Last Day in China

Greetings from Shanghai for the last time.

After Mark and I spent Friday closing out all of our projects, giving a final presentation about our impressions of China and the Internship, we said our heartfelt goodbyes to a company that had become family in matter of two weeks. We found out that our bosses were all quite pleased with the work that we had produced, even though Mark and I clearly were in a fog for at least part of this internship.

That night, Mark and I had dinner with one of the employees, Peter Lu. Friday was also Peter's last day with the company. When Tekelec sold this asset to Genband, Peter decided to stay with Tekelec. Later this week, he and his family will be moving back to Dallas, TX. Peter and his wife are originally from China. However, based on job opportunities, they moved to the United States, where their two kids were born. Everyone in the family is excited to move back "home."

For dinner, we went to a hot pot restaurant. Since I prefer not to eat red meat, this was somewhat of a challenge for me, since the only meat that you can cook in a hot pot well is red meat. I did, however, love the vegetables we added to the pot. It was overall a great dinner; it was Mr. Easley's (Mark's dad's) favorite while in China. At the end of the meal, we all said goodbye in our hotel lobby, and promised to meet up somewhere in the good ol' US of A.

On Saturday, Mark and I slept in...for the first time while in China. Needless to say, it was amazing. For breakfast, we went to a boulangerie. You can really tell that globalization is at work when we fly all the way to China, and are still able to eat in a French bakery. Later, we tested out the MagLev train. In the US, we really don't like to take trains anywhere. In China, they are the most popular form of travel over long distances. This type of train, built in Germany, uses electromagnetic forces to propel the train forward at very high speeds. Our top speed was 431 km/h or 270 mph. It took a distance that probably would take about an hour to drive down to an 8 minute journey. If you come to Shanghai, you need to ride this train.

In the afternoon, Mark and I, along with his parents, went to the Jin Mao Tower. The Jin Mao Tower is currently the tallest building in Shanghai. However, there is already a taller one under construction right next door to the Jin Mao. After taking a ~30sec elevator ride up 340m to the observation deck (making this elevator faster than the Tower of Terror), we were able to see the best panoramic views of Shanghai possible. It was really cool to watch the Shanghai World Financial Center being bult next door. Progress is slow, but I'm glad the workers are taking their time; if they rushed, steel beams and huge panes of glass could fall on people below. You could also look inside the building, down 30 floors to the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The faint of heart should not do this.

Toward the end of the afternoon, we went to the Shanghai Science Museum. This modern facility gave a taste of every branch of science from Astronomy to Zoology. Our favorite part was the IMAX film that had been dubbed over. The film we saw was suppose to have been narrated by Judy Dench...however, that lady was NOT Dame Dench. Furthermore, Dench probably can't speak Chinese that well. Oh well. The film was about insect life in the rainforest. I am still pissed at the film makers for showing a butterfly getting killed by a praying mantis. That is just not cool. Butterflies don't die. Other insects...ok, but the butterfly was just over the line.

For dinner, we had a quick meal at a Japanese restaurant. It was pretty decent, especially for what we paid. Afterward, we took the subway into to Puxi (the other side of the river) to see the Shanghai Acrobatic Circus. When our class was in Shanghai, our tourguide Lisa was pressing us to go see this show. While it was probably good for us to just rest and recover from jetlag then, the show still would fun to watch in that state.
The show was amazing and words are failing me; I have no idea how to describe it. It was like Cirque du Soleil but better and more interesting, and with more impressive acrobatic acts. Come see it if you come to Shanghai!

After returning to the Hotel, Mark and I packed, watched some rugby and retired for the evening. We are sad to be leaving China, but we also feel that we are leaving China without regrets.

Best Wishes and Safe Travels,
- John

PS: I personally am stoked to meet up with Ben in Julie in O'Hare. After having limited contact with any of our friends back home, it will be good to see some familar faces.