We awoke in the morning slightly exhausted, ate our delectable, 口水 Sino-American breakfast, and departed for the next chapter in our China odyssey. Our next chapter began with a middle school on the outskirts of Shanghai. We were amazed by the elaborate welcome: an entrance screen stating: “Warmly Welcome the Education Delegation from the USA”. After disembarking from our bus, we were greeted by a group of 8th grade students and each of us paired up with two of them. We then explored the life of a typical Chinese middle schooler. We took pictures and joined the students for their classes; they were reviewing for their finals the next day. Some went to math class, others went to physics, English, Chinese, and some were asked to perform a ballad of Taylor Swift in music class. We reconvened in the cafeteria and were treated to the school’s lunch. Then, as a group, we stopped by several classrooms and got to see planes, art, music, and cheer exercises. After learning how to perform the cheer routine, we were led into a conference room, where we received a fan from the school and took more photos. Sadly, we had to depart from the school in order to get to our next destination – The Pearl Oriental TV Tower.
Since some students were 饿死了(hungry to death), we enjoyed a few snacks at a café by the Tower, called HuaBa or Flower Bar. After bargaining for some hats, we entered the Tower and waited in line to ride the breakneck elevator up to the mystical viewing decks, forced to equalize our ears since it was far above sea level (263 floors up!). We took a lot of pictures and then went to another deck,which had a clear floor. We cautiously stepped onto the glass floor and took some more pictures. Some, like Yu Laoshi, were not scared at all and even went as far as jumping and down on the floor.
Then, we rushed to the Yu Yuan Gardens and managed to attain tickets right before they closed for the day. The gardens were absolutely gorgeous (又自然又美丽) and our tour guide, ChiDao, provided the history and Chinese beliefs/symbolisms for us. For example, the gardens were created for a single family, who was a treasurer in the Ming Dynasty. Also, rocks are based on a specific rubric: they must not be straight, they must be skinny, they must have holes so that you can see through them, and water must be able to trickle down them. A rock that contains all of these features is a perfect rock – Yu Yuan Gardens contains the second most precious rock in all of China.
Yu Yuan Gardens soon closed and we were herded out. We were then allotted some shopping time and split into groups to buy some goods. Some purchased shirts, traditional Chinese dresses, bracelets, Dairy Queen blizzards, and even more. After a bit, we met up and agreed we were all hungry and tired, so we gathered on the bus and returned to the hotel.
We then headed off to the mall a block away (the same one as yesterday) and split up to have either Quasi Chinese Korean (不地道/not authentic) or Japanese cuisine. Then, we organized the plan and details for the next morning and went back to the hotel to resume hibernation in our rooms. Tomorrow we’re off to ride our 6 hour long drive to Quzhou! Wish us safe travels.
Best Wishes,
Keileh and Emily