Today was our first full day in Shanghai. We arrived yesterday afternoon and checked into the hotel before getting dinner. We got a break from Chinese food and ate pizza for dinner; it was good for the most part. One thing I have noticed is that Chinese food lacks salt which held true for the pizza, too. The highlight of dinner, and maybe the night, were the massaging chairs Frankie and I paid ten yuan for.

After we ate dinner, we had a river cruise on the Huangpu River. The river separates Shanghai’s west bank and east bank. The west bank is the more traditional Shanghai while the east bank is the “future” of Shanghai. The east bank has so many sky scrapers all lit up. The Shanghai tower is on the east bank and is the second tallest building in the world at 128 stories. The cruise was awesome; Shanghai is already so different than Beijing and Xi’an . . . and better!

Back to today, the day started with a visit to East China University of Science and Technology. We were given a lecture about how business is conducted in China, both internally and externally. I learned quite a bit from this lecture. First, China has cities designated as free trade zones, or zones where foreigners can invest and conduct business. Shanghai is a free trade zone, but Beijing is not. These free trade zones were launched in 2013 and there is a law beginning January 1, 2020 that will make all of China a free trade zone. With this new law, China is also creating measures to ensure that domestic and foreign investors are treated equally and fairly.  I was surprised to learn that China has 19 free trade agreements with other nations; this is only one less than the United States of America. Obviously, China and the USA don’t have an agreement and seem to be pretty far from one. I forget who said it, but both nations are expecting themselves to outlast each other, so it will probably end poorly for both sides. After the lecture we had lunch in the university’s dining hall, and, well, dining hall food is apparently dining hall food anywhere you go.

After lunch, we left to visit the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. I was excited to visit this since urban planning has been such a major focus in Shanghai’s transformation over the past 40 years. In the museum, there was a model of the fastest train. It travels along a magnetic rail and travels at 250 miles per hour. The coolest part of the museum was the massive model of Shanghai on the third floor. It included every building that was over 20 stories high along with the smaller developments in the city. Even with the 20-story requirement, the model was crowded with buildings. Our tour guide shared how the city’s highways were designed. There are three rings: an inner ring, a middle ring, an outer ring. The inner ring surrounds the city center. The middle ring runs around the outside of the city. The outer ring runs throughout the suburbs of Shanghai. Another interesting thing I learned is that only cars with Shanghai issued license plates are able to travel along these highways from Monday to Friday. This helps control the amount of traffic present. Also, semi-tractor trailers are not allowed in the city, so they must detour using the middle or outer loop.

We were on our own for dinner tonight, but of course we ended up eating with Dr. Li. Ordering is too scary when you never know how to read the menu or what is actually in the picture. The restaurant was right down the road from the hotel and was a Cantonese style meal. We have been eating western Chinese food, so it was a bit different and I enjoyed that.        

Following dinner, we all went to an acrobatics show. The show was so cool. The performances ranged from juggling to a girl swinging from a hoop in the air (like a trapeze, I guess?). Aryanna, Matt, and Jake all got pulled on stage to join various performances. Overall the first day in Shanghai was great and the city is stunning.