Summer China Trip 2017 (Part 1/2)

It has been way too long since I last posted, and a lot of cool China-related things have been happening recently. The most exciting, in my opinion, was actually going to China two weeks ago! I will be posting about some of the trip's highlights in two parts, because there is just too much to share about in one post. So bear with me!

But First...
A quick overview of the trip: I went on a two week trip to China through the Confucious Institute at Kennesaw State University. I went with a group of 18 people in total, 16 teenagers, and 2 adult chaperones. We spent about three days in Shanghai, then traveled to Yangzhou for a week, and finally took an overnight  train to Beijing for three days of sight-seeing. The housing and food accommodations were incredible,( I think we were definitely being pampered by the program!).

Okay, moving on...
Our group's leg-cramping flight journey ended at the Shanghai airport, 8:30 pm. There we met our Shanghai tour guide, as well as our contact from Yangzhou Univeristy. We then took a 45 minute bus ride into Shangahi.

A very poor picture of Shanghai from the bus window as we drove in 

At this point all of us were feeling the exhaustion from our 16+ hours of flight and travel. However, once we arrived it at our hotel in Shanghai, everyone perked up at the promise of wifi, showers, and beds. We were each assigned a roommate from the group and a key card, and settled in for the night.

First Full Day
The next morning my room mate and I went down and had breakfast. There was everything from scrambled eggs to sweet white fungus soup and fried rice.

Fried rice, eggs, stir-fried cabbage,
a roll, and white fungus soup 

After breakfast began a day packed with touring Shanghai. our group jumped on our private bus, and immediately went to the Shanghai Museum.

We had only an hour to explore four floors of galleries, and were commanded to stay in groups of three. Our trio made the mistake of spending thirty minutes on one floor (haha, oops) so we blazed through the rest of the floors, taking as many pictures as possible.

Area we ate lunch in

Lunch!

Afterwards, we had lunch in an area that had much fewer skyscrapers and a lot more old Chinese architecture.

My favorite part of the day was when we visited the Bund, the famous waterfront area of Shanghai. You can't tell from the picture, but every building basically had a full on light show playing on its surface. The lights changed colors, and even patterns on the outside of the buildings.

The Bund

And that concluded my first full day in China. The next morning, we left for Yangzhou University on a five hour bus ride (So read my next post to hear more!)