Monday, March 23: Shanghai

Written by Sara Romeyn

With a 10 am meeting time in the lobby of the Bund Hotel, we all had a much-appreciated chance to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast. Our local tour guide, Andrew, explained that the city of Shanghai is divided into two sections: the older, historic area, and the modern financial district (called Pudong). The two halves of the city are divided by the river Pu. We took a quick bus ride to the financial district and climbed in elevators for the ride to the top of Jinmao tower, which has an observation deck on the 88th floor. From there we had a panoramic view of Shanghai and could truly appreciate its dramatic growth and ongoing construction projects. Lunch was provided by a family with a 15-year-old son (Leo Wang) who hopes to attend Bullis.  They gave us boxes of Chinese tea as a gift.

In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to wander through the Cheng Huang Temple, which included a traditional garden and water features. This was a gorgeous oasis in the middle of a bustling, modern city. We had some free time after the garden visit to explore a market, and many of us enjoyed haggling for jade, pearls, silk, and other souvenirs. Dinner was hosted by the Shi family, who hope their son Joseph will attend Bullis, and held at one of the oldest restaurants in the city. All of our lunches and dinners have been served "family style" and we take seats at a massive circular table with a "lazy susan" in the center. By now, we've all learned not to fill up on the first several dishes to come out of the kitchen…often we have 15 dishes or more, including soup, fried rice, chicken, duck, pork, beef, tofu, seafood and many forms of vegetables. We have all grown more adept with our chopsticks, able to pinch a bite or two of a dish as the food rotates by us. The meal ended with a celebration of Natasha's birthday. We had a massive chocolate cake, which several of us ate with our chopsticks. We received more gifts, including beautiful scarfs and some traditional Chinese snacks from current junior John Wang and his parents. We were back at the hotel by 9:30 pm to pack and get to bed early in anticipation of a 6 am wake up call.