

Even though we were here for only two days Dalian was my favorite city in China. The city was on the sea and had that seaside culture which I really like in any city around the world. The highlight of Dalian was definitely the dinners hosted by Xinli’s college friends. There were so many dishes I’ve never had before but I loved them all. Especially the dinner where we ate at a restaurant overlooking the sea gave us a taste of how rich people in China live. The food culture in China is very rich. Everyone shows their gratitude towards the host by toasting him. There are also little rules. One that was interesting to me is that the people who sit closer to the host are the more important people at that dinner. Dinner is definitely more than just food in China. Another highlight of Dalian was going to a middle school and seeing the middle school education in China and getting to know Chinese middle schoolers who were very happy to see us. Their system is definitely more demanding than what I went through and puts a lot of pressure on these children. But they seemed to like their school and didn’t really see the hard work as a problem, they seemed to think of it more as their duty.

BEIJING

Beijing is a very old city, the capital of China and the second largest city in China. Beijing means northern capital in Chinese. Beijing is the first place we visited in China and gave us a very good first impression. Our days were full of activities, because it is an old city there were many ancient structures to visit. Out of all the places we visited the two that I was most impressed by was the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. Everyone in the world knows about the Great wall but actually being there and experiencing it was something I will never forget. Learning that it is actually not visible from space and that it’s actually 12000 miles are cool facts I will share with my friends back home. Walking up the Great Wall took about an hour and a half up uphill walking. It was hard but it was very worth it because of the sense of accomplishment and the scenery. The Summer Palace is where the emperor went when the Forbidden City was too hot in the summer. It was on a lake and had a bunch of building with beautiful Chinese designs and beautiful art in it.