Undergraduate Blog / Defining Your Babson

Hello China!

Having arrived in the airport after a long flight, we grabbed our luggage, went through customs and finally made it to Shanghai, China! Walking out of the beautiful modern Shanghai airport, Tony Wang from IES was there to welcome and greet us. As we made our way outside we all jumped for joy because the weather was amazing compared to the chilly, rainy weather in Russia. Arriving to our hotel around 1AM, we were quite pleased with our rooms and the location of the hotel. Many of us decided rather than calling it a night we would experience some authentic Chinese food, so we made our way to a local noodle bar! Jenny helped everyone order, many people ordered classic beef soup with noodles. The food proved to be quite delicious; each person had a complete meal for about 6RMB, equivalent to approximately one dollar!

 

The next day, we broke up into smaller groups and were able to walk around with a local student familiar with the area of the hotel. Many of us enjoyed getting to know our new home for the next 3 weeks. We were able to ask questions and befriend students studying at Fudon University. Furthermore, many of us ordered bubble tea from the Chinese chain called Coco, which has become a signature spot!

 

The following day we took the metro into the city. The metro is modern-looking, super-fast and extremely user friendly. As we walked out of the station our jaws dropped, we were in the heart of Shanghai! Everyone immediately starting taking pictures of buildings and people, we were experiencing Shanghai’s vibrant city life. We visited the Shanghai Urban Center, a museum about the history and development of Shanghai, this interactive museum kept everyone interested and ignited a flame within to learn more about this fantastic city.

 

One of the highlights of this past week was the river cruise. We all boarded the boat and fell in love with Shanghai’s lively skyline. We were all staring in awe at the lights and buildings that made up Shanghai’s horizon. We are in a city of approximately 23 million people, it has been about 4 complete days since arriving in China and we have already met many locals, tasted delicious food and learned a lot about the city. We are all looking forward to Professor Kelley’s arrival and the rest of our time in Shanghai! Having spoken to many members of the BRIC group, many can already envision living and doing business here!  It’s hard to believe that 1/3 of our journey is complete; we hope China does not fly by like Russia did!