Outside the Yuyuan garden area

At lunch, we we tried a mix of Shanghai and Szechuan dishes, where we learned that Shanghai dishes were traditionally sweet and Szechuan dishes are spicy. We tried lotus root, a spicy fish dish, a sweet soup that had balls in it sort of like gnocchi, a beef dish, greens, 100 year eggs, and several other things. It was all really good, but the fish was excellent.

After lunch, Qianqian took us on a wonderful adventure into the city of Shanghai. First, we went to Nanjing Road with all kinds of shops, because we needed to stop at Apple for an adapter we had forgotten. It was fun to walk through the shops and see the mix of people. Many of the shops were the same as you would find in the US or in Europe, but the feel was definitely different. It was a representation of the modern part of Shanghai. After we finished at Nanjing Road, we walked over to the Yuyuan garden. The area outside the actual garden is a series of tourist shops and restaurants where the buildings on the outside look old, but they are selling more modern things or here they are selling all the different traditional tourist items. We saw many fans, chopsticks, tea, scarves, cat and Buddha statutes, jewelry with old coins, and purses and books with traditional fabric. After a little shopping, we went into the actual garden. It was very peaceful and beautiful. There were several halls that you can look at and some that you can go in. There are also many water features throughout. We also tried tea at a tea ceremony there. We forgot to take pictures of that tea ceremony, but I will post pictures in the next post about the tea ceremony we did the next day.

The large sign outside the Yuyuan garden

In the tourist shopping area at the Yuyuan garden

Inside the Yu garden

In one of the halls at Yuyuan garden

In the Yu garden

We finished in the garden and got in a taxi to go to a different area of Shanghai where the buildings on the outside look old in a different style, but inside are very nice and expensive restaurants and stores. This area was called Xintaindi and means “New Heaven and Earth.” I thought it had a somewhat old European look, like France or Italy.

My noodle dinner with chicken and veggies and miso soup

From there we walked to a noodle shop nearby. Qianqian asked us whether we wanted wet or dry noodles and meat or veggies or both. After ordering something that sounded good, we were very pleased with our dishes. They were wonderful and so much food for such a small price. Zhen joined us for dinner and then she took us on our last adventure of the day, trip to see the Bund where you can see all the colorful lights and animated lights at night.

The lights and radio tower at the Bund; It was so awesome in person

After taking a taxi there, we walked around for awhile and took pictures and then we took a boat ride on the Huangpu River at about 9pm. It was so beautiful and all that walking kept me awake all those hours.

Zhen (left) and Qianqian, our fantastic guides

The whole day was fantastic thanks to our wonderful student guides, Qianqian and Zhen, and we also thank Dr. Yang for his generous support while we were there. Not only did we so a lot of Shanghai and cross off many of the top items in one day on our sightseeing list, but we learned so much about taxis and key places and other important ideas so that the next few days we were able to explore more on our own safely and easily. They also continued to all provide us support all week and helped us with the Chinese characters for where we wanted to go for the taxi and what items to order for food on our own. I am so happy we could have both the guided and the exploring experiences.

A building by the Bund

Lianna and I on the Bund

Zhen and me on the boat looking at the Bund and city lights

Day 1 –June 9, 2014

While there are many wonderful highlights to this trip of different kinds, we definitely took a lot of pictures of the food. Overall, we very much enjoyed the food that we ate found it all very tasty. On our first day for lunch with the graduate students and Dr. Yang, they took us to a nearby restaurant and we sat in a private room with a large lazy susan on the table. This would prove important in sharing all the food. After we got our drinks, we ordered from the pictures. They had a little square area with pictures on three sides of all the food options. We learned that the Shanghai style food tends to be a little sweeter, but there were also Szechuan style spicy options as well. We told the students to pick traditional dishes of Shanghai, but that we also liked a little spicy. They asked us if we liked fish or beef or pork and then would order. We didn’t know what we were going to eat but were willing to try it. All of the options were wonderful.

We also learned about some of their interesting juices. Corn juice is very popular and it tasted just like drinking the juice in creamed corn.

Corn Juice

Here are wonderful student lunch companions in a picture taken at the university in their department. Meng Lu Tu (Tutu) is a first year Master’s student, Qianqian Pan is a graduating Master’s student who will go to a doctoral program in the US in the Fall, and Zhen Zhao is a first year Master’s student. All of them have been helpful and contributed a lot of time during our stay and also contributed a lot during our presentations. Qianqian and Zhen Zhao were especially helpful picking us up from the airport and taking us all around the city and answering our questions. We are very grateful to them.

Our new friends and guides

During this meal, we ate lotus root with rice inside, a sweet soup with balls made of a kind of flour, some very good spicy fish, steamed shrimp, a tofu dish that was also wonderful, 100 year old eggs (pickled or preserved eggs), a mushroom dish, a beef dish, and a dish that looks like a tabuleh salad but it was it was warm with the greens and had a different but fresh flavor. I took the picture before all the food came.

Some of our lunch dishes

Everything was wonderful, but after some lovely conversation with Dr. Yang and the students, it was time to explore the city. Qianqian was our guide for most of the day and then Zhen Zhao joined us for dinner and stayed with us for the evening.

We started with a taxi ride to our first destination, the Yuyuan Garden.  Traffic in Shanghai is more congested than Boston and the driving is definitely more aggressive, although I didn’t find it concerning at all. All of our taxi rides were good and didn’t take an incredibly long time or I never felt we were sitting in traffic for an extra long time. But, there are so many buildings to look at and things to see that it is very entertaining. As a pedestrian, you are one of many, and it is a good idea to go only when the green person tells you, but you still need to watch for motorcycles, bikes, and turning cars, because they will go regardless of the indicator for the pedestrian turns. It is a dance between all of those people to move about the city. There are many motorized bicycles or mopeds.

This blog is going to be done in parts and the story will develop over time to share all our experiences, even after we get back so I can tell the full story and have time and energy to write it all.

Shanghai at night

Tuesday June 10

We have two days to explore Shanghai before we start our training, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, we made the most of it.

After arriving on Monday afternoon, we relaxed in our hotel and slept. Because of jet lag and sleeping in the afternoon, we both woke up early on Tuesday morning. I woke up at 4:50am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I started my day with some yoga and email.

At 8am, we went down for the breakfast buffet. It was a mix of European and Chinese options. We tried a few Chinese choices, but stuck mostly to eggs and toast and tea.

We were supposed to meet our university host, Dr. Yang for lunch at 11:30. We decided to explore our neighborhood a little and see if we could find an ATM. We accomplished both tasks and got back the hotel to meet three students who took us to lunch. Dr. Yang was finishing a morning of defenses for Master’s theses.

At lunch, we talked with the students about what we wanted to see and do in Shanghai. Our graduate student assistant, Xiaoqing, gave us a great list of activities, shopping, and restaurants to try, in addition to suggestions for food that was unique to Shanghai. We handed them the list. We didn’t realize that we would do almost all of the tourist attractions in one day. That is how we got to 25,000 steps. As a teaser for next time, at the end of the day, my phone pedometer said that we walked 25,570 steps or 11.3 miles.

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Shanghai during the day from my hotel

Today, Thursday (June 12), we started the training at ECNU that we came to do. We think it went well, but was very strenuous for everyone because it was a lot of new information for our participants and intense training for us. We have two and one half days of training left before we leave for home. It is time for bed as we have another big day tomorrow.

Lianna and I arrived safely in Shanghai. We had a nice flight, although it was very long. Our short flight to Detroit got in a little early and then we went right to our flight to Shanghai and it was already boarding our zone. Over the 14 hours in the air, we had three different meals and I watched several movies and a little TV in addition to sleeping.

When we arrived in Shanghai immigration and customs went smoothly and quickly and we went out to meet our hosts. When we first looked at the long line of people waiting with signs, it was hard to find our hosts, but there were actually fewer people than on some flights I recall in the Middle East and the people were very orderly. Near the end of the line, we found our names on two signs held by two very nice graduate students at ECNU who took our bags and directed us to the car. We rode about an hour to our hotel. We were both struck by the size of the city and the large number of high rise apartment buildings.

When we got to our hotel, the students helped us get checked in and take our bags to our rooms. We each have a nice big room with a view of the city.

Tomorrow we will meet more of our hosts and see some of the city. Good night/Good morning.

My summer is starting and I am off again on two trips this summer. On Sunday, I will be heading to China with my colleague, Lianna Pizzo, to go some training at East China Normal University in Shanghai. We are really excited. This will be our first trip to China and we are ready for this new experience. I was reflecting on the fact that I have done some trainings  and teaching in languages that are not my first, but I have always had some knowledge of the other language. This will be the first time a do a training that is being translated.

I will be posting pictures and details about our trip and training, so stay tuned.