Travelling: China. - Part II: Shangai

(you can see the pictures here: http://treizeheuresdouze.blogspot.com)

Hello it's me again. So I went to Shangai for 2 weeks, to work my chinese. As I have planned to pass a test in chinese for my senior year exam, I needed to do some intensive class. It's actually one of the main reasons of this trip. It was very interesting but 4 hours a day of chinese... it's a lot! As I had this class I was really tired in the afternoon so we didn't do a lot of visits but we did a cooking lesson! I'll post about that later! Shangai is a very modern and international city. A lot of shopping malls, high buildings, international restaurants and there is air conditioner everywhere it looks like Los Angeles with a lot more chinese people. We did a ballad in "The Bound" which is a path in front of all the big building which is very cool to see by night with all the lights but it was very crowded. (I think it is because it was on the Chinese Valentine's day). 

The best thing we saw was the "Chinese Venice" it was amazingly beautiful. We went on a boat and visited this city in a perfect timing as we arrived at the sunset. The color of the sky was reflected in the water and the inhabitants turned on their red lights. It was what we can call a "pure moment". It was just perfect. 

I mostly enjoyed my trip to China (the cons I talked about in my last article excepted), but I'm glad to be far away from chinese. As I understand 1 word on 100 it is very tiring to hear and try to read it all day long. Anyway, as it's a very diverse country if you have the opportunity to go there it is better to visit it on a tour which show you the different sides of this country. I think you need to see all the historical monuments of Beijing as much as the progress of new cities as Shangai or Hong Kong. It is a interesting country, mentally and culturally very different from western cities even if they try to westernize their cities, they are still in some way sticked to their culture. 

Travelling - China. Part I. Beijing

Hello guys, or better: ni hao!

I'm just back from an amazing trip in China. I was supposed to post my journey daily but blogger and many other platforms as Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter are blocked (which was, to be honest, kind of hard to live with as I'm pretty much an internetcoholic.) So anyway, i travelled with my family to China. We did 1 day in Dubaï before going there then we did Beijing for four days and finally ended our trip in Shangaï for two weeks. Now I'm in Dubaï again for three or four days.

(you can see the pictures here: http://treizeheuresdouze.blogspot.com)

Beijing is culturally and historically a very interesting city to visit. We visited ones of the main places: The Tienanmen place, the Summer Garden, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall. Believe it or not, i climbed the great wall (I have a "I climbed the great wall" tee-shirt to prove it.) Even if on the top i couldn't feel my body anymore, i couldn't see anything and I thought that I would die up there all alone surrounded by a thousand of chinese people. BUT I SURVIVED. Anyway, the monuments are amazingly beautiful a full of history. I learned so many things about the chinese culture, it is fascinating. The only problems during the visits were the crowd and the heat as I'm not really a "sun person" it was very hard for me. But it worth the price, really. Even if you are a lazy *bip* like me. Actually there is not much to do except visiting in Beijing. Except maybe go to restaurants. (yep yep yep) Beijing is a historic city, very sticked to its culture. I mean it's what I felt when I went there. They are not very used to strangers coming, they were acting weird when they saw us. They were staring at us, taking pictures. I was very uncomfortable and I felt like a monkey in a zoo. It is probably because I'm a black person and they're not used to see colored people there but it didn't feel good at all. It's was the main con of my trip for Beijing and Shanghai.

The best part of this trip was a little ballad at the back of a bicycle. I don't know how to say the proper name in english but in french it's "cyclopousse". It was very nice to go around the old city and see the little houses, the little bars and water pipes lounges. I think it's the hype neighborhood, it seems to be so cool if I lived in Beijing I would have spend all my afternoons and evenings there. And I've been told (and I saw) that life in China is not expensive at all if you consume local goods. You can eat big (and  good meals for around 4 euros, and even less. The expensive things are the imported goods and the accommodations, even if it's out the city. 

It's all i have to say by now, i'll post another article about Shanghai. For the moment I'm need some rest. 

bye bye cookies!