On Friday, there was an organized meal for international interns in Shanghai to meet up and go for a meal together. The programme coordinators at ‘Next Step Connections’ arranged this; Sunny and Sabrina (two of the coordinators) both attended the meal. This was a great chance for everyone to meet up and get to know each other.
Aside from Sunny and Sabrina, there were not many girls at the meal. Out of around 16 boys, there were only 3 girls. One girl was from Alabama, one girl who was off to Harvard soon and I was the other girl! It made me wonder if something about China is maybe more daunting for girls than it is boys? I think this may be a misconception about China, because I have found nothing to found ideas like that here.
We all went out after the meal. Sunny and Sabrina took us to an expat bar called Windows, I was really shocked to see young girls in there, dressed up to look much older. I asked them how old they were; they said they were 15 and that rules like that don’t really matter in Shanghai! One of them had braces! Later we all went to M2 again. It was a really good night and we all made lots of friends.
On Saturday, Algis and I decided to go to the hotpot restaurant, which is open 24 hours, I had to ring a translator to explain that I do not eat meat in any form. After the Shanghai expo in 2010, there is a free translation service that you can just call up at any time of the day. It is so useful! It was not really the best idea for me to wear a white dress for this, as hot pot, where you cook the food yourself is so messy! Thank God they give you an apron!
On Sunday, Algis, Miguel and I decided to go to Shanghai Zoo, I had read a few mixed reviews and wasn’t too sure what to expect. When we first got there, everything seemed great, lots of green areas and water with squirrels running around. The first area has fish, snakes and amphibians in it, which was great. Then there were the ducks and birds, where we saw some pretty flamingos, however then we came to the ‘PETS’ zone. Here, there were caged up dogs in the zoo, in tiny cages with hay as their only luxury. These were concrete containers, which were dirty and the animals looked unwashed. I thought it was heartbreaking. Other animals like birds can often evoke pity in people, as they are meant to fly free and people are scared of the predators, so do not mind seeing them behind lock and key, however, lots of people in China have dogs, which is why I was shocked to see them in such bad conditions at the zoo. I have noticed however, that it is popular culture to have small dogs that can be dressed up, here in China, and these popular dogs in the zoo had much larger kennels with glass instead of bars and beds instead of hay. I found it really difficult to see this neglectful treatment of the other dogs. I just wanted to rescue them all and take them home.
The only other animal cage that we saw, that matched the depravity of the dogs, was the leopard. The poor leopard was in such a dark and dingy cage, hidden behind bushes, that we missed it upon first inspection. It was behind two sets of bars, so it was literally barely even on show to the public: caged for nothing.
The tigers and Panda’s, whilst in much larger sanctions, were dirty and solemn. The elephants were in such small habitation; I can only hope that it is a washroom or feeding room or something. It was dark and the tops of the walls were lined with spikes.
We did see some happy animals however, who seemed to be enjoying their lives at the zoo. These included the giraffes and the camels that had lots of room to run around and the gorilla, which had a tennis ball to play with.
After the zoo, we decided to visit Yu Gardens again as we didn’t get to see the private inner gardens on our first visit. We all tried some of the more interesting foods at the bazaar, before entering the beautiful gardens.
Yuyuan is a 400 year old classical Chinese garden in the Old Town of Shanghai, not far from the Bund. Pan Yunduan spent twenty years and his life savings building it to please his parents in their old age. There are over 40 buildings, ancient trees, ponds, bridges and sculptures. Whilst we were in the gardens, we saw Huijing Tower, this is such a lovely relaxing area with little bridges and benches overlooking the scenery.
On our way out of the bazaar, before we went home, we saw a frantic bride and bridesmaid running through the square! I hope she got to the temple on time!
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