Today was Day 11, and that means it’s almost time for us to go home which is pretty bittersweet to think about. Today we were going to be visiting Yang Shan Port which handles a very large amount of China’s sea shipping. I had a rough night the night before, so I slept basically the whole bus ride, but I think the ride was around 2 hours long. I remember waking up at one point and we were on a bridge with just water as far as the eye could see, so I’m not really sure what happened. I heard someone say that bridge was 20 miles long too, and if that’s true than I’m sad that I missed that.
When we got there, we walked up to a little area where we could view the whole port and get some pictures. It was insane how many shipping crates there were. An unfathomable amount of shipping crates were gathered and stacked in one area and it was certainly a sight to behold, except for the brown water. Unfortunately for me, today was not good because I was feeling sick and tired the entire day, so I didn’t get to enjoy the day as much as I would have liked.
The port was actually owned by the company we would be visiting today, the Lingang Group. We drove directly from the port to their facilities for a Q&A session. I will say that the Q&A session left a lot to be desired. After a short and brief presentation about what the Lingang Group does, we got to ask some questions. Unfortunately, not many of our questions were answered, or at least answered thoroughly. I was kind of disappointed by that, but am, nonetheless, always appreciative that we get the opportunity to visit these companies and have a chance to ask some questions!
Our lunch for the day was very interesting. We had some turtle soup, full prawns, head and all, some sort of meat that I think was seafood, and the typical veggies and white rice. The turtle was okay, I wouldn’t really eat it again though. The prawns were good, but a lot of work to eat, and the seafood thing was decent too, but I had no idea what it was, and neither did anyone else. I didn’t have much of an appetite though, so I didn’t eat much.
After lunch, we rode out to the docks, and got to take some pictures. There was one boat there unloading a bunch of Audi’s I think which was pretty cool to see. They had some sort of protective coverings on them to prevent scratches in case they bump into each other while shipping.
Some of the guys and I were really craving some burgers for dinner, so we found a brewery that had good reviews and walked there. The walk was about 20 minutes and was well worth it. The food there was very American, and I was all for it! Chinese food is great, but I was starting to get tired of it. I got a delicious bacon cheeseburger! The meal was very affordable too. After eating we walked back to the hotel. Some people went out for the night, but I was still feeling kind of sick and tired, so I passed out around 9:00 and slept for almost 11 hours which was much needed! Unfortunately, tomorrow would be our last day in China.