Lin's Recap of Xi'an and Shanghai
The group traveled by train to Xi'an, arriving the morning of Saturday, March 22nd. As trains are still the most popular form of traveling in China, our overnight train ride was a worthwhile experience for the group to have. On our first day in Xi'an, we visited Great Mosque of Xi'an, the Shaanxi Historical Museum, and the Wild Goose Pagoda. That night, we enjoyed a relaxing hotpot dinner at our hotel. The next day, we visited the Bell Tower, the Terracotta Warriors, and then biked around the old city walls.
Dinner consisted of a dumpling feast, during which everyone ate entirely too much since there were at least 20 different varieties of dumplings. Xi'an came to surpass Beijing in the affections of many in the group due to its more manageable size and more historical feel.
We left Xi'an on the morning of Monday, March 24th and hit the ground running upon arrival in Shanghai: we went straight from the airport to visit the Yu Gardens, a classical Chinese garden that is more than 400 years old. Afterwards, we stopped by the Bund to view the impressive buildings on either side of the Huangpu River. The group took many pictures here, which I'm sure will be shared with friends and family back home. The following
day, our last full day in China, was one of museums and shopping. In the morning, we went to the Shanghai Museum and a silk workshop; after lunch, some visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum and others the
Shanghai Art Museum. The group then reconvened to shop at the underground mall beneath the People's Square before taking a brisk walk down Nanjing Road, the famous pedestrian-only shopping street in Shanghai. To cap off a full day, we took a boat ride along the Huangpu River and even though the skyline was dimmed,* we could still see the two sides of the river from the boat and thus, get a sense of the change and development that the city of
Shanghai has experienced and is still undergoing.
*The snowstorms in China last month disabled many power stations in the western regions of the country. The city of Shanghai has restricted power usage to light up the city skyline at night in order to conserve energy, which is why the skyline was dimmed. The energy saved is to be sent to the places still affected by the power outages that were a result of the snowstorms lat month.