Archive for February 2012

The Hustle and Bustle of Shanghai

As I have mentioned previously in my blogs, Shanghai is an absolutely massive city. During my semester at Fudan, I managed to see a great deal of sites and attractions that Shanghai offers. That being said, I am well aware that I touched only a mere fraction of the entirety of the city. I thought it would be worthwhile to briefly touch on the places I went to visit while there, as well as a few places that I never got around to exploring, but recommend for others who may later have that opportunity.

The view from the Bund can only be really appreciated in person. Photo courtesy of Amy K.

I feel it is appropriate to start off by describing what is easily one of Shanghai’s trademark areas – the Bund. It is a beautiful waterfront located in the downtown area. Surrounding the location are hundreds of shops, restaurants, and malls that offer almost anything one can look for. You can easily devote an entire day just exploring the sidewalks and taking in the rich, storied culture that is embedded in every building there. There is a very unique design to a lot of the stores there, which I believe is due to influence from the British and American settlements from the early 1900’s. The area is not just a shopping district, but also one of Shanghai’s largest financial districts. Although there is much to do, I would personally recommend going there especially at night. The way the Bund lights up during the evening is incredible and is truly hard for me to properly put into words the amazement of it. You can also look across the river there that cuts through Shanghai and see the skyline light up. Doing so really allows travellers to realize just how far Shanghai and China has come during the past century.

Just a few blocks away is the arguably equally-famous Nanjing road. This is Shanghai’s premiere shopping district that is essentially a three-and-a-half mile long road of continuous shops, restaurants, and bars. If there is ever a place to find some souvenirs or even purchase some quality, authentic brand name objects Nanjing road is definitely the place to go. There are a lot of Western fast food restaurants there like KFC and McDonalds for those who feel a little homesick, but the real attraction I find is the street food offered. The dumplings and seafood are delicious! If you would like to have some free entertainment to go with your meal you can often find street performers that sing or do interesting live shows outside. Too tired to walk the whole way? No worries, there are street cars found there as well that offer rides for a nominal fee! The downside I find to using those though is the fact that you cannot explore the area at your own pace, but are instead confined to wherever and whenever the street car takes you. My recommendation is to explore wherever you can, and take periodic breaks to get some snacks and just take in the scenery. It can be crowded though, and pickpockets are not unheard of there (I’ve been an unfortunate victim of them), so be careful of your belongings!

One of Shanghai’s signature dishes in China is the famous (and delicious) xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). As the English translation suggests, these are dumplings filled with soup inside! These are served at a number of different restaurants in Shanghai; however the most famous is located in Yuyuan garden. The garden itself has more to offer than just dumplings though. There are beautiful towers spread across the area as well as ponds filled with koi, turtles, and ducks. The design of the buildings are a clear demonstration of traditional Chinese architecture back then, which contrasts that found at the Bund. One thing to consider though is that you definitely will need to be patient and tolerant of crowds. Yuyuan garden attracts tons of travellers from China as well as from across the globe. I remember I waited about half an hour in line just to get my order of dumplings. Finding a seat afterwards was impossible so I had to improvise and sit on the railings of the ponds (not the safest idea).

Although there were a bunch of places I got to see, there were still tons more which I did not have time for. French concession is one that immediately strikes my mind. The area is one of Shanghai’s most lavish and high-class districts where a lot of foreign travellers love going to. I remember going there once when I was very young and I remember definitely noticing the European influence that dominates the area.

If you are still curious about to what extent the West has influenced Shanghai, you can also check out Xin Tian Di. A lot of American ex-pats actually live in that area and there are tons of Western shops found there. Brand names such as Starbucks, McDonalds, Haagen-Dazs, and a huge variety of brand name clothing are all bundled into that one place. The restaurants there are extremely expensive, even for foreign travellers; however the prices match the quality of service and food served there.

An alley at Xintiandi. Photo courtesy of Amy K.

Overall, I definitely plan on returning to Shanghai again to gain a more complete experience of its vast riches. Some say that Shanghai best represents the progress China has made as a nation. It is the economic center of China and some predict it will be the premiere economic for all of Asia in the next few decades. It is a very unique city in China as I personally felt it had the greatest Western influence; even more so than Beijing. To some that can be a detraction, as it may leave you feeling deprived of a truly “Chinese” experience, but I feel that that is best left up to you to experience for yourself and decide.

Written by: Anthony Qiang

Neverending Stories

Well, it has been too long since I last wrote something for the blog, way back in November. Though I have not been writing about my experiences, I certainly have been thinking about them lately. I have been thinking about a wide variety of things, and I have always realized that they relate back to my adventures, especially the exchange. Such a life-changing event finds its way into your consciousness in more ways than you could expect! Over Christmas, I kept considering it, and how different the holidays had been last year, through 4 days of snow delays to get home, to everyone in my hometown wanting to talk to me and hear stories in person (I had been writing a weekly travel column for our local paper, and was a bit of a celebrity!) This Christmas, I spent much more time at home, but everywhere I went around Kincardine, people still recognized me demanded stories, which of course brought back torrents of memories. And, of course, it excited me that people still considered me interesting and worth the time, though I am currently spending my time studying instead of adventuring!

Now, back here at Queen’s for the semester, the memories are presenting themselves in entirely different ways. I have so little class and so little work this semester; it has left me with lots of time to reminisce. Of course, I find myself thinking of how it was one year ago that I was on my great adventure through Italy, Austria and Germany, and that was such a huge thing for me that I will always have fond memories. Of course, the cork board full of pictures beside my desk helps to bring them back often! I could write thousands of words about that, but I am sure you would get tired of it by the end, so here is a summary: Rome – Naples – Herculaneum – Florence – Salzburg – a friend’s house in a tiny village called WIldenau – Munich – Edinburgh. Fantastic. I could never forget touring the Vatican, tumbling dramatically to the ground in the Sistine Chapel (the view of the ceiling is excellent when you are flat on your back, though the room full of people laughing at you takes away from the experience), or late-night visits to luxurious gelaterias in Florence and strolls through the incredible streets, simply dripping with art and history. The week in Austria was excellent as well, living in a friend’s house, even going to a day of school with him, and being an honoured guest at the Fireman’s Ball, at which a strange ceremony, which awarded me a medal of some kind, was performed in German and never explained to me. All this was just over a year ago, and now I sit in Kingston and reflect.

Florence by night from the Piazza Michelangelo, something you should go see for yourself!

But, this year is just as important – I am learning how to apply all of these experiences into the rest of my life, as they seem to find their way into it on their own. The year had such an impact on me academically – the year abroad taught me self-discipline, as I had to remember to do my work around all the adventures, and those lessons have helped me this year. Personally, it has molded me into someone with more of a sense of adventure and more wanderlust. I have learned just how much is waiting out in the world, and I always find myself scheming how to get out there again (the QUIC website has great ideas, check it out!).

In the broad scheme of things, I see the influence of the exchange having very wide impact on my future. As mentioned above, I will always be searching for a chance to have another adventure and gain more stories to tell. However, there is more to it than that – a startling realization struck me at a recent meeting where someone from Career Services was speaking on how to integrate your international experiences into your resume alongside your professional experiences. A panic switch in my mind flipped, and I realized that I don’t have any professional experiences. While most people have been being professional and making a name for themselves, laying foundations for business jobs and lives spent behind desks, I have been cultivating stories.

All through high school (and life, really), I have worked away on our dairy farm whenever I am at home. After high school, when most people get their first serious job, I ran off to Norway for 5 weeks of random adventures and meeting interesting people. The summer after first year, I took off on a whim to New Brunswick, where I worked on a commercial fishing crew for elvers, one of the most ridiculous and enjoyable jobs I have ever done. This experience should have warned me of my future “professional” crisis, I suppose. Once, I even considered (for a solid 15 minutes) finding something relatively professional when a friend, upon hearing of my fishing job, asked me this: “Johnny, are you ever going to have a normal job?” As I thought about that one, I realized that I would be just fine answering him with a no!

This is me, knee deep in the Bay of Fundy fishing for baby eels at 4 A.M.

So, I went fishing, and then spent the rest of the summer hosting travellers and working away at the farm, focusing on enjoying my life more than making money.  Over the next year, I applied for exchanges, then went fishing again, then spent the summer farming and helping others to travel. Then was my time in Scotland (and so many other places!), then another summer of international visitors (friends started telling me I should ask the town for a paycheck, I have brought so many visitors through), and I am currently planning this summer – fishing, international friends, and a lot of driving around and seeing the world through my own eyes.

As I had my minor crisis about my resume having nothing but random jobs, always outnumbered by random adventures, I realized (with the help of the career counselor) that I could easily make this work for me – I can use a resume to show how I feel about the world, and prove to people that I am willing to work away at just about anything, and to make the best of it. Hopefully, the teacher’s colleges I have applied to appreciate this notion – after all, didn’t you think that the teachers with interesting stories in high school were the best ones? This got me thinking once again –as I said, I have done a lot of that lately – and I realized that once I graduate in June, I will essentially have a degree in storytelling; a major in history, where I read stories and learn details about exciting things that have happened in this world, and a minor in French, to help me project my stories in two languages, each with improved linguistic skill and form. So, I have built what I hope is an impressive collection of important stories about this world, developed the skills to tell them well, and used university as a springboard to collect personal stories to spice them up for future listeners.

I think I have made the right choices in life, despite the total lack of professional work. I am just not a professional guy, and the idea of sitting and working on businessy things does nothing for me – give me a job where I can tell my stories, and I will be a happy boy. I owe all of this to the international experiences I have had – Norway gave me the initial drive to see the world, and then Scotland helped me to develop myself and the stories into something that (I sincerely hope) people will care to hear sometime. Long story short, times gone by are not just memories. They are building blocks, and each of us has to use them to construct the life we want to live in the future. And since my building blocks are stories and adventures, I have the highest of hopes for what I can make of them!

Written by: Jonathon Farrell