Culture and History at the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum

Today was our first day in actual Chinese class, and  we also went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. The tour guide explained how Shanghai turned from a small fishing village into the huge city we all know today. Inside the museum there was a huge room that contained a small scale model of all of Shanghai.

After going to the museum we went to the park where we saw lots of retired people playing cards. We also saw people beautifully writing Chinese character with water on the side walk.

In this public park there was also many different carnival rides that are for kids (sadly). Afterward we went to the shopping mall called Raffles. They had a lot of expensive stuff which is why I like the shopping mall called Global Harbor a lot better.

There are a lot of different customs that are different than living in the states One being drinking hot water. No matter what the weather is like, almost all of the people in China only drink hot water. It is extremely hard to find any place that supplies cold water.  Another one is China’s street etiquette. In Shanghai there are so many cars, bicycles and people all sharing the roads together. It is completely normal if you jaywalk but in America there is a whole lot less of jaywalking. We have to be a lot more aware of wear we are going. It is so cool to be able to see the differences from Shanghai than my hometown.
 

Written By: Alyssa Sarilarp

Niles West High School

Niles, Illinois