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Day 5 – A Day of Sightseeing & Learning

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  1. People’s Square Park

The People’s Square Park is located nearby the Shanghai Museum. As a group, we walked around the park and fed the doves who resided there alongside many locals. It was an exciting and thrilling experience for many students because it was their first time feeding birds out in the open. Although I have fed doves before, I had a great time seeing the other students enjoying themselves.

Photo of People's Square Photo of Student with Dove

Photo of Student Feeding Dove

  1. Shanghai Museum

Shanghai Museum is a large museum that showcases a variety of historical sculptures, porcelain, jewelry, artifacts, and artwork. The museum had four levels with a small shop on each floor. What was surprising was the availability of English, Japanese, and Chinese pamphlets and English descriptions of all artifacts and artwork in the museum. This made the experience much more worthwhile for all the students.

Photo of Students at Shanghai Museum Photo of Student at Shanghai Museum

Photo of Students at Shanghai Museum Photo of Exhibit Piece at Shanghai Museum

  1. Yu Garden

The Yu Garden was exceptionally beautiful. Although it was a highly populated attraction, I was extremely impressed by the amount of tour guides who spoke in different languages. I was amazed by one Chinese tour guide who spoke fluent Spanish.

Photo of Yu Garden Photo of Students at Yu Garden

  1. Yuyuan Bazaar

After exploring the Yu Garden, all the students went to the Yuyuan Bazaar which was nearby. The bazaar was a large outdoor shopping center where many of the students bought souvenirs. We all had the choice of eating lunch on our own, however the majority of us went to eat at a local Chinese restaurant. I was amazed by how open the students were to trying new types of foods such as chicken feet. I also found it interesting how we had to pay for our meal beforehand rather than after.

Photo of Student at Yuyuan Bazaar

  1. Jin Mao Tower/Skywalk

Once we finished eating, all the students had the option either to go to the Bund or the Jin Mao Tower. About half of the students went to each destination. At the Jin Mao Tower, a few of the students went on the famous Skywalk. It was interesting to see the process. Additionally, while inside the tower, we got the opportunity to look down 88 floors; it was not as scary as I had imagined. While we were waiting for the Skywalk, we interacted with Chinese children who sat next to us. It was nice to know that despite the obvious differences between our cultures, the children were still open to interacting with us. There was absolutely no discomfort between us. I feel as if this is incredibly important to note because as these children grow up, they will be more open-minded towards foreigners making it easier to build lasting business connections and friendships.

Photo of Students at Skywalk Photo of student looking through a telescope

  1. Oriental Pearl Tower/The Bund

Although I was part of the group who did not walk to the Bund, I still had the opportunity to see the Pearl Tower from the Jin Mao Tower. The view was undoubtedly breathtaking. We later ate dinner near the Metro station and enjoyed the sights of Shanghai from the outside patio.

Photo of student at Oriental Pearl Tower Photo of view of the Bund

Day 4 – A Visit to the Shanghai Supercomputer Center and Learning from Sanda’s Students

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This morning, we started by visiting the Shanghai Supercomputer Center. We had a tour of the facility and the museum they have inside the company building. At some point, the guide who gave us the tour showed us real time videos of the Bund, shot by cameras they have on site. She then said that on average around 800,000 tourists visit the Bund per day. That statement confused me, as I thought to myself, how can they tell whether the person visiting the Bund is a tourist or a local? So I asked her and she said their cameras have facial recognition features so they know exactly who’s a tourist and who’s a local. I found that to be impressive yet somewhat intrusive and concerning at the same time. Then we had a walk around the Hi-Tech park area where the supercomputer center was located. It was massive!

Photo of CapitalLand Building in Shanghai  

After lunch at the university, we met some Chinese students from Sanda. We had two different activities: the women went to play ping-pong, the national sport, and the men went to have a basketball match with the university’s team. I was a little nervous about playing ping pong because I didn’t feel like I had enough hand-eye coordination, but once I opened up to it, and with the help of Dr. Li, I actually found it to be enjoyable (and difficult too! I was sweating from just running to pick up the ball when I missed, which happened quite often). We saw students from the university’s ping-pong team play and it was really impressive. They were so fast that it was almost impossible to see the ball. Then we went on to watch the guys play basketball. It looked like they had fun and I must say that our guys represented CSUN very well. Even though we lost, it was a close call, and I think that’s impressive considering the fact our guys are not part of a basketball team. Then again, the Chinese students might have taken it easy on them, which I won’t find surprising as they are such incredible hosts.

  

After the match ended we went on to meet more Chinese students, which was organized by Sanda’s student union. We were given some topics of discussion, one of them being the current trade war happening between the US and China. I could tell the students were nervous to bring it up thinking we may support the president and his actions and were surprised and relieved to hear we didn’t, along with many other Americans. It was an experience I was really looking forward to, as I wanted to see if and what were the differences between us. I learned there are many differences between the American and Chinese student experience. For example, the Chinese students don’t get to pick their classes, their schedules or professors. They have classes for 12 hours a day sometimes! They have absolutely no time to do anything other than studying, and they were surprised to hear most of us work while attending school. We also met them during finals, which take over a period of a few weeks, and they were under a lot of stress. They were shocked we had all our finals in just one week. I feel that having those meetings with the Chinese students are going to be something I am going to remember for a long time, as it had a big impact on me. One of the reasons I wanted to go on this trip was to have a cultural exchange experience and meeting the students definitely fulfilled that. I wish we had more time with them, maybe an organized outing or taking classes together.

Day 2 – Welcome to Sanda University & Shanghai

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Today was our first real day in China after hours of traveling the day before. We woke up early as breakfast would be waiting for us daily at 7:30am. Our meals were always authentically Chinese, served in orange Bento boxes, with rice being the main staple of every meal. Breakfast included soup dumplings, which was delicious but quite a different breakfast food than we are used to having.

After breakfast we had a welcome orientation with Lily, the international department coordinator and the dean from the business school. She has very kind and sweet and went over a PowerPoint presentation telling us about the school and what we could expect in the next coming days. After her presentation we went on a tour of the campus. We toured the business/media building, the medical building, and the gym. We were lucky to see some ancient artifacts in the gym, they were holding a mini exhibition with ancient Chinese tools. After walking through campus, we had lunch.

Photo of student at mini exhibition   

After lunch, we all decided to go for a walk around the surrounding area, where they had a small shopping center. The center was aligned with various restaurants, little shops, and our favorite grocery store: Carrefour. That night we had a welcome dinner where we met the university dean and had a lovely dinner in their banquet hall. Everyone was very welcoming to us and made us feel at home right away.

Photo of shopping center in China  

Later that evening, a group of us decided to go into the city and visit the Bund, a truly magnificent view to behold light up against the night sky.

It was great to have a welcome orientation and tour of the campus. It really helped us feel more at home and comfortable with the new surrounding environment. For the welcome dinner the even made us chicken nuggets so we would feel more at home. It was a simple gesture, but it showed to me that they really wanted to make us feel at ease. The campus itself is also very inviting. It was a great location too, next to a subway station that connected us to all of Shanghai. I was surprised at how clean and efficient the metro system is in Shanghai, much better than here in LA. The railway even has doors that close until the train comes to a complete stop to prevent people from falling in front of a moving train.

Photo of students with metro cards  Photo of the Bund in the evening

It was truly an unforgettable experience. It exposed us all to an unknown world in which we were able to adapt to the new culture and appreciate its rich history and customs. It also gave us greater appreciation for home and all the little comforts we take for granted that not everyone gets to have. It really had a profound impact on my personal life, seeing as it was the first time I was ever away from my daughter overnight, let alone for a couple of weeks. I learned about the importance to make time for myself and have a social life outside of my mommy circle and I also realized that she is a resilient little girl who is growing up and can handle being independent away from mom for a little while. I also definitely made a great group of new friends whom I hope to call friends forever.