Travelblog – A Blonde Mess (in a Dress)

Almost 40 hours of flying, 34 nights slept, four weeks of interning, dozens of memories made, and so many new friendships. Shanghai, I’m so grateful that we got to meet.

An unplanned experience, that I committed to many months ago with little expectation. I didn’t know what to expect from Shanghai nor did I know how to feel about it, but I’m glad that we got to know each other. Never having traveled to Asia, I was unsure of the culture, the people, or the food. To put it bluntly, I basically flew into China blind. I signed up for this trip unsure of my career path, using it as an unexplained method to “find myself”. While I still don’t know what I want to do, I learned so many valuable lessons along the way. Being in a foreign country really forces you to acclimate and figure it out.

While I can’t rave about the food, I can say that Shanghai was an amazing city and experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. The city was incredibly clean, safe, and rich in culture. Shanghai itself felt like a bigger and cleaner NYC, besides the fact that I couldn’t understand the people surrounding me. While the city was cleaner, the people were not. The signature ‘sound’ of Shanghai seemed to be the cringe-worthy noise of Chinese residents loudly spitting on the streets. The hygiene of the people definitely was questionable compared to US standards, but they seemed to make up for it with their freshly scrubbed streets and subways. Another thing that I liked in Shanghai, was the security of the Subway systems with mandatory bag scanners, definitely makes you feel safer.

Business wise, Shanghai is a very international city. They have offices for most major international companies, English is found in many places, and you don’t feel isolated as many would expect. There is western food and lots of western people who have moved to Shanghai and do just fine. They are more advanced in the fact that basically nobody carries cash, only bringing their phones to Lunch. They use WeChat and AliPay almost exclusively.

Living and working in a city where you don’t speak the language definitely teaches you to be patient and adaptive, learning how to communicate in ways that aren’t always convenient. It honestly makes you grateful for everyone that does speak English and stops to help, I met so many kind Chinese businessmen who would help me with my lunch or dinner order.

Shanghai, I’m so glad that we got to know each other. Thank you for the memories, the lessons, and my heightened appreciation for American food. I’ll be back one day Shanghai.

Xo,

Haley

This past weekend a group of us took the bullet train to Beijing on Friday after our internships. It’s important to note that the bullet train was only 4.5 hours and is the 2nd fastest train in the world. Without the train, it would have been a 12.5-hour drive, I think the US should seriously consider adopting bullet trains. Think about it, the drive from New York to Savannah, Georgia is a little over 12 hours, but with a bullet train, it would only be four.

Upon arrival, we stayed in a super cute AirB’n’B that was in a Beijing apartment building, but still had the very traditional attributes of a traditional Chinese home with woven bamboo floors and a strict no shoe policy. We spent the following day traveling to the Great Wall of China, which was the experience of a lifetime for sure.

We booked a tour through Groupon, which included a bus ride to and from the great wall and a tour guide. They promised other things such as visiting the Olympic birds nest, but unfortunately, China has no tipping and no Yelp so there’s nobody to complain to besides each other.

After two hours on the bus, we arrived at the Great Wall and purchased Gondola tickets to bring us up to the wall. We also were greeted with predictable rain, in which the locals very happily sold us ponchos, mine turned out to be a children’s poncho, which is what I get for requesting the one purple one.

After riding the Goldala up in the rain, the wall was great. It soon stopped raining and we climbed and climbed up the stairs while being stopped every 2 minutes for a picture request by other Chinese tourists. Below are some pictures. They don’t tell you that the Wall is a workout, I think I’m still sore. It’s definitely not handicap accessible and lacks some necessary railing, but that’s part of the experience.