Needless to say: Last Day in Shanghai and Third Time to the Great Wall

I didn't do much on my last day in Shanghai. I checked out of the hotel and then went to Gary's dorm. While he was in class I walked around my old campus and took lots of pictures. I liked this sign that was along the Suzhou Creek, where there is a lot of construction going on. It says, "The future security and safety of our Mother River, helps us overcome the temporary difficulties together."

Here's the old fruit stand I used to go, but it has expanded and seems to be doing much better than it was five years ago. Check out the delicious, pre-peeled pineapples. The small ones cost about 5 RMB (less than a dollar Canadian) each.

Here is the ECNU motto, and below is the word, "EXPO" since Shanghai will be hosting the 2010 Expo.

The view out the back gate of the university has remained largely unchanged, complete with the people selling IP phone cards and the people selling street food.

One back gate building was knocked down the week I was there. There used to be an internet cafe and some small food stalls in that building...all the internet cafes I used to go to are gone. I guess so many more people have laptops now that they aren't doing as well?

Speaking of Expo, here is the mascot for the Shanghai Expo. It is named Haibao (meaning treasure of Shanghai I think) and is apparently meant to look like the Chinese character for person: 人...well, that character but with a curly lock of hair. Hrm. I don't really like this mascot very much.

Here's the totally run-down, but lovely yellow old observatory on campus. I don't think it has been in use for a long, long time.

And finally, a man fishing in the river/creek that runs through campus.

Since I've been back in Beijing I've felt a little aimless. I'm not very motivated to go to class, since there isn't much point, but I also am not all that motivated to go out exploring on my own. It's still a little chilly here too, which makes me even lazier. Today it even snowed a tiny bit!!

On Saturday I went on a school trip to the Great Wall again. This time it was to Badaling, one of the most touristy sites you can go to. The Jinshanling site last semester was WAY better than this trip, but I was still more than happy to be able to go to the Great Wall again.

Here's my old roommate Ruyun with Daxian (my classmate from last semester) and their friend. Some western tourists asked Daxian to take a picture with them because they found his hat so funny.

The wall itself was incredibly packed with tourists...so our progress was a bit slow. Thus, we amused ourselves with lots of photo posing.

I thought these guys were kind of funny and cute in their paper sun hats. The guy facing me is waving the Chinese flag and posing for a picture.

When they saw me one of them asked for a picture together. Unfortunately he is blinking in the shot taken with my camera. He gave me a paper hat....which made me look like a super dork...especially in that pose I'm in. Remind me to dump that jacket when I get back home. Haha.

Zoe was teaching us model poses...I really am bad at them. Here she is with a Korean classmate.

And with me. Zoe looks lovely...I look odd.

We have seen lots and lots of Chinese women using this exact post for their photos, so I had to try it out. I kind of like it...guess that's why I see people doing it all the time!