Tuesday, June 10
Photos 1 & 2: From the 100th floor
Photo 3: Dancing at dinner
The day started with a lively discussion regarding the events of the past week. In the effort to save funds for other activities, we held the forum in the hotel dining room instead of in the "magnificent" conference hall. This required the moving of some chairs to accommodate us. The wait staff appeared visibly distraught and aired their concerns with us. Fortunately Dong Laoshi was able to verbal judo her way into allowing us to stay. The discussion was led by Alvin, Jonny, Tyler and me. Perhaps it was the result of our thought provoking questions or maybe it was because today was our last day, but shy Steven "Shuige" Chin had a lot to say. At one point in time he gave a monologue lasting nearly 30 minutes.
At noon, we took the subway to the central business district (CBD) of Pudong. We walked over to the Super Brand Mall. While the brands inside the mall were fairly super, the exterior was anything but. As one of the older buildings in the district, the facade was showing its age amongst all the skyscrapers. Our first order of business was lunch. Rebecca and I made our way to the bottom level of the mall and came upon a Japanese udon restaurant. There were quite a few people in line, probably around 30. Unless they were all hipsters, standing in line for some obscure ironic reason, the popularity of the restaurant was likely representative of the quality of food. So thus we got in line.
Following our bowls of beef curry noodles, we met back up with the rest of the group and headed over to the Taiping building to hear from Charlie Wang. Situated on the 17th floor, Charlie's office had an incredible view of the heart of the CBD. His architecture firm had played a significant role in many of the towers within the CBD. Our discussion revolved around the development and growth of the Shanghai region over the past 40 years. It's incredible to think about how quickly this city has boomed, particularly in the past 15 years. At that point in time, there were only a handful of highrises; today Shanghai is home to nearly 30 million people.
After our pleasant discussion, we walked next door to Shanghai's World Financial Center. This building sat on land that was originally meant to be a park. City planners had wanted to mimic that of New York City's Central Park. But given the economic boom, the Chinese government decided to disregard green spaces and rise towers instead. We took the five meters per second elevator up to the 100th floor observatory. After numerous poses and photo ops, I took the elevator back down to the ground floor, not realizing the entire group was still on the skywalk. Thus began a chapter of my life which shall hereforth be known as "The Great Struggle".
Separated from the group, I was now out in the wild to fend for myself. Armed with only a paper clip, chewing gum, and a pack of rubber bands, I started a signal fire to alert my fellow classmates. Unfortunately the police came and extinguished my hopes of being rescued. Realizing I may never see the group again, I relinquished any thoughts of rescue or reunion and decided to forge a new life. As I prepared myself for a life of panhandling, I received a text message from Bobo with the name of our next destination.
I made my way to the Banana Leaf restaurant after 90 minutes of exile. We were seated in a private room at a very large round table. In the nearly 6 weeks of the dialogue, this was the first time all 18 of us were sitting at the same table. How very fitting for our last group meal. The food was delicious and the company was delightful. Everyone offered a toast of gratitude for each other, the program, and especially Alex and Dong Laoshi. Jimmy was overcome with emotions during the toasts. Tears rolled from his eyes uncontrollably.
In just a few short weeks, we've experienced some very amazing things together and learned more about the country and ourselves than expected. The special bond forged through the time we've spent will be forever cherished.
- Hochiang
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