#caseyfeng

And that’s a wrap! Aside from some soul-crushing finals scattered throughout the week, I had a pretty eventful last week going out and wandering downtown with friends, getting the last bit of shopping done, checking a couple more boxes off, and more. So, without further ado, welcome to my last blog entry (before my final reflection).

As I’ve mentioned before, I always need a quick pick me up sometime in between my studying for finals, and in Shanghai it’s incredibly easy to do so since there are food places everywhere and fun activities within biking distance. On Monday evening before my Wednesday morning final, several friends and I went to go get all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue for only 88 RMB. This restaurant can be found in the plaza near our dorm. We ate here for the full two hours of our time, and by the end of it, I was so full I thought I couldn’t bike back to the dorms! At least I got my money’s worth, as cheap as it was.

After my final on Wednesday morning, I met up with and spent the day with an old high school friend who happened to be visiting Shanghai over the summer. We got Yun Jiao wontons for lunch on the food street across from the SJTU Siyuan Gate to campus, and then biked to what I had thought was a mall called Paradise Walk… I think I ultimately misinterpreted the directions or input the wrong location on AMap, because we ended up biking through some weird construction and traffic, landing in a mostly abandoned mall with a kids’ daycare and a few eating spots. That’s okay though, because our goal was to find the HeyTea at Paradise Walk, and there was a HeyTea in this mall as well. Afterwards, we biked back to campus, which was only a 10 minute bike ride, and then did a small tour through campus. However, the heat was getting pretty unbearable, and upon walking around the classroom building and discovering that all AC systems were shut down for the summer, we decided to just stay in the library nearby to catch up on our freshman year in college. We ended the day with some dinner at Canteen no. 2, Bibimbap!

Thursday and Friday were dedicated to shopping for more clothes and gifts for my friends back home, and this was in addition to the 20+ Taobao orders I’d placed online. On Thursday, I got my ears pierced downtown, because I’d been wanting to get double piercings since I was about 11 years old. It was so affordable and so professional at the same time, only about 194 RMB for the earrings, piercings, and the cleaning kit. For anyone wondering, it was Super Uncle Tattoo and we found the place on Xiaohongshu/rednote, and they use piercing needles for any piercings instead of the guns that places like Claire’s tend to use. I will warn you though, make sure that you dye or treat your hair at least a week before or after getting your piercings done, or you won’t be able to, as they don’t want to risk infection.

After getting my piercings done, we went back to Changle Road (for the nth time), mostly to go shopping at Basement FG, a pretty affordable clothing store that sells clothes from basic tees to intricate tops and flowy skirts. There’s a pretty nice variety of styles, and I ended up getting quite a few items on sale. There’s a nice gelato place across the street from Basement FG, so we also got some cones that were Disney themed and decorated; the flavors were also really interesting (i.e. milk tea, salt and sugar, Yuzu, and rose).

That evening, I got a late dinner with my cousin again, and we went to a local roasted kebab shop for skewers of all kinds of meat. They were all spiced to medium and were actually pretty filling even though the portions seem small. By this point in the week, I was beginning to worry that the one checked luggage I brought to China wasn’t able to hold all my shopping anymore, and so my cousin helped me order a small carry-on luggage using JingDong’s same day shipping. 

On Friday, my friends and I went to Joy City for gift shopping, and wow, was this a gift haven! There were small trinket shops everywhere, and the further up you went, the more fandom-based things were. There were K-Pop stores, anime and donghua merchandise shops, and even a whole JoJo's Bizarre Adventure pop-up! Everyone was very spirited and there were shoppers in cosplay left and right. On the upper floors, there were also a few themed photobooths.

My last days were mostly packing heavy as I tried to figure out what to bring home and what to leave at the dorms. However, that didn’t stop me from going downtown one last time to walk down Nanjing Road and see the Bund one last time (we didn’t make it to the riverfront this time, it was too crowded), and go to KTV for some late night karaoke. This was an incredible end of my time abroad in China, and I’m going to cherish these moments forever.

Sunday was filled with bittersweet goodbyes and promises to see each other again in Ann Arbor. Every now and then, we’d gather at the front gates of Nanyang Beiyuan, our dorm, to send people off, until it was our turn to leave for the airport. Thanks for following me on this trip and all the chaotic moments within it!

Casey Feng

Computer Science

I feel like I say this every time, but this is it. As we push into finals week, it can sometimes feel hard to stay motivated and continue persevering, but it’s important to recognize the progress and effort we’ve put in every week prior! Because my past week was focused on studying for my first final here at SJTU, this update is shorter and will recap a trip I made downtown and another one from earlier in the program.

Walking Downtown & Nanjing Road

One thing I love about summer nights is that walking outside is really refreshing and pleasant, especially because the weather isn’t too cool, but also isn’t too hot. It’s also even better that Shanghai is a really safe and secure city, and it isn’t too uncomfortable to go biking or walking around at night with a couple of friends. I tend to go on a stroll by the riverside right outside our dorms to clear my head and reset when I get tired of studying.

For similar reasons, I found myself walking downtown one night after my first final, as I haven’t been in the heart of the city in awhile. The building lights are super creative everywhere, and the gardens and pretty architecture all around make strolls a rather insightful experience.

I also wanted to share a bit about Nanjing Road, with its variety of street food, restaurants, luxury stores, and department stores. I believe that whatever price range you seek, there’s something out here for everyone to look at! During our first week here, several people bought cheap(er) phones here in order to use the SIM card that holds our Chinese phone numbers, while another group went shopping in a massive mall with intimidating intersecting escalators.

The Bund

It seems we came full circle, because one of my first nights in Shanghai, back when I hardly knew where I was going, I visited Nanjing Road and The Bund. This is a must see if you visit Shanghai, and it’s one of the top tourist attractions here. The Bund itself is very busy and crowded, however, because everyone is rushing to take photos by the water. I would totally recommend visiting this place at night, because there are lights on the Oriental Pearl Tower that glow and change colors at night, adding a little more flavor to your photos!

We also stopped by this bar called “Bar Time,” which had a nice selection of fruit wines and cocktails at reasonable prices. It was my first time at a bar like this, especially in Shanghai, so it was nice to sit in a dimly lit environment and just chat with some friends. From the past few months, I’ve gathered that a lot of the drinks here, such as the teas, fruit drinks, etc, are incredibly sweet in China! This is perfect for me and my sweet tooth.

Going home from Nanjing Road is incredibly convenient because there are plenty of subway stations right at the heart of the pedestrian street. However, this means it’s still somewhat of a walk away from The Bund, about 10-15 minutes depending on which stations to take. I believe the only constraint about the subways is that they close relatively early, with the last trains going from 10:30-11:30 pm, in comparison to some trains in major cities of the United States. Thus, staying out late downtown can become a little risky if you plan to take the subway home. It’s still pretty cheap to DiDi, being only about 90 RMB (about 13 USD), but it’s always better to save!

I remember there was one night where my friends and I were running, along with about 20 other strangers in the train station, to catch the last line 15 train, which would leave at around 11:10pm. The line 15 train is the most common train we take from NYBY, because one of the train stations is right next to our dorms.

That’s all for this week’s blog. Stay tuned for my final blog and reflection!

Casey Feng

Computer Science

I can’t believe we’re already at finals week! Earlier in the summer, we voted to visit Chengdu for our last JI tour, so this past weekend, we flew there for a three day trip from Friday to Sunday. It was a really eventful trip, with our activities beginning as early as 8 AM and ending as late as 11 PM! However, the first day was definitely the busiest: our flight was at 8 AM, which meant that we had a meeting time of 5:30 AM to depart for the airport. To be honest, I was so scared of oversleeping my alarms that I ended up just staying up the entire night with a friend, working on some homework so that we wouldn’t have to be as stressed during the trip.

Then, we began our flight to Chengdu, which also came with a small breakfast. 2.5 hours later, we finally arrived in Chengdu, piling into a shuttle bus to head towards the hotel. The hotel was very nice, with two separate twin beds and a couch! 

Courtesy of Expedia

Downtown - Kuanzhai Alley, People’s Park, and IFS mall

After checking into our hotel, I decided to spend the afternoon resting in the hotel after our very early departure from Shanghai, while also finishing up some homework that was due that evening.

After that, my friend and I decided to visit Kuanzhai Alley, which is a famous street in Chengdu known for its street food, panda themed shops, and well-preserved Qing Dynasty streets and courtyards! The streets were fragrant with the smell of sizzling chili side dishes and sweet floral teas, so of course I had to stop for some free samples and a meal or two. They even had peppercorn flavored ice cream! First, I got Tang You Guo Zi, which are these Sichuan sweet fried rice balls, and they were both crispy and chewy at the same time, coated with a sweet umami sauce. We also got two types of spicy noodles! I got Liang Fen, which is this cold jelly-like noodle side dish with lots of spice (of course), and my friend got spicy cold noodles! Because it’s Sichuan, everything here is spicy, except for maybe the desserts, which are very sweet!

After a bit of walking, we entered one of the many panda themed stores to go gift shopping for some friends back home, and then turned the corner into a sandalwood auction and exhibit. The exhibit was in one of the old Qing Dynasty courtyards and buildings, so it was also really nice to see the interior architecture of those times.

After walking down Kuanzhai Alley, we decided to walk around Chengdu People’s Park, and on our way we also discovered panda themed Hello Bikes! These are likely unique to the region, so of course we had to try them out. At People’s Park, there were more gift shops and groups of dance groups performing casually in the middle of the park. There were also sit-down restaurants, but we were honestly pretty full from all the samples and street food by this point. 

During this day, it began to rain, so a lot of the streetside markets in the park began to close shop. We also took this as a sign to start heading towards our next stop, which luckily was indoors: IFS Shopping Mall in Chengdu. We originally planned to bike to the mall, but luckily there’s a subway station right next to the park, so we started heading there instead. On the way to the subway, we passed by a food truck that had a small crowd around it. It was selling moldy tofu, which I’ve never had in my life before, so we bought a portion to try it! Again, it was numbing spice, but it wasn’t that spicy at all. It had an interesting crispy texture and flavor from the fuzzy parts that were fried, but still pretty delicious!

While we didn’t end up purchasing any clothing, we did end the day pretty satisfied with how productive we were despite running on about 1 hour of uninterrupted sleep. Onto the next!

Day 2: Du Fu Thatched Cottage, Sanxingdui museum, hotpot, Chunxi pedestrian street

The next morning, our first stop was the Du Fu Thatched Cottage, which turned out to be a lot larger than I originally expected. The actual cottage and nearby pond are further into the park and we almost completely missed it! But there are also old ruins, a museum, and a few gardens.

Afterwards, we grabbed a quick meal of more spicy beef noodles, before heading towards the Sanxingdui Museum. This museum showcases a ton of different artifacts, sacrificial hole excavation sites, and has a whole room full of the famous Sanxingdui masks. I didn’t know there would be so many! There are a few exhibits in this museum, and we managed to spend 2-3 hours looking at all the exhibits.

This was the last JI organized activity of the day, so after being dropped off at our hotel, we were all ready to eat again. Tonight, we decided to get Sichuan style hot pot, and even though we only got “less spicy” for our soup base, the spice was still pretty strong, so much so that we didn’t even taste the numbing part of the peppercorns because the actual spice was just so much greater! Of course, after our meal, we had to freshen our palates with some good old Mixue ice cream, which is only 2 RMB!

With our ice cream in hand, we took a walk down Chunxi pedestrian street to digest our dinner and dessert. We passed the giant 3D screen, a dance show from a balcony window, and a lot of street vendors selling toys and electronics. Finally, we all got an egg tart from the pedestrian street to finish off the evening at 11 pm, and that was day 2!

Day 3: Chengdu Panda breeding research base and heading home!

Our third day began with everyone piling onto the bus with our luggages, because we had checked out by now. Today was solely reserved to visit the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and we had the whole day to ourselves! There are 5 major sections of the park, and I didn’t even realize it until I finished the first section and checked the map, only to discover that we spent half the day exploring the first section! That’s okay though, because there were a lot of panda exhibits to look at, both baby pandas, giant pandas, and red pandas! There were also a generous amount of gift shops, so of course I had to pick up some more gifts for my friends back home, and I also got a cute red panda keychain that I hope to use soon!

Finally, we headed back to the front of the park via sightseeing cart, which shorted our hour long walk to only about 20 minutes! Right where we got off the cart, there was a free photobooth to take photos at, so we also collected some souvenirs there! Then, we were headed back to the shuttle bus to go to the airport. This time, the flight only served a snack and drinks, both of which were pretty good too! It also helped put off the hunger, because by the time we arrived back at NYBY, it was already 12 am!! Either way, it was a day well spent, and I’m so glad to have seen the pandas in person!

Casey Feng

Computer Science

Wow, time flies! This last week in particular came and went like the rain here in Shanghai, which for some reason, is so incredibly strong but also super brief. It will be pouring and thundering and flooding for approximately 30 minutes, and then the sky will break and it will be sunny for the rest of the day. I kind of prefer it this way though, because as unpredictable as it is, if I’m wandering around downtown, I can always just take cover in a department store or cafe until it ends.

After a solid week of what I like to call “recharging,” AKA staying in the comfort of my room hosting movie nights and chatting with my friends late at night. I also went on a few excursions to various malls for shopping, trying new drinks, etc. Today, I decided to take a solo walk around the Minhang SJTU campus. These past 10 weeks, I’ve been eyeing different sections of the campus that I haven’t visited before, but due to the heavy heat, I didn’t really get a chance to until this week.

The weather today was moderate: not too stuffy or humid, and not too hot. In the late afternoon, the air was cooling off, and biking through campus offered a nice breeze. My two main visits today were the main campus lawn, which has the SJTU sign and a pond right next to it, and the botanical garden. However, granted that there are rivers and ponds all over campus, the entire campus turns out to be worth visiting for a calm afternoon walk!

Around this time, a lot of families were also on their afternoon walk/outing, so I crossed paths with a lot of small children and their parents, and through this, I discovered a lot of playground-adjacent structures! 

I also discovered that the botanical garden is much larger than I originally anticipated. One of the entrances begins on a pedestrian walkway, with trees, benches, and rivers flowing beside it. There’s even a nice garden pagoda/pavilion along the walkway, and there are even more deeper into the botanical garden! I remember biking through this walkway during my first day here, not even noticing it was the entrance to the botanical garden! 

After crossing a bridge off the side of the garden, over a river covered in blooming lotuses, I entered what was basically the beginning of the botanical garden. Along a muddy river bank, several kids were crouched down in the water and scooping at something. Upon peering into the bucket on the path I was walking, I realized they were digging for small river crabs! I didn’t even know there were crabs in the river, but I suppose I learn something new each week.

I wandered around the garden’s paths for nearly an hour, and still don’t think I went through even half of the garden! That’s because for every few meters on the main path, there’s another smaller path that breaks off into another section of the dense greenery. So, here are some photos I captured on this walk, with bridges, ponds, and more roofed resting areas.

After leaving the botanical gardens, I realized that the second main entrance was right next to the main classroom buildings that I have class in every day! I noticed the gate in the past and made a note to one day visit, but I didn’t realize that the same botanical garden by the pedestrian walkway had extended all the way here! Luckily, because I was so close to the classrooms and libraries, there was no shortage of bikes, and I was able to quickly bike to the main grass lawn on the other side of campus. Here are a few more photos of the endless rivers on campus; many of them have pretty large clouds of dragonflies zooming about, but as long as they aren’t mosquitoes, I think they’re all pretty. As mentioned before, many other people are on their late afternoon outing, and so we were all strolling and taking photos of the lakeside or the sunset.

Thus ends my calming walk around campus. Thanks for tagging along! Stay tuned for next week’s update.

Casey Feng

Computer Science

After returning from Beijing on Monday, the rest of my week has been pretty calm and relaxing! On Wednesday, my friends and I held a movie night in the dorms, and on Friday, I went downtown for the first time in a while (due to midterms) to find small gifts for friends and family back home. I was also able to buy a long denim maxi skirt near South Shaanxi Road, and then wore that skirt the following day when we went on a JI-organized trip to the historic water town, Wuzhen. As small as the town was, it was incredibly scenic with many things to do, such that we ended up spending one whole eventful day there!

Having spent a good chunk of my monthly budget in Beijing last week, I’m really grateful that this trip was almost entirely covered by the SJTU-JI in cost, travel expenses, and activities. This helped me seek out more experiences once we were actually in the town, such as in food, treats, and drinks.

Bus and Boat Ride:

At the bright and early hour of 8 am, we all gathered around the front of the Nanyang Beiyuan dorms and climbed onto a city tour bus to head towards Wuzhen. I believe the total duration of the bus ride was 1-2 hours, but to be completely honest, I don’t remember, nor was I keeping track of time. Instead, I took advantage of the traveling accommodations, early morning quietness, and reclining bus seats to sleep a little longer so that when we entered the museum gates, I was at peak wakefulness.

There are multiple ways to get to the main streets of Wuzhen, and once you arrive, there are also countless paths to take in exploring the historic stores, workshops, and restaurants. The way the JI decided we take was via row boat. The ride was about 15 minutes down the river and gave us a good preview of the whole town. Every building had ivy weaving up and around its walls, and the paths were lush with willow trees and flower bushes. If you stuck your head out of the boat’s windows, you could see schools of tiny black fish swimming alongside the row boat!

Chagee drinks, lotuses, and lunch

During our boat ride through the city, one of the wooden buildings along the river had a familiar red Chagee logo that we’d seen and visited all throughout our past two months here in China. So, of course we had to make our first stop there once we got off the row boat! This Wuzhen Chagee shop also featured a lotus-flavored drink specific to this region, and it tasted just like roasted lotus seeds. Also, whenever I traveled out of Shanghai, it was never difficult to find a patch of lotus flowers and water lilies, especially as we move towards the heart of lotus season—Wuzhen was no different. After a few minutes of wandering, we reached a pond of blooming lotus flowers and growing lotus pods. Nearby, there was also a soy sauce production plant with bamboo baskets and containers showcasing fermenting soybeans, and also rows of streaming silk fabrics and ribbons, which boasted the town's famous silks and dyeing workshops.

Afterwards, our rather large group of about 12 people split into two groups to make finding lunch spots easier (most restaurants tend to only fit parties of at most 5 or 6). There were a lot of sit down restaurants where we could eat steamed fish and braised pork, but there were also food stalls specializing in stinky tofu, sour plum soup, and braised pork noodles. We stopped by a noodle shop that served pretty large servings, so we ended up sharing one bowl between two people.

Teatime and Rain

The weather was pretty moderate throughout the entire day, but we still took out our umbrellas to combat the sun. Originally, we were warned about rainy weather, which was why we brought them, and we almost thought that it would rain at all while we were in Wuzhen. However, around 2pm, as we were searching for dessert shops and tea houses, it began to pour! Luckily, there was a nice tea and dessert house with outdoor, roofed seating by the river, making it a wonderful place to stop, refresh, and watch the boats swim by as we waited for the rain to stop. We ordered a pot of jasmine tea to share, and it came with tiny Shaobing biscuits to eat. Even with our large part of 6, we still weren’t able to finish all the tea by the time we had to depart for a fan and bookmark making workshop.

Fan Painting!

This workshop was a fun and exciting way to end the trip, and was organized by the JI as part of the tour. We started off by painting fabric fans using watercolor, and despite working with the same designs, everyone ended up with very different paintings! The workshop also provided us with dried pressed flowers and a laminated sheet to make bookmarks with.

After this, we began to make our way back to the tour bus. This time, we took a scenic bridge route, walking past bridges and rivers we didn’t explore before. Surprisingly, even in the late afternoon with a low hanging sun, there were still many people walking towards the park’s entrance. I hope one day, I’ll visit one of these water towns from sunset to evening, watching the building lights turn on and taking in the serenity of the night time. For now though, I’m content with the nap I was grateful to have (again) on the way back to the dorms.

Casey Feng

Computer Science

This weekend, to celebrate the end of our midterm season, some of my friends and I planned a short 3 day trip to Beijing. This will be my first overnight trip outside of Beijing without my family!

Day 1: Yonghe Gong Temple, Temple of Heaven, Roast Duck, Summer Palace, Sanlitun

Our train arrived at Beijing South Station at around 11 pm on Thursday night, so we took our time to settle into our hotel room. The next morning, right before the heat began to pick up, our first stop was at the nearby Yonghe Gong Temple, at which the doors opened to the public just a little before we arrived. The line was long, but moved quickly. Inside the gates sit a large complex consisting of various layered buildings. Each room held different statues of Buddha, and complementary incense was given for visitors to offer in prayer. What a tranquil and peaceful start to our weekend!

Next, as the heat was picking up, we headed towards the Temple of Heaven, which actually has a series of gardens and pathways to wander through before reaching the main attraction. By this point, it was past 1 pm, and so we decided to eat at a Beijing roast duck restaurant near our hotel and grab some Chagee (as always)!

After a break (food coma) back at the hotel, we took a train ride to the Summer Palace. Now, the sun was beginning to set, and the last of the heat was starting to fade into a cooler breeze. But! That didn’t mean that we were still sweating buckets as we wandered along the cobbled path behind the main palace. In fact, we originally thought the palace near the front was the entire palace itself, until we peeked behind a back alley and discovered a whole other entrance to the other attractions. Because it was later in the day, most of the museums, tours, and rowboats on the lake had begun to close shop, so the Summer Palace was emptier and more open to roam around in.

We ended the day in Sanlitun, a shopping area near our hotel. The basement of one of the malls there has a section dedicated to vintage, or antique-esque items! While we didn’t purchase anything here, it was still fun to window shop and try on the different sample items in the stores, such as different glasses frames from Gentle Monster. We did however, have a late dinner at an Izakaya down the street, followed by us trying a few drinks at two different bars, both fostering mellow, calm vibes.

Day 2: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Beijing Art Museum, Beijing Hot Pot, Jingshan Park, Wang Fu Jing Shopping Area

The next morning, I headed on the metro towards the nearby Tiananmen Square to meet up with friends as we toured the local area. Pro tip: the crowds pick up at around 8:30, so try to get there beforehand! Otherwise, you will end up waiting to get through 2-3 security checks for at least an hour.

Somehow, we managed to secure day-of Forbidden City tickets, which usually isn’t possible (so try to plan ahead a couple weeks!), and spend the rest of the morning exploring the layers upon layers of palaces, gardens, and halls that lived within the walls of the Forbidden City. If you turn left or right immediately after entering the main entrance gates of the Forbidden City, there will be a section of quieter gardens and walkways that not as many tourists will venture to, and there may also be a pottery exhibit!

After stopping for a round of card games to cool off by the museum cafe, we finished our rounds through the side palaces in the left and right side of the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, which housed the Empress in the Ming dynasty. Then we made a quick visit through the Imperial Garden, where various pavillions stood as resting spots. This was also where gift shops and drink stands were located, so you could replenish with water or ice cream to combat the heat.

We also made a quick visit around the multi-floored exhibits of the Beijing Art Museum, which displayed works of art from different regions of Asia, as well as a Chinese calligraphy section. Here are some highlights, as well as a funny display of someone’s calligraphy homework!

Then, we biked to a nearby food street to have Beijing hotpot for lunch! The pot is shaped interestingly, with a cone-shaped chimney near the top. That aside, it tasted like any good old hot pot here in Shanghai, with a nice sauce bar and even free ice cream if you leave a review.

Jingshan park and Wangfujing Street were our last two stops of the day, and traveling between the two was my first time riding a bus in China! Using Alipay is incredibly convenient for public transportation, as you can create a virtual card with just a tap and no additional cost! Jingshan park had very beautiful views and garden-like plants scattering the entire park; when you climb to the top of the park, you can get a scenic view of the Forbidden City and see just how many separate palaces and halls were hidden within its tall walls. When we visited Wangfujing, on the other hand, we stayed mostly indoors and wandered the shops within the APM mall. This shopping street is more of a modern ending to a day of traditional architecture and art, and neatly wraps up day 2 of this trip!

Day 3: Great Wall of China

To get to the Great Wall before the crowds and heat, we were meant to get up and leave the hotel by 7:30, but that soon stretched into 9 am. However, today the weather was rather tolerable, and with an umbrella and determination, we made our way through 5 watchtowers of the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. By the last wall, the steps had grown incredibly steep, and I was almost worried I’d slip and fall down the stairs! But alas, I reached the top of the last watchtower in the area, and began to make a quick trek back to the base of the mountain, where souvenir shops and restaurants sat. The ticket overall was 180 yuan, and it was a student ticket package containing a shuttle bus both ways, cable car both ways, and entry ticket.

One More Night

Due to some unforeen travel circumstances (we missed our train… but luckily, could exchange for tomorrow afternoon), we opted to stay one more night in Beijing, with plans to stay indoors and catch up on the weekend’s homework, and maybe briefly explore the local garden.

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s update from Beijing!

Casey Feng

Computer Science

While I do have a somewhat stressful midterm this coming Wednesday, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Suzhou with my friends this weekend under the slightly cooler summer weather (which, granted, is still very very hot)! Follow me along as we explore this busy district of Suzhou, full of pretty rivers, gardens, and street food.

The Train Ride

The city of Suzhou is only a short 30 minute train ride from Shanghai station, so it actually ends up taking longer to get to Shanghai station from the dorm than it does to get to Suzhou! To maximize the time we spend exploring the town’s attractions and shops, we booked tickets at 8 am and return rides at 10:56 pm. This means, if we travel by subway to the Shanghai Railway Station, we’d leave the dorms at 6 am!

Due to some scheduling issues (oversleeping a couple alarms), I ended up rushing onto the train just minutes before the train left for Suzhou! What a close call. Onwards!

The Humble Administrator's Garden

By the time we got to Suzhou, the sun was already shining heavily onto us. Luckily, the weather projected rainstorms later in the afternoon, so we started to use our umbrellas to block out the sun. We wanted to roam the famous gardens before it got even warmer, so this was our first stop! The landscape was similar to the Yu Yuan gardens of downtown Shanghai, but there was more focus on the rivers, water lilies, and lotuses. Throughout the entire garden, there were large pots housing newly blooming lotuses with all their bright pinks and white petals!

The garden also had a section dedicated to different varieties of bonsai trees! This section didn’t have as many lotuses and rivers that the gardens are known for, so the space was more open, calm, and quieter. It was a really nice break from the crowd, and also had a decent amount of shade to rest in!

Strolling the Streets of Pingjiang and Shantang Street

Here in Suzhou, the cities tend to take on a more historical appearance in terms of the architecture, style, and practices. Thus, a lot of visitors like to dress up in traditional garments such as hanfu and take photos near the stone bridges, by the rivers, and in the alleyways. It’s also along these streets that a lot of tourist-focused businesses offer photography and dress-up services. In addition to these services, the street is covered in jewelry stores, drink stands, souvenir shops, and stationary stores. I got a cup of fresh mango sago for 10 yuan at the beginning of the street, and it was a wonderful way to combat the sweltering heat!

Suzhou is also known for its Biluochun tea and local wine, so we stopped by and picked up a couple jars after taste-testing them; we even got to choose which of the store’s many jars we wanted to hold the sweet wine!

From these hours of wandering down the long streets of Pingjiang and Shantang Street, my friends and I collectively bought an assortment of fragrances, keychains, magnets, and postcards (lots of them!). I also found a nice metallic paperweight meant to hold down thin calligraphy papers—a gift for my dad.

Suzhou Art Museum

As the streets turned from collectibles into street food, my friends and I decided to subway to the Suzhou Art Museum to check out the new Chinese oil painting exhibit. We also took this as an opportunity to rest a little in the air-conditioned exhibits. We also had a little fun remaking some of the paintings in the museum!

Local Food

After the Art Museum, we headed back towards the main streets of Suzhou for an early dinner. Because we didn’t have a proper sit-down lunch, we opted to go to two separate restaurants to try a larger variety of Suzhou cuisine. We first settled into a family-style restaurant, ordering plates of wood ear and pork; eel stirfry; shrimp; and THREE plates of squirrel fish! Squirrel fish, as pictured below, is a style of preparing Mandarin fish: the fish is cut into “spike” shapes, then deep-fried and coated in a sweet and sour tangy sauce. This is a popular dish originating in Suzhou, so it was a must-try while we were here.

Afterwards, we went to a noodle shop and each had a fill of Suzhou style soup noodles. The noodles were springy, savory, and had a really rich yet pleasant flavor. It wasn’t heavy at all, even after our feast at the squirrel fish restaurant!

Wandering

As the sun set, the streets seemed to only grow even more busy. Crowds of people rushed towards the many bridges over the water canal to take photos. And just as we thought we escaped the forecasted rainstorm, as we were walking down the street towards a Chagee store and to head towards our next stop, it began to rain. Slowly and lightly at first that we almost didn’t notice it, to full downpour with lightning and thunder. 

We huddled together as a group, walking towards a mall plaza to take cover from the rainstorm outside. It was a good thing we did, as we discovered some more cute magnets and pins to take back as souvenirs from this trip. And before we knew it, the clock hit 10 pm and we began our short subway ride back to Suzhou station to head home. Thus concludes our long day just out of Shanghai! I hope to visit even more cities nearby in the future, as we are now past the halfway point of my time here! Thanks for tuning in to my adventures this week. More to come, now that midterms are wrapping up (finally).

Casey Feng

Computer Science

We’re nearing the halfway point of my time here in Shanghai! I’m beginning to sound like a broken record when I say it’s close to midterm season, but this time it’s actually happening! My first midterm takes place in two days, and I'm a little nervous (because I’m not fully prepared for it) and a little excited for midterms to pass by and leave me in one piece (hopefully). After all, I have a pretty large list of places I want to visit and activities I want to take part in, before I head back to the states. This week was still a quiet week of studying, dotted with half day or night adventures with my friends. 

Day Trip to a Lacquerware Workshop

While I’m not enrolled in the “Intro to Chinese Culture” class here at the JI, the teacher Viva Du extended an invitation to the program to join the class field trip to a quaint lacquerware workshop. Because I had embarked on no other trips this week, I tagged along, and had a ton of fun sanding down painted wooden bangles to reveal thin gold designs, as well as marble-painting a paper fan to take home! 

The workshop also housed an adorable outdoor cat that frequented the fields of the neighborhood, which reminds me of how many cats I’ve seen these past weeks. It’s a small yet incredibly bright part of my day when I stumble across the many cats in Shanghai. There are two that basically live near my classrooms: an orange cat and a black tuxedo cat.

KTV Nights and Going Blue in Shanghai!

That evening, my friends and I went back to KTV for another karaoke night! It's overall really cheap (around $3-6 USD per person, 20-40 yuan depending on how many people), and you book one room for up to four hours. They have a lot of English songs too! We realized shortly after our first karaoke session that we missed a lot of classics and songs that we needed to sing together eventually, such as Mr. Brightside by The Killers. Here’s a short clip!

Future plans:

Some new goals I have include visiting the Shanghai Aquarium sometime in the next couple of weeks, as I have a strong fascination with jellyfish! My appreciation for these creatures peaked in high school, but I still really enjoy watching them float around in the water. I also just enjoy the serene vibes that aquariums tend to provide!

Some other small goals I can think of off the top of my head include getting my ears pierced again (because as mentioned time and time again, things are so much more affordable here in China!) and hopefully finding and collecting some great travel gifts for my friends and family back home (such as perfume, or scarves, or charms).

I feel as if I haven’t been venturing into the city as often as I did the first few weeks I was here, and I hope to resume that level of activity so I can absorb and learn more about Chinese culture, and practice my Mandarin speaking and reading skills! I still hope to visit more temples and gardens, such as the Jing'an Temple and Jade Buddha Temple, and I also hope to travel outside of Shanghai on a self-organized trip sometime soon.

Casey Feng

Computer Science