First Glimpse of China

China Summer 2010
WKU Chinese Flagship Program
Monday, May 31 – Shanghai: World Expo Center
Today we went to the World Expo Center. When I first found out that we were going there I thought it was something that was always there and in one building. Wow was I wrong! I found out that it only occurs every few years and then only for six months in the chosen city, which I'm sure most people already knew anyways. I think it’s really cool that we came through Shanghai and got to experience such a neat experience. There were so many people that it was almost overwhelming at time.
We took the subway there and I was literally standing on only foot at one point because it was so packed. I’ve never really been claustrophobic but at one point the air stopped blowing and the doors were still closed and I started having weird breathing problems. Then once we got to the expo center there were ridiculously long lines and the people would literally run whenever the line moved at all. Manners weren’t much of an option. It was just a lot of pushing, shoving, and yelling.
Being in the expo center was phenomenal. Everything was beautiful and it was crazy to think that Shanghai had only built that area for this six month period and the it was almost all temporary. These beautiful buildings that other countries constructed had to be torn down in only a few months. But I can see why it is such a big deal, the place was amazing. We walked around from about 8 AM until 2 or 3 and then decided to come back to the hotel because we were all so tired from walking around all day plus we are still recovering from jet lag. Then I came up to my room and wanted to take a short one hour nap but I ended up sleeping from 4 to 9:30. Then I grabbed a snack and went back to bed. Jet lag was intense on this trip.

Thursday, June 3 - SISU, Chongqing
We are finally at the final destination at Sichuan International Studies University (SISU) in Chongqing. The rest of the Shanghai went surprisingly well. I wouldn't say that it ever got boring but there were a few times where we didn't know what to do because we didn't have a lot of time to figure out where everything was since we were only staying there for a few days.
Our flight into Chongqing yesterday was really nice. It took about two and a half hours which wasn't bad. They gave us some interesting Chinese plane food (mostly just bread stuff) and a few drinks. We then took a bus to SISU and all of the students that volunteered to help with us were SO excited to see us. It was a really nice welcome, they were all smiles. The bus ride here was breath taking. We are definitely in the mountains, more so than I expected even. There are just these beautiful high rise mountains everywhere. Not only are they off in the distance but we are also right in the middle of them. I can't wait to hike to the top and see the view of the city that everyone I talk to talks about.
We did our first English Corner tonight. English Corner is basically supposed to be a two hour time period where we as a group go out to a place called Sun Square on campus and just speak English with Chinese students. We wear bright yellow shirts that say "do you want to speak English?" in Chinese on the back of them. This was by far the coolest experience I've had in China yet. So many people came out to talk to us. They were all so eager to learn about what we're like, what America is like, and to tell us about their culture. It was absolutely amazing. I basically spoke with a group of girls the entire two hours. Their English names were Tina, Amaretto, Candy, Ann, and Tina. I actually got invited to a Journalism celebration on Sunday night by Amaretto. I agreed to go, figuring it could be a once in a lifetime chance to go to a Chinese Journalism Celebration. So that will be interesting.
I learned a lot about some of China's famous celebrations. The Dragon Boat Festival is coming up soon. It's all about a poet who was trying to reform a corrupt Chinese government but his poetry wasn't getting through to the government so he drowned himself in a river to get the attention he wanted. He was very liked among the civilians though. So now he is famous and they celebrate him by feeding fish from big boats with a head of a dragon on the front. They feed the fish so that they won't eat the poet's body which they believe to be at the bottom of the river. It's a really cool thing, and I love learning it by experiencing it. It's just such a cool experience overall, difficult at times, but totally worth it.