Berichte von 06/2013

07Juni
2013

the last day

Hello everyone,

it´s hard to believe, but my 4 months in Shanghai have come to an end. Tomorrow night, I will be heading for the airport and say goodbye to Shanghai, China and a lot of special people I had the pleasure of meeting here. My bags are packed and luckily, everything fit. As one last thank you for reading my blog, I want to share an essay with you that I had to write for one of my classes. It is entitled "Shanghai Impressions" and is a summary of my stay here in Shanghai. I hope you will enjoy reading this one last recap of my stay and I want to thank you very much for thinking about me while I wasn´t around in Germany. I hope to see all of you very soon!

 

Until then take care of yourselves,

Marie

 

 

"Shanghai Impressions"

I come from a very small town in Germany, so when I caught a first glimpse at Shanghai while landing at Pudong Airport, I immediately knew that the next four months would be nothing like I had ever experienced before. Since it was my first time in Asia, I was immediately overwhelmed with the impressions that came upon me at the airport. I remember being overwhelmed by all the words in Chinese characters and feeling a little lost, because I had never before been to a country in which I did not speak the local language at least a little bit. And most of all, I remember the little electric device at the immigration desk, that asked me to rate the immigration officer´s politeness on a scale with smileys. I was impressed and I should continue to feel this way for quite a while.

 

Right on my way from the airport to my new home I knew: Shanghai is different. Although I had been to bigger cities in Germany and the United States before, I was not to the least extent prepared for Shanghai traffic. Being a German, I am used to obeying to rules and regulations, which, frankly speaking, does not seem to be the case in Shanghai. The use of seatbelts included. I have to confess, I was scared. But, while back then the horn of a car startled me, it now blends in with the background noise of the city. And I have to admit: I got used to it. Just like I got used to crazy cab rides and being able to get around on the metro. The well – conceived structuring of the Shanghai metro astonishes me anew every day. Switching from one bus every 30 minutes in my small German town to an available metro within 5 minutes of waiting made me realize what kind of mobile possibilities I am missing out on. All the while, a ticket on the Shanghai metro only costs a fraction of a ticket on a German bus or train. Overall, living in Shanghai turned out to be quite affordable, which caused me to indulge myself in luxurious activities that I could have never afforded in Germany, like taking a cab, getting a massage or going out for lunch every day.

 

Which leads me to a very important aspect of Shanghai´s everyday life: food. Before coming to China, I had sworn to myself that I would try everything I was offered and during my stay I tried my best to keep this promise, which was only once put to an acid test by a dish involving cooked water snails. Overall, it took me a while to get used to the new flavors and ways of preparation, but the more varieties of Chinese food I tried, the more I figured out what I liked and what I would not try again. I soon included some of the dishes in my daily life, like buying delicious 奶黄包 for breakfast or treating myself to 奶茶 with black rice and beans. With the help of my colleagues at my internship company, I discovered traditional Chinese restaurant, serving food from provinces all over China and showing me the variety Chinese food can have: from spicy hotpot originating in Sichuan province to the somewhat sweet local Shanghainese dish 番茄炒蛋 that includes tomato and egg, I tried it all. And of course not to forget: dumplings. I fell in love with them on my first encounter and what can I say, with their varying and simple style, they have never once disappointed me. Still, despite all the delicious Chinese dishes, after a while I started craving for some German food. Lucky for me, Shanghai is big enough to not only have a Western supermarket that provided me with everything my German heart could long for, but also a German bakery at the Super Brand Mall in Pudong. So whenever the desire for a home – style German lunch became too big, I found relief in a shopping tour at those stores.

 

Getting accustomed to the two basic aspects of daily life, mobility and food, I started to face more complex challenges. With Shanghai being the city of 23 million it is and me coming from rural Germany, I quickly discovered that city life is rough. As much as I tried to, I could never fully accept the partially rude behavior I saw on the streets, in the subway or at the supermarket. People pushing others aside, not apologizing when stepping on someone else´s foot or ramming elbows in other´s sides on the metro during rush hour were not only things I observed, but that happened to me on a daily basis. I eventually adapted to the behavior a little bit and began squeezing in the bus, even if that meant pushing others away, but until the end I had to fight the urge to apologize to everyone. I tried to figure out many times, if the rude behavior is caused by big city life or if this is actually a Shanghainese trait, but I could not come to a conclusion on the issue and assumed that it is probably a mix of both. On the other hand, when not being squashed in the metro or on the bus, I found a lot of Chinese to be quite curious about foreigners. They were not necessarily local Shanghainese, but rather tourists from other provinces in China visiting Shanghai, and they were always very interested in learning more about the country I come from and sometimes even just approached me on the street. One time, while sitting on Fudan campus, an older man approached me and sat down on the grass next to me. During our one – hour conversation I learned, that he was not only a professor at Fudan University, but that he had spent some time studying and doing research in Germany. I was happy he approached me, because we had a very interesting conversation about the differences in Chinese and German culture and I found it quite enlightening to hear a Chinese´s point of view. As much as I enjoyed these cultural exchanges, there was also one thing that started to bother me after a while. Friends of mine that had been to China before told me about the Chinese habit of taking pictures of Westerners without asking and I had never believed them just until my first visit to the Bund. Being fairly tall and also fairly blonde, I started noticing people (again, I suspect this to be Chinese tourists from other provinces) taking pictures of me and giving me curious, blatant looks. The first time it happened, I thought it was somehow funny, but it eventually started to bother me, more and more. One of the highlights in a negative way was a trip to Shanghai Zoo, where a man walked along my friend and me and seemed more interested in constantly taking pictures of us, than the surrounding exotic animals.

 

Despite this rather unpleasant moment, I enjoyed Shanghai Zoo very much. Its park – like gardens are like an oasis in the middle of the pulsing city, shutting out the noise, the pollution and 23 million people. In fact, I found Shanghai to have a surprising amount of little islands of peace and quiet in the middle of the city. Spending time in Yu Garden or discovering the narrow alleys of Tianzifang was almost like a vacation and I really enjoyed escaping the hectic city life. These places also visualized to me how rapidly the city changed within the past few decades. Strolling down the Bund I once took just one wrong turn and ended up in a small park, decorated with traditional Chinese lampions. This symbiosis of traditional elements and modern – day Shanghai with its 6 – lane roads, taxis and skyscrapers is one of the things I value most about the city. It is not just an international mega city, it is also a city that represents its history has its stories, some of which you will stumble upon in the most unexpected places.

 

I quickly discovered, that I would not be able to live in Shanghai for a longer period of time, which does not have anything to do with Shanghai itself, but is more due to the fact that living in a big city just is not my cup of tea. I got to know Shanghai as a very fast – paced, sometimes unpleasant, but at the same time very charming city that accommodates a wide variety of people, cultures and history. Living here has taught me a lot about myself, helped me explore my own limits and develop my personality. And although most likely not for a longer time, I will definitely come back to Shanghai, because it is now a place I call home.