Day 6 & 7

This is an update for several more days in Shanghai.

On Thursday (5/26/11) USAC was able to obtain tickets to China's top reality show- China's Got Talent, similar to American's Got Talent TV show.  The show is recorded in the National Theater of Shanghai, and the school took our group downtown to participate in the show.  They even provided us with lunch.  So you will see a few photos of the group and me at the show.

On Friday morning I decided I needed to work out, and since I am still getting up every morning at 6:00, I would go to the track and run.  I went there and met several very friendly chinese men and ran with them.  After running they invited me to join their exercise class, which I did.  After the exercise session was over, many of them came over to me, I guess to hear a few words of English, and I must be a novelty. Then as I was leaving the stadium, they invited me to play badmitton, which I did.  After badmitton I then quickly went out on the street, got breakfast, went back to my room and showered and changed and then went to my 8:00 Tai Chi class.  The second class scheduled for Friday was cancelled.  That afternoon I met my speaking partner and we walked around campus and he explained and showed me a number of things.  His name is Jasper, and was formerly the head of Student Affairs for the Computer Science Department, but the government recently tapped him to be a leader in the Communist Youth League.

On Saturday USAC provided a tour of Shanghai.  The tour lasted all day and included a walk on the Bund, the walkway along the Huangpu river in Puxi (old part and original Shanghai), tour of Yuyuan Garden, lunch, and then a tour of Pudong, which included all the new buildings on the eastern side of the Huangpu river, then a ride up to the observation deck of the Pearl Tower.  Many pictures follow.




Our group at the National Theater, to be in the audience of China's Got Talent.  I think the sign says Shanghai University.




Photo of me and the retired Dean of the College of International Exchange.  He is also an excellent ping pong player.



As we were waiting outside for the show to start, one troupe asked me to join them.  They surely know my singing talents.





Then they want on stage to perfom, and without me.



The next day USAC took us on a tour of Shanghai.  Here we are on the Bund, i.e. by the river, in the old Shanghai, looking east toward the new Shanghai skyline in Pudong.



More of the new buildings in Pudong



A crooked walkway and pond in the Yuyan Gardens



The Yu Gardens were built during the Ming Dynasty by one of the wealty ministers of the emperor.  This was his personal residence and most all the buildings are original.  The Ming Dynasty lasted from 1369 to 1644, and was the Dynasty prior to the last one, the Quing Dynasty, that lasted from 1644 to 1911.




A beautiful rock garden.  While dragon replicas were not allowed, this animal only has three toes, so it was thought it could not be a real dragon.



Shopping and stores in the Garden area.  Of course there was a Starbucks and Dairy Queen there.



A Terp Dragon




Lunch after our tour of the Garden.  This is the Chef preparing our Peking Duck.




Then on to Pudong, the new part of Shanghai, and the financial center of China.  It was execeptionally clean, modern, and used creative architecture.



Jeff on the floor of one of the observation decks in the Pearl Tower in Pudong.

At the bottom of the Pearl Tower was a museum on the history of Shanghai.  This was a model of an opium den that was started after the British defeated China in the Opium War, and started importing opium.



More of the skyscrapers in Pudong