Today Shelby and I woke up really late and had to choke down breakfast in 5 minutes. First we went to these beautiful gardens that used to be owned by a government official. The Yu Yuan Gardens were so interesting because there were these little cave tunnels everywhere that connected different courtyards. The architecture was also different from Beijing- the roofs weren’t yellow! It had a lo
t of fountains and streams, and whenever you went to the edge of a pond, hoards of koi fish would come right up to you. Our tour guide told us that koi fish could live to be 200 years old, and that we would see one of the oldest koi fish later today at the temple. The gardens also had a lot of rocks that had been shaped by the water- each rock had thousands of round holes all over. Everywhere we went, we saw this really interesting wall that was curvy on top. Later we found out that it was a dragon wall when we saw its head on top. The dragon actually wasn't a drago
n, because that was reserved for the emperors, but it did look like one. It had the skin of a shrimp, the claws of a rooster, the head of a horse, the antlers of a deer, the teeth of a tiger, the body of a serpent, and the tail of a fish. In its mouth was a pearl, and below its head was a frog. It was interesting to learn the symbolism of the relationship between these two animals. The frog lived off of the saliva of the
dragon, and scratched the dragons back for compensation. In this way it was representative of the government and the people; each needed the other to survive. After the gardens, we got to experience a different part of Chinese culture that we hadn't even touched on before- the Buddhist Temple. As we entered the outer courtyard, there were these two large containers where a bunch of incense was burning. Music was playing, and people were praying in the temple. As we we
re walking around, we saw a lot of red ribbons tied onto the trees, and even glimpsed a few monks! We got to see the sitting and reclining jade buddha, which they didn't want anyone to take pictures of. When we entered into the place where the sitting jade bud
dha was, this European couple was standing there furtively taking a photo. I thought this was a little disrespectful, until we went downstairs and saw a bunch of posters with the jade buddha on them. Before leaving, we met this one man who wrote our names on this gold-flecked piece of parchment paper. Each symbol had a meaning. Mine meant “beautiful, special" and then he wished me love and a lucky life. Shelby's was "Today, tomorrow, and forever." He was very funny, and got us all to laugh as he tried to pronounce our names. After lunch we did some hard core shopping at the big market in Shanghai. This one was indoors, and had a lot of knockoff designer things. I was getting pretty good at haggling. I got a Jimmy Choo bag for 15 U.S. dollars by pretending that it was all that I had. I played this part so convincingly that when the lady’s back was turned the rest of my group asked if I just wanted to borrow money from them. I had to quickly explain to them what I was doing before the shopkeeper turned around! While I was haggling for this really nice dress, I offered a price more acceptable in Beijing than in Shanghai. In Beijing, the people inflate the price of their goods, so there is more room to haggle, but in Shanghai the price is much closer to the base price
than in Beijing. I guess the offer was way too low, because they had me leave the store! I went back later and bought it for a more acceptable price, but I learned the hard way how haggling changes between cities! Finally, I argued for a good 10 minutes over a Dolce and Gabana bag, eventually getting a really good price. Every person I haggled with was really mad when I finally bought what I wanted, so you could tell that I was doing well. Haggling in a group is a really good idea because if you start going too high, the rest of the group just pulls you away from the store until the store owner shouts out lower and lower prices. Haggling is really infused into Chinese culture in a way that I haven’t ever seen before. In the U.S, there is a set price and you have to go store to store to find the best price, but here you can haggle down to a satisfactory price. After dinner we d
ropped by a convenience store, before heading for the hotel with some free time. We eventually crammed 12 people into a tiny hotel room for a party. Some people wore what they had bought earlier today, and everyone brought food. We ate grapes and cherries from the market yesterday, played games, talked, and just relaxed! Every day so far had been so crammed with things to see, people to talk to, and stuff to buy that just hanging out was really fun. Tomorrow we are going to fly to our last city: Hong Kong! I really enjoyed my time in Shanghai, and I wish we could have gone to the Expo, but hopefully Hong Kong will make up for that!
Today Shelby and I woke up really late and had to choke down breakfast in 5 minutes. First we went to these beautiful gardens that used to be owned by a government official. The Yu Yuan Gardens were so interesting because there were these little cave tunnels everywhere that connected different courtyards. The architecture was also different from Beijing- the roofs weren’t yellow! It had a lo
t of fountains and streams, and whenever you went to the edge of a pond, hoards of koi fish would come right up to you. Our tour guide told us that koi fish could live to be 200 years old, and that we would see one of the oldest koi fish later today at the temple. The gardens also had a lot of rocks that had been shaped by the water- each rock had thousands of round holes all over. Everywhere we went, we saw this really interesting wall that was curvy on top. Later we found out that it was a dragon wall when we saw its head on top. The dragon actually wasn't a drago
n, because that was reserved for the emperors, but it did look like one. It had the skin of a shrimp, the claws of a rooster, the head of a horse, the antlers of a deer, the teeth of a tiger, the body of a serpent, and the tail of a fish. In its mouth was a pearl, and below its head was a frog. It was interesting to learn the symbolism of the relationship between these two animals. The frog lived off of the saliva of the
dragon, and scratched the dragons back for compensation. In this way it was representative of the government and the people; each needed the other to survive. After the gardens, we got to experience a different part of Chinese culture that we hadn't even touched on before- the Buddhist Temple. As we entered the outer courtyard, there were these two large containers where a bunch of incense was burning. Music was playing, and people were praying in the temple. As we we
re walking around, we saw a lot of red ribbons tied onto the trees, and even glimpsed a few monks! We got to see the sitting and reclining jade buddha, which they didn't want anyone to take pictures of. When we entered into the place where the sitting jade bud
dha was, this European couple was standing there furtively taking a photo. I thought this was a little disrespectful, until we went downstairs and saw a bunch of posters with the jade buddha on them. Before leaving, we met this one man who wrote our names on this gold-flecked piece of parchment paper. Each symbol had a meaning. Mine meant “beautiful, special" and then he wished me love and a lucky life. Shelby's was "Today, tomorrow, and forever." He was very funny, and got us all to laugh as he tried to pronounce our names. After lunch we did some hard core shopping at the big market in Shanghai. This one was indoors, and had a lot of knockoff designer things. I was getting pretty good at haggling. I got a Jimmy Choo bag for 15 U.S. dollars by pretending that it was all that I had. I played this part so convincingly that when the lady’s back was turned the rest of my group asked if I just wanted to borrow money from them. I had to quickly explain to them what I was doing before the shopkeeper turned around! While I was haggling for this really nice dress, I offered a price more acceptable in Beijing than in Shanghai. In Beijing, the people inflate the price of their goods, so there is more room to haggle, but in Shanghai the price is much closer to the base price 
than in Beijing. I guess the offer was way too low, because they had me leave the store! I went back later and bought it for a more acceptable price, but I learned the hard way how haggling changes between cities! Finally, I argued for a good 10 minutes over a Dolce and Gabana bag, eventually getting a really good price. Every person I haggled with was really mad when I finally bought what I wanted, so you could tell that I was doing well. Haggling in a group is a really good idea because if you start going too high, the rest of the group just pulls you away from the store until the store owner shouts out lower and lower prices. Haggling is really infused into Chinese culture in a way that I haven’t ever seen before. In the U.S, there is a set price and you have to go store to store to find the best price, but here you can haggle down to a satisfactory price. After dinner we d
ropped by a convenience store, before heading for the hotel with some free time. We eventually crammed 12 people into a tiny hotel room for a party. Some people wore what they had bought earlier today, and everyone brought food. We ate grapes and cherries from the market yesterday, played games, talked, and just relaxed! Every day so far had been so crammed with things to see, people to talk to, and stuff to buy that just hanging out was really fun. Tomorrow we are going to fly to our last city: Hong Kong! I really enjoyed my time in Shanghai, and I wish we could have gone to the Expo, but hopefully Hong Kong will make up for that!
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