Shanghai Nights

Yu Garden



What we get to eat everyday
Chad and our hard core bags

This weekend we went on a 3-day trip to Shanghai. We left on Friday after teaching and got to our hostile at about 7 o’clock that night. The hostile we stayed at was pretty nice, it was called the Blue Mountain Youth Hostile, the beds were softer than the one we sleep on ever night here so that was nice.
That night we met a girl named Titi at the hostile, she is studying Landscape Architecture in Hong Kong. She was here with some schoolmates visiting some of the gardens in China; she invited us to go with her to the Yu Gardens the next morning with her. So Saturday morning we met up with Titi and went to the gardens. Her professor was awesome he was this old man who knew everything there is to know, he talked about the garden of how, why, and who built it and the meaning of things in it. It made everything much more exciting.
After the garden we went to do our first bargaining adventure. We decided that we would like to have big backpacker bags to pack for the weekend trips, so we went into one of the 1000 bag shops. It took us about an hour to decided which bags to get and them running to their “warehouse” to get a bigger bag. We ended up getting two hardcore bags for 350 Yuan, which equals about $51. Pretty good, I would say :)
Next we went to People Square and met a young couple that said they were studying English and Medicine. They said it was their first time in Shanghai as well and asked if we would like to go to a Tea Ceremony with them so they could practice their English more. We said sure and followed them, after we got to the room we told them we don’t drink tea but we would love to watch. So after about 5 minutes of them translating the ceremony and watching them drink 2 cups of tea they said we would stop because we aren’t drinking and that it was time to pay. The bill came out to be 280 Yuan and they said that we would slit it so we should pay 140… First off this is weird because any Chinese person who has invited us to something insists on paying. We said we didn’t have any money because we just spent everything we had on the bags. So the couple and the lady who preformed the ceremony took us to an ATM. This is where Chad stepped up :) Everything just felt weird, the tea ceremony lady was still standing with us at the ATM even though she had already been paid and the couple was getting pushy. Chad told them we weren’t going to pay because we didn’t drink anything and that it was way too much. After arguing for a while they ran out the door and yelled, “Get out of China”
So turns out they were Scammers, lessoned learned if a Chinese person asks you to go to a tea ceremony with them… say “ No get out of China” and run away.
Sunday was amazing. There was district conference for our branch, it was the one year anniversary of the district and it was great to feel so at home. After the meeting there was an YSA fireside that we went to (even though we aren’t YSA). It was at an apartment of a Shanghai member. Elder Subandriyo, a member of the seventy, spoke to us (a group of 20 ish youth in a small apartment) it was simply amazing.
That night Chad and I went and got a pineapple for a market for 5 Yuan = less than a dollar, and ate it at a park. Then we went and found the old people dancing at the metro. This time Chad and I both got lessons from the people. I danced with this old guy who was really good, we had a group of about 10 people watching us dance, we danced the Cha Cha. Chad had an old lady and old man trying to teach him how to dance but they gave up after a few minutes.
Then we went and got a full body massage for an hour, it set us back about six dollars for both of us… :) China is pretty good.
Monday was pretty lax; we slept in and then just went to the train station and came home. I never thought I would miss our hard bed, but it sure is nice to be in familiar places.