Leaving Uni!

I'm about to leave Shanghai university for good, heading into Shanghai for the weekend and then out to Hunan on Monday (arriving Tuesday). Apparently there is a typhoon there, so it may be a little wet!

Yesterday I went shopping at Shanghai's cheapest bargain road, Cheapalu, where they sell loads and loads of fake things at very low prices. I bought a lot of stuff!

Posts may be a little less frequent for the remaining few weeks of my stay as I'm leaving my computer here when I go, so will be reliant on cybercafes!

Boating on the Huangpu

This week has passed fairly quickly. Got the results for our experiment through on Thursday and I've been playing around with them making some graphs and the like. As I mentioned before, the results were not quite as useful as I might have liked due to the alteration in the process now used at the factory, but it's been fun either way and we'll see what I come up with. We measured lots of weights at different stages in the process which we can use to calculate thicknesses and things, and also power output of the cells which we can compare to thickness, weight etc.


Today (Saturday), I decided to go on the Huangpu River cruise. There are a few versions, but they boil down to a 1-hour tour that basically covers the Bund for about 60 RMB, or a bumper 3-hour cruise 60km downstream to the mouth of the Yangtze and the Pacific Ocean for 150 RMB. Being a purist and on the advice of my guidebook, I went for the longer one. It was good, and my first view of the ocean not from an aeroplane, but in retrospect I think 3 hours is a bit gruelling - advice for others, go for the shorter cruise! Although it is certainly worth doing that one.


Jack plans revolution with his Bolshy buddies near the pier


Leaving Pudong behind...


The gate to the East

Afterwards wondered Xin Tan Di and Huai Hai Lu with a few others (the nice bits of town!) and restaurented and malled. Developed a game for malls: essentially you need to travel the men's floor without retracing your steps, and return to your initial position (if lift, or the down escalator otherwise). The catch is, if there's a plastic clothes model with it's shirt tucked in, that walkway section is forbidden!


blocked!


China's military will soon be able to take over the World, but like the Americans they appear not quite to have grasped 'soft' power yet. Their attempts at cultural supremecy have so far only won over Alan from 'Two and a half men' and my younger, and far wiser brother.

Tomorrow I'm off dragon boating, and then next week (my last!) is quite action packed, with a visit to a couple of other research institutes in Shanghai and possibly poping over to the other campus in Shanghai Uni to see what goes on over there, and hopefully I'm going to be allowed to sit in on some undergrad lectures (which have just started) and see what they're like over here.

A Storm in Shanghai

My plan today was to go and buy some washing powder and get all my clothes freshly laundered, and also shop around for a few bits and pieces. The weather here had other plans.

We had a lovely lunch at 11.30 (people here do everything about 2 hours earlier than in the UK it seems) and returned for a rest before a town trip. However, shortly afterwards, the clouds started to bunch together and look pretty ominous:


Sure enough, before too long the skies opened, and its been tipping down ever since. Theres been a good deal of lightning - I just saw the most amazing forks of it, one after another (I guess it must be a lie about it never striking the same place twice) and the rain's looking pretty foul still.


My shopping trip is postponed.

Some photos

Some photos from the last few days that entertained me...



Shanghai has always been the backbone of the Chinese economy and it's not hard to see why. Wondering the streets you'll see countless examples of Shanghainese ingenuity, like ths clip above - this enterprising Chinese has struck upon the idea of a book and grocery shop - now THATS synergy!



More diversification here - but don't I recognise this popular Chinese shirt and suit brandname from somewhere else...?



After travelling half way round the World I was more than surprised when I wondered into the canteen to discover that it was in fact Trinity College halls. A later, more through investigation revealed my early mistake.

(This one came out a bit dark alas)


Now swimming is a big hobby of mine (in fact any water sports really), so I was naturally overjoyed when I found out that my campus has a swimming pool on it, 8 RMB (50p!) an hour after a 'health check' ("Are you healthy?" "Yes" "Here's your health card, that's 5 RMB"), so I brought my swimming shorts from home specially.



Perhaps I'm a slightly conservative dresser in the water, but I hadn't forseen this being a problem. However, the old Chinese lady at the desk had different ideas. She laughed her head off when she saw them - "tai da le! tai da le!" - apparently the chinese are much less repressed in the water, and they wouldn't let me in until I bought a pair of trunks 'chinese style' (for another 30 RMB!), and although it thankfully hasn't come out too well in the photo they leave NOTHING to the imagination...