Shanghai with Kansas

Post date: Oct 02, 2016 4:5:35 PM

When I lived in California, I didn’t have any friends. Which I have since learned is normal for the first few months out of school. But I did make one friend, Candice. She was an adorable Asian American, and a high school senior. Somehow she ended up with the nickname “Kansas”.

She moved back to Shanghai, and as part of my travels I went to see her. It was 10 days of ridiculousness. We painted small chinese figurines, ate chinese food, drank delicious wine, got massages and pedicures and generally made a nuisance of ourselves.

It was my first experience with China, and I came to realize that Shanghai, like many international cities, is so international it doesn’t feel like China. It feels like the world.

We climbed to the top of (at the time) the world’s second tallest building. The view from the top was breathtaking (once you avoided all the smog. There is a lot of smog in China).

But by far my favorite part of the trip was the Jade garden. Not only was there an adorable tea house, but also amazing koi, and epic tunnels.