Hangzhou and Shanghai

We spent November 14th packing up, traveling to Guilin, wasting a few hours and then getting on a train which traveled through the night to Hangzhou to meet up with Kiera, Whitney, and Amanda for the rest of our vacation. We arrived in the afternoon of the 15th, checked into our hostel and then went exploring around Hangzhou. Kiera, Whitney, and Amanda left for home that night, but the rest of us girls still had another day planned in Hangzhou. Sadly, a rain storm came through so we couldn’t enjoy Hangzhou and instead spent the day wet, cold, and trying to make the best of things.

Trying to make the best of a rainy day.

Shanghai:

On the 16th Alysa, Shayne, and Leah all went back to Bengbu, but I got special permission to meet up with my friend Katie Bell to go to Shanghai and get my mission papers done (see this post for more details). Katie and I took a train to Shanghai, checked into our hostel, and went out on the town. At the hostel we met this girl from Germany, named Jessica, who spoke a little English, even less Chinese, and just BARELY arrived in China where she would be doing an internship for almost a year. She was all alone, a bit nervous coming to this new country, and we remembered how that was when we first arrived so we invited her out to dinner and explore the city with us. We had so much fun with her and we spent the night teaching her about the Chinese culture (crazy how just living here over three months can give you so much experience to share).

From left to right: me, Jessica, and Katie in front of Nanjing Road and pictures of us and other people dancing.

We introduced Jessica to a Muslim noodle place (aka THE BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER) and there we met a family with SIX kids! Chinese families are only allowed to have 1-2 years so 6 kids is unheard of. 

Two extremes of the subway—completely packed and completely empty.

Shanghai Wild Animal Park

We heard a lot of rumors about Shanghai’s Wild Animal Park, such as you can ride elephants and giraffes, hold baby tigers, take a caged bus through lions, etc. We had no idea what to believe, but we wanted to check it out!

Unfortunately we went on a very rainy day. Within half an hour we were all soaked and desperately needed ponchos. Luckily it cleared up a bit in the afternoon.

We found a camel and Leah jumped at the opportunity to ride it. My main goal was to ride an elephant so I decided to wait before I spent money on a camel.

Seriously the most beautiful zoo I’ve ever been to!

One thing I found very surprising was how dirty and unkempt the zoo was. There was garbage all over the ground and children were allowed to pee wherever. Also, people would throw food at the animals! This little guy below got yogurt thrown at him! It kind of made us kind of upset how some people were treating the animals—I’m sure that would not be allowed in the US.

I got to hold a baby tiger! The little guy was wouldn’t hold still and I was scared he was going to bite me.

And finally…we found the place where you can ride elephants! YES, I RODE AN ELEPHANT!!!

The park was split into two sections: one where you walk around and see the animals, and two where you take a bus through different sections. We had the option of a window or caged bus—we chose caged. It drove us through cheetahs, tigers, lions, and bears and at times we were seriously inches away from the animals. The bus even had chickens they fed to the tigers right off the bus. It was awesome.

This place was very Jurassic Park-esque!

Whitney as an old pidgin lady.