I love Shanghai!

Here are a few pics of the Beijing Train Station from when I was waiting to board the train to Shanghai:

Fancy chandeliers:

The trip to Shanghai was fine. I was only able to get the more expensive soft bed tickets. I got an upper bunk in a compartment with four beds in total. There is a door on the fancier, soft bed compartments (unlike the hard beds tickets I have always gotten in the past) and I'm not sure I like that. There was a friendly couple in the bunks below, but they also must have eaten something bad because they farted quite a lot and it took forever for the smell to dissipate what with the door being closed and all. 

I never seem to sleep that well on trains (unlike my amazing compartment-mates who seemed to fall asleep the minute they laid down and barely move again for the 12 hour trip), but it was a nice enough trip as far as such things go.

I've been having a great time in Shanghai so far. I arrived early Saturday morning and went straight to ECNU where I met up with Gary. We had breakfast and then went for a walk before meeting up with his mom for some snacks. I then headed over to Gretty's place (which it turns out is extremely close to ECNU...but when gary and his mom walked with me there we got lost and I felt bad for making them walk so far, totally unnecessarily). It was really nice to see Gretty again. We had dinner together and then another friend of hers came by. We had originally intended to go out to listen to some music but ended up just hanging out and chatting. It was great.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures that first day....I'm bad. But today (Sunday) I went out with Li Chao, another friend from my time at ECNU, and tried to remember to take a fair number.

I got up relatively early to get ready. Gretty was still asleep, so I left her a note and let myself out to go meet my friend. I first took a few pictures of the room I'm staying in. Here's the view from the bedroom window:
And here's the guest bed. It was super comfy and so nice to settle into last night...I was so tired after a long long day.
I took some pictures of the view from her apartment. The tall red tower in the distance is about where the ECNU campus main entrance is. 

There's a small patch of old houses which seem to be partially demolished already.
Here's a view of Gretty's building. She's in the one furthest in the background.
My friend Li Chao and I met at the Zhongshan Gongyuan subway station and then walked over to ECNU campus. It's such a lovely campus, and everything is already so nice and green compared to Beijing.
The view towards what used to the foreign student dorm (where I used to live) but that has now been renovated into a hotel.
I think only Scott has seen what the old dorm lobby looked like, but just trust me when I say that it looks WAY better than it used to.

We asked a shopkeeper in a photocopy place to take a picture for us. At first he was hesitant because he wasn't sure how to use a digital camera, but then he agreed to help us out. We wanted to take a picture with some old, run-down houses in the background, but then a lady walking by said, "Why are you taking a picture with such ugly stuff? Take a picture here instead!" It was a bit awkward, so we agreed to change the background (we'd already gotten some with the other background on Li Chao's camera). The man taking the picture never counted down and just kept taking the same picture over. Another neighborhood guy came to watch too. By the time this picture was being taken we were both feeling awkward and were laughing at how long it was taking.

I look horribly pale and weird and old in this picture, but oh well:
After we had walked around ECNU and had lunch, we went for a walk to East China University of Politics and Law. It is full of gorgeous old buildings. It used to be called St. John's College (later St. John's University).

Here's an example of the cool architectural styles to be found on the campus:

According to Wikipedia the university was founded in 1879 and was the first place to grant bachelor's degrees in China, starting in 1907. The buildings were designed to be a mix of Chinese and Western styles. I can't believe I never saw the campus the last time I was in Shanghai.

Here's a water tower, which Li Chao felt may have been built during the 1950s or so.
In one corner of the campus we came across a pretty garden where there were two kids playing. They were using willow branches to weave necklaces and other adornments for a little dog to wear. You can see the dog wearing their creations around his neck and bum:
The little boy saw us and said, "Oh! A Chinese person and a foreigner got married!" We both explained that we were just friends (Li Chao is already married and has been since 2006) and then the little kid started talking about a celebrity named Fei Xiang  費翔 who is half-Chinese and half-American. He commented on how strange Fei Xiang's spoken Chinese sounds (I guess because he has a bit of an English accent when he speaks). Anyway, he was a cute kid.

The little girl he was playing with is behind the bushes in the picture below:
Here's a picture of the two kids working on their willow branches as they chatted with Li Chao.

Another old building on campus.
The campus borders Suzhou Creek and as we walked by we saw a gorgeous red sunset.
They are in the process of restoring another gorgeous old building. It's so nice to see things being restored instead of torn down. 
We each took a picture in front of it.

The weather here was really quite cold on my first day in the city, but it's still a lot more comfortable than Beijing. I really really love the feel of Shanghai, and I love the fact that it's so much more easily walkable.