The first day in Shanghai -meeting with Professor Su & sightseeing

7:30am – Thank god for a pill. I didn’t hear a thing until the alarm buzzed at 7:30 this morning. I felt a million times better than 6hrs ago. No hairdryer & no adapter for my curling iron available here.. A pony tail will be my hairdo for the rest of the trip. Humidity won’t sustain the hair style anyways..I had a tea egg for breakfast. It is basically a hardboiled egg in tea which tastes no different than regular boiled eggs but it is supposed to be good for you. I should know for sure what the benefit of this particular egg would be by the end of trip since I will have that every day.

8:30am – We started morning with an orientation for the entire tour . There was an Introduction of all the participants from BC, Alberta, Ottawa, Ontario & Australia. BC group is quite impressive in a way how they prepared for the study tour. The amount of materials they had to read & study was far intensive than our Ontario group. Our group wasn’t slacking in preparation either but there is always someone who puts more effort & demands more.

10:00am – A history professor Su Zhiliang from Shanghai Norman University gave us a lecture on ‘Foreign Invasions on Shanghai’. He looked so familiar since I had seen him many occasions in a documentary film which Alpha provided us before. A lot of background information was given about Shanghai. He even answered my question in detail about Korean exile government in 1919 which was located right inside of international concession in Shanghai. Maybe I will explore this area tomorrow after dinner to trace back our Korean history.

After lunch- In consideration of the jack leg we all are experiencing, an optional sightseeing of Yu garden, the 400 yr old Chinese garden & strolling around the old Chinese bazaar were scheduled this afternoon. Most of us joined the tour despite of 38 degree with extremely high humidity. I didn’t feel the need to go to washroom for the entire afternoon, which was a blessing in a way because the public washrooms are not that desirable place to be in China.

There was also an optional boat cruise after dinner along the Huangpu River. This is the first place in Shanghai I encountered with the security guard with uniform since I arrived in Shanghai. It makes you wonder if you are really in a communist country. Funny thing was that they were confiscating water bottles before entering the ship. Why, though? Anyways, it was beautiful to see all the lit up buildings along the river. Especially the Bund, the old Shanghai, has some beautiful European style buildings which is the definite influence of early foreign settlement in the city. The opposite side of the Bund was all surrounded with high risen, modernized architectural buildings. Shanghai apparently went through a major make over for the last 15 years, although you can still see the old residence area where the living condition is poor behind those high risen buildings. Like an appearance of the city landscape, the discrepancy of the rich & the poor seems greater than any other place I have ever been to. You can see the people shopping in a Gucci store and you can also see the persistent beggars & aggressive street vendors on the very same street of Gucci store. They will chase you forever if you show any sign of interest as little as an eye contact. I guess that Seoul must have looked like this at one point. I can see that Shanghai will soon to be like any of the major cities in North America as it develops as fast as it has been. I just hope that it doesn’t lose its unique cultural & traditional face as it progresses towards the complete modernization.