Last week I was liberated from my teaching duties of the term, which culminated in Andrew and I spending several minutes after our final class signing autographs for some students. This was a definite first, and a little funny. I think some students were worried they may never see us again, I’m sure at least a few were hopeful of such a situation. Taking advantage of the free time, I traveled up to Shanghai and a few surroundings cities in the past week to be a tourist with Anna, her mother, and a visiting friend of hers. Our first stop was Shanghai.

We were met at Hongqiao airport by a further friend of Anna’s, this one Chinese, who is a lifelong Shanghai-er and was incredibly hard working in his desire to show us around the city and explain its monuments, historic highlights, and bright future. That final passage is meant in multiple meanings, as both neon and cash are rising quickly in the city, evidenced by the slew of buildings being built and the renovations of old treaty port-era architecture throughout the city. For a city of at least 15 million, there are a few true tourist sights, but the overall atmosphere of Shanghai lends itself well to wandering around the central area of the city and simply exploring.

The first day was spent with an outing to the Bund, a riverside area lined with numerous older buildings of the European style facing toward the Pudong district across the river, the home of China’s future tallest building under construction now, and a forest of skyscrapers that have sprouted only in the last 15 years. Needless to say, I was happy about all this. We dined at a traditional Shanghainese restaurant before exploring the shopping street of Huanhai Lu, thankfully it is in the midst of the French Concession area, so there was something there to placate me.

The next day was spent near YuYuan, a garden at the northern brim of the Shanghai old city. The actual area near the garden looks very nice and has clearly been painstakingly done up, allowing for ample photo ops and flood of foreign tourists ruining ‘my’ China. Nearby was a large commercial strip which entertained the ladies of the group for some time, while I took advantage of their distractions to wander around the old alleyways and peer into homes with open doors.

In doing this, I was greeted by a group of school-aged boys eager to practice their English with me and jumping all about. Spent a few minutes watching a caged bird before the elderly couple who owned it came out and asked me in Chinese if I liked it, to which I replied affirmatively, before heading on. Needless to say, in the alleys, I gathered a lot more stares than in the streets. There was a massive food market for locals cooking up all types of deliciousness, but I had to pass as we ate lunch at a XiaoBaoZi restaurant famous for its mini steamed buns. And I love me my steamed buns.

We ended the Shanghai experience heading onboard one of the new-fangled bullet trains that runs out to Suzhou. From what I’d heard about Chinese trains, I was prepared for the worst. This one was up to European standards, surpassing Amtrak handily and even equipped with a matong, the precious Western toilet that is so hard to find round these parts. The little display even wrote out our speed, maxing at 249km/hr. Wonderful. Its nice to see China investing in its infrastructure as it grows. Next up: Suzhou.