Adventures at the Shanghai Conservatory!: China has a lot of people...

It's not like I didn't know that China was a populous country, but let me tell you that experiencing it's enormity in full swing is another story entirely. Today, Joanna and I decided that because the weather was nice, it would be a good day to check out Old Town and Yuyuan Garden (which was supposedly free but was actually 40 RMB to get into). So around 3:00 we get on the Metro, transfer to Line 2 at People's Square and it was there that we knew this was going to be one crazy adventure. We were practically lifted off of our feet onto the escalator and more or less shoved into the car of the subway. We only had to be super squished for one stop, so that was okay.

It didn't take us too long to figure out where we were going, though we looked like total tourists. It's weird, I no longer feel like a tourist around the school, because the people in the shops and restaurants recognize us now, and they at least understand what we're trying to say. But once we get outside of our district, it's like another world. We basically ended up following the crowd and randomly found our way to exactly where we wanted to go. It was absolutely insane. Because this is a holiday week, there are a lot of tourists in Shanghai. The foreigners tend to leave Shanghai and all of the Chinese come in. There was barely any room to breathe and what air there was, you didn't really want to breathe in. Once we finally made it to the garden and the Bridge of Nine Turnings, and realized that to get into the garden you had to pay and saw that people were practically at a standstill on the bridge, we decided to turn right back around.

By this time, we were starving, but decided that we should just head towards home and grab something there. We finally make it to the entrance to Line 2 and find that it is in fact closed for the night. Great! We are now in Nanjing Road, one of the busiest possible streets to be on. It is packed from one side to the other, barely enough room to push through with elbows out on both sides. We end up walking for maybe twenty minutes before deciding that we either need food or to sit somewhere. Lo and behold, a McDonald's appears, like a sign from God, and we descend into a sort of Westernized heaven. It smelled delicious, we both got chicken nuggets and for roughly five minutes, pretended that we were at home and not trying to get to People's Square during one of the busiest times of the day during a holiday. After this fortification, we found a shortcut and in no time made it to People's Square Metro Station and shortly thereafter found ourselves at home.

As beautiful as it was, I don't think I will be traveling back there any time soon.