Our last 2 days were by far the longest. We took a two-hour bus ride to visit a port. It was made a little easier by the pitt alum who came along to talk with us about working in China. So far everything we have heard from Americans is learn Chinese and she made sure…

We started off the morning by visiting the American Chamber of Commerce: Shanghai (AmCham). It was fairly interesting for a little bit. We got to learn about the history of Chinese trade and economics. As an engineer this got a little boring. AmCham helps American business do business in China. Specifically, it is made up…

We started the night with the whole group going to a local Cantonese restaurant. We were curious about Cantonese after eating Chinese the whole trip. Dr. Li gave a long description of Cantonese cuisine that ended up being essentially “Old People food”. It was Old people food, but very good old people food. Lots of…

The bullet train experience to Shanghai was just like the last one: 6 hours taken up by a nap and a desperate attempt to catch up on blog posts. The first night in Shanghai definitely helped explain why it is called the magic city. Our first meal in Shanghai was Chinese “Italian” food, it was…

We finished off the day by visiting the Greater Wild Goose Pagoda. It was very large and quite impressive. It is a temple essentially for people of the Buddhist faith and many monks lived and worked there. That night we went back to the bazaar except Nancy took us a very roundabout way of getting…

Riding a bullet train is a wild experience. Barreling through the country side at over three hundred km/h, the view changes so rapidly it’s as if everything outside is turning. You’ll look down and back up only to see the scenery has changes completely. When you pass another bullet train making the return trip, the…

We all went to dinner together on the third floor of the hotel. The third floor, as we had earlier peaked out of the elevator, is a very fancy restaurant. Dr. Li ordered a range of dumplings for us all and even after something like three-hundred dumplings per table of eight it was only about…

After the University visit Dave Jake and I finished off the day by taking the metro to “Snack Street”. The metro at first was strange to navigate especially because you need to punch in the exact destination. After playing with it and finally getting it to work we got our tickets and then found the…

We finished off the first day by joining Dr. Li for a traditional hot pot meal. We weaved through local streets and back allies eventually stepping through a building and back outside into a courtyard. The restaurant was quaint, not large and fairly quiet. I have had hot pot before in the states and it…

After nearly 24 hours of travel and not nearly enough sleep we made it to China! That first night we had a fantastic banquet style dinner finishing off with the Beijing special of Peking duck. The dinner itself was served on what are essentially massive lazy Susan’s in which you spin the food around and…