#ipeshanghai

Okay 8 weeks in let's get down to business, how much money have I spent and where. First of all, there is the tuition which was base of $5,205 which includes housing and tuition for 3 months in addition to various trips that were planned by IPE. Through the trips, they likely spend a decent amount of money. However, I got a scholarship for $3,500 which most people in the program got if not more. The most pricy part of the program was probably the plane tickets which was approximately $2,000 for a round trip. Since coming to China, I’ve spent ~12,000RMB (1,500 USD). Here is a breakdown of my other expenses and how far everything can go.

In the first week, I spent a lot of my money on various dorm necessities like toilet paper, trashbags, and miscellaneous expenses. In total, it added up to approximately $300RMB (40USD) which is fairly cheap for all the little purchases that added up. Here is the rest of the breakdown for the past 8 weeks.

Utilities/Essentials: 504 RMB (68.85USD)

This includes hot water which we need to pay for separately which isn’t too bad since it is so hot I don’t end up using the hot water much and this also includes laundry which I do often because the hot weather makes me sweat through all my clothes at a lighting pace.

Food: 2043.18 RMB (279.12 USD)

This is crazy cheap considering I only eat out and I don’t pay attention to my food budget whatsoever (before I decided this blog was going to be a cost report). However, this is just my actual meals, I summed my snacks/drinks separately.

Snacks/Drinks: 1469 RMB (209.86 USD)

How have I spent almost the same amount on snacks and drinks as real food? I am ashamed but also it is so easy to buy snacks here and there when there is a convenience store everywhere (including in our dorm) and each snack is approximately 1 USD but those costs can add up for sure.

Shopping: 2964.3 RMB (404.92 USD)

It is sooo easy to spend so much on clothes when everything here is so cheap and cute. I also have been buying gifts and souvenirs for friends and family back home but I think I definitely need to reel in my shopping addiction.

Experiences: 1261.56 RMB (180.14 USD)

This includes fees and transportation for miscellaneous activities such as watching Inside Out 2 (which was really good), doing an escape room, going to a gaming cafe, or exploring downtown. This I would say was all 100% worth it.

Solo Trip: 3290 RMB (449.45 USD)

A few weeks ago, I went on a 4-day solo trip around Shanghai to Hangzhou and Nanjing. I ended up spending 449.45 USD for the train tickets which were approximately 120 RMB (17 USD) each and for the hotel rooms which were 340 RMB (48 USD) per night. Although, my friend who took a solo trip to Chongqing only spent 150 RMB on a hotel so it can definitely vary a lot. It was definitely worth the experience and you can definitely solo travel for even less money too!

Hopefully this helps put in perspective what studying abroad means in regards to money. To be honest, I have not been the most careful with money, because my parents have money in RMB that they won’t be using anytime soon. Regardless, hopefully my breakdown was helpful!

See ya next week!

Erin Xia

Mechanical Engineering

Shanghai JiaoTong University is a big campus. In order to reasonably get around, you really need to either have a bike, or heavily rely on rental bikes which are found just anywhere. Either option works with owning your own bike being the more convenient of the two. But this semester I have had very bad luck with relation to bikes; something that I now call a curse. For reasons that I will now list:

Exactly a week after buying my first bike, it had gone unexpectedly missing. I had ridden it to the subway station not far from campus, and upon returning late that night, it was gone. I talked to a police officer there who was interview some other people who had gotten their bikes stolen and he said to check at the city impound. And if it was not there, to come and file a report at the police station. But the city impound was very far away and the price of a taxi there only to maybe find my bike prompted me to give up on that idea. Maybe this was the beginning of the curse, that I had abandoned my first bike so recklessly. But I can’t say. However to differentiate my bike from all the other bikes, I had put duck tape on the handlebars with the words “我的，不是你的” translating to “Mine, not yours” which very well have provided impetus for someone to steal that bike. 

I used rental bikes for a bit after that, feeling sad that my new bike would be so heartlessly be torn away from me, until I felt that the inconvenience of finding a rental bike every time I wanted to go somewhere to be too much. I bought a second hand bike for half as much as my first one, which in hindsight maybe I should have done first. But not 3 days had passed until I got into a bike accident with that bike. I was riding along, when a person a little ahead of me on my right decided they wanted to turn left; she didn’t see I was there and we collided. I scraped both my knees up pretty badly (I would include a picture, but it doesn’t look good). She got right back up and rode off, and I did my best to do the same. Later I went to the school clinic and got some iodine spread on me, which was fun. 

To summarize the rest: I had a tire pop twice, I accidentally went to fast and ran into some of the pylons on roads that are supposed to prevent cars from driving on some roads, another time I hit a speed bump badly (and fell). Recently I was coming out of an intersection and into a person who decided to stop in said intersection, busting open my front tire, picture below.

And lastly, probably most devastating, I was riding down a sidewalk one night, going arguably faster than I should have, when I hit a curb thing that extended into the sidewalk. It’s one of those concrete rings that goes around trees, but there was no tree there, and it extended out into the sidewalk, and it was dark, so it blended in. Needless to say, I hit it and fell down. But when I fell, I landed on my phone which was in my pocket, and completely cracked the screen, to the point where is was no longer usable. Living in China for the past 3 months now, I have come to realize that having a phone is essential to paying for things, coordinating with people, and getting around. And I had just broke mine. In the next couple days I was able to get another phone, but after this event, I decided that I needed to stop using bikes. If you’ve been counting, this has made 8 bike related accidents this year. If I’m anything like a cat, then I have all but 1 life left, and after that night, I vowed not to use a bike unless it was absolutely necessary.

Though it sounds bad, I don’t necessarily mind walking everywhere nowadays. The campus is big, but it’s relaxing to walk so much. It’s been annoying that these past few days have all been raining, but I’m glad that my routine is no longer just about getting from a to b but also about what’s in between. Related to that, I’d be remiss not to mention that Shanghai had its first snow today; it was the kind of snow that melted when it hit the ground, but it still built up in some places. Everyone and their mother was taking pictures, myself included.

Stay tuned for more: TALES OF SHANGHAI!

Braden Saltus

Nuclear Engineering

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

For our last travel destination during our program here in China, we visited Chongqing, which had amazing skylines, spicy food, and unique architecture. As we wrap up the summer semester, all I can think about is how wonderful it was to come to Shanghai for this study abroad opportunity, and I will reflect on the entirety in a post coming soon. Hope you all enjoy this video recollecting our experience in Chongqing!

Photos:

Albert Sheng

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

Hi everybody! I can't believe it's already the penultimate week of this program, and I know I'm going to miss it as soon as it ends. But on the brighter side, this week we took an organized trip to Chengdu to tour places like Dujiangyan, Du Fu Thatched Cottage, Sanxingdui Museum, and the Giant Panda Research Base! Hope you all enjoy this video of our experience!

Photos:

Albert Sheng

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

Hey everyone! This week me and my friend Jason decided to bike from our dorm to near Shanghai's city center to an area called Xujiahui. In this video, you can see how well bike lanes and paths for electric scooters are made, and that everything is very accessible even without a car. This is a big change coming from the US where it's much more difficult to get to places without driving. Hope you guys enjoy this insight into Shanghai, and two more videos should be coming out soon!

Albert Sheng

Computer Science