13 Jan I feel like we are celebrities!
The first weekend before work, we walked around and saw some attractions, went shopping and ate different Shanghai food in the city. This is my first visit in Shanghai – there are a lot of people everywhere! Although it is not as much as Hong Kong – it’s crowded, especially in the Metro. The metro is the main transportation system in Shanghai and contains so many lines – that it’s complicated for me. Luckily, the symbols and signs are pretty clear, so I can find my workplace easily. But everyone walks so fast and look like they are always in a hurry. They like pushing people to force them to walk faster, and seem impatient to others. Moreover, normally they speak relatively loud and sometimes they even yell out when speaking to others. I am not familiar with this, but I can understand, as it is quite noisy in the Metro.
There are a lot of tall buildings, just like in Hong Kong. The buildings are decorated with colorful lights, and that is the reason why I love to see the night view of Shanghai. I was glad to go a bar on New Years Eve, because we could see a wide night view in the bar and watch the fireworks. We enjoyed the night with a large group of the Absolute interns! Based on our experience of catching taxis within this week, we realized it is difficult to catch it, especially night. There is no taxi station and we have no idea where can we find taxi easily. One night, we left the bar after 3am and had to pay an extra fee to the taxi driver as many people were going to take a taxi. We had no option if we wanted to get back to hotel – we were shocked and I felt bad about the whole situation. Also, I am still scared of the cars while I cross the road, as the cars here don’t really care about people who cross the road. As what I mentioned before, they always look like they are in a hurry and impatient. They don’t care about people and drive very fast. Also, there seem to be no rules for motor bicycles, even if the light is green, they can still go if they want. In addition, I never realized the Chinese are so curious about Westerners and it is more than what I expected. I remembered one day our group went to an attraction for sightseeing, where we were taking group photos and many Chinese had used their phones to take photos of us. When the Absolute Program Coordinator then persuaded them to take the photo with us. I was surprised that lots of them were interested in it. It’s so funny, as I feel like we are celebrities!
For the food in Shanghai, most of it is spicy with a nice mix of sour. It tastes pretty good but a bit oily for me. I have tried other Asian food as well, such as Hong Kong, Japanese and Korean cuisine – all of them taste good too. Most of the foods in here are not bad and the prices are cheap. Also, I am interested in the street food here. There are some people selling street food surrounding the shopping malls and my hotel. It was yummy and I hope I can try more in the coming few weeks. I had enjoyed my first weekend in Shanghai and I am looking forward to exploring this city more!
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