Luciano

Luciano Sebastianelli (施智强)

April 7th-8th

Today, we had our first actual classes at school. I thought Wushu was very interesting, but I disagreed with the the idea that you had to put your mind behind what you’re doing, rather than just doing it. I think that you can do something and have your mind focused on something else, like if you’re working out or studying, your mind can wander sometimes but your mind or body still retains the information. During lunch, we had to eat with these weird, kind of nasty tasting plastic chopsticks because none of us except for Lucas had brought a personal pair. We decided that after class, since we were going to go to Wanda Plaza, we would buy some. 下课以后, the American students and I all went to Wanda Plaza. It was very beautiful, and we all got some sort of bubble tea, or 波霸奶茶, as its called in Chinese. I thought it was very delicious, but Andrew disagreed. He couldn’t find a flavor that he liked. Personally, I thought that the cold bubble tea was much better than the hot bubble tea, because the hot kind burned my mouth and was just searing hot.

While we were looking at the different stores, we found one that sold chopsticks, so we were each able to get our own personal pair for school. We also found a huge poster that had a woman on it that looked slightly like Keita and we were making jokes about it the entire day. We found it so amusing that we made Keita pose next to it so that we could take a picture of the two of them.

When I got home, my family and I had a really good dinner with carrots, various different kinds of pork, as well as black carp, or 烤鱼, which had HUGE bones in it. There were some that were as big and thick around as my knuckles. The food was really good though. Before we went to bed, we played some Chinese checkers, me versus Alan. He smoked me and continued to beat me over and over again but I was able to quell my more competitive side because he had been playing for a long time.

Yesterday, Alan and I went to the supermarket with their dad to get fresh fruit and vegetables. What really surprised me though was when this woman came up to us, to me, and began to speak rapid Chinese. I asked Alan to translate what she had said, and it turned out that she thought I was his English teacher. Her daughter is going to New Zealand in November and wanted to see if I could tutor her as well. I thought that it was very interesting that they would think I am an English teacher based on the fact that I was the only white person within a couple thousand miles. It was really weird to think that I was such a minority as I have never been a minority in my life.

Another thing that struck me as really odd was when we went to the War of Resistance Against Japan Museum. Not the fact that the museum itself was kind of boring, but while we were there, there were a few other schools there as well, all in different uniforms. I found it really cool that each of the schools had their own uniforms and you could tell a little bit about a person before you even spoke to them. The part that I found really strange was wherever we were in the museum, we were mobbed by kids from other schools, all of them wanted our WeChats and QR codes. The feeling that it gave all of us was exhilarating, like being celebrities. They all wanted us to take pictures with them, and it made me feel so special. It was really cool to see ordinary people treat me like I was extraordinary, simply because I was different than the vast majority of the population of China. When we were learning songs, I could hear them whispering excitedly and pointing at Andrew, crying “Spiderman, Spiderman!” It was amazing to feel so special, and I could tell the others felt it too. I think that after a while, this is just going to become routine, but I will never get bored or find it a hassle. It's really nice to get all of this attention, just for being me.

Luciano Sebastianelli (施智强)

April 18th-19th

Yesterday, we visited a really old tomb. Our tour guide, Charlie, made us put on these weird blue slipper things over our shoes so that we wouldn’t disturb any of the old artifacts or buried warriors. I noticed that all of the terra-cotta warriors we saw were only about a foot and a half tall. Charlie told us it was because the first terra-cotta warriors were actually slaves and real people, buried alive. The the ancient Chinese people quickly realized that it was inhumane and a waste of slaves, so they began to create life-size terra-cotta warriors and people, but because they were so large and hard to make, they began to slowly make them smaller and smaller until they became about this size. In addition to this, all of the statues were painted to resemble how they would look in real life, but when they were excavated the color began to leech from them, so the archeologists stopped excavating all of the sites around the country so that they could wait for science to catch up and come up with something to stop the color from fading.

Later on in the day, we went to a store/museum that was all about jade. I found it really cool that jade had been of value for over four millennia. Once we were done in the museum part of the place, we went to the store part, where they were selling really cool jade products. It was crazy how expensive everything was in the store, seeing that it was all jade, but some of the stuff was much higher quality, so that is why some of the smaller thing were worth more than a carving twice the size of it. It blew my mind that the largest items in the store were not the most expensive ones because they were typically made of lower quality jade. For example, there was a buddha necklace that was over 4.4 million yuan and fit in the palm of my hand! I wound up buying a necklace for my mom as a present.

That night, we decided to check out the famous Night Market, which was a section of various booths and food stores a couple of blocks long. It was packed full of people, brimming with bright lights, good food, and various little trinkets. Personally, I thought it was so cool, different cultures influencing each other and interacting, mingling like old friends. Once we got home, we hit the bed and immediately fell asleep at about 12:30.

Today, after a quick breakfast of fruit and bao zi, we got on a bus and went to Charlie’s hometown, Pangliu, where we taught an English class and played with all of the little kids. I found it really interesting how quickly the city could change from extremely urban and populated, and then you take a car ride about as long as it takes to get from Boston to Springfield, and the land becomes drastically different, fading into farmland and old, crumbling buildings and people much more sparsely populating the area. For example, at the Pangliu school, they taught first grade though sixth grade, and only had around 125 students. It was a lot of fun and it was interesting to teach other people about the English language, something that I had just grown up around, and to find some of the kids struggling with it was a little strange to me, living America where nearly everyone spoke English fluently or very close to it. It was really cool being worshipped by the students after class, almost like a god, as they asked for my autograph or to sign their arm in pen. I honestly found it kind of funny, the way they treated me differently simply because I spoke a different language and looked different from most of them. The one thing that I find kind of sad is that only about 70% of the population at that school would go on to high school, and that only 60% of those kids would go onto college. I really hope that the number will get higher in the future, because they’re all nice little kids who deserve an equal chance at getting a good job through going to college, and most of them don’t go because they can’t pay for it.

Afterwards, we went to Lake Nanhu, where we rented out motorboats. At first, we were all really excited, but then we quickly realized that the boats barely went 5 miles per hour. We cruised around the lake, blasting music from my speaker and singing everything from Juice Wrld to Queen to Toto. The people around the edges of the lake gave us strange looks, but smiled and took pictures and videos of us jamming out and having a good time.

For dinner, we went for hot pot, which was supposed to be really spicy, or so Devin said. So far nothing has really been that spicy, so I decided to make a really spicy dip for my food. Boy, was that stupid. Within twenty minutes of having the hot pot and my sauce, I had blown my nose twice and my mouth had gone numb from spice. When someone suggested that I should make a new one, I did so gladly. Never again would I underestimate the spice of a good hot pot. There, we also tried biang biang noodles, which were famous for their name, which was the most complicated character in all of Chinese to write. They were surprisingly good, and we ate about six servings of them before we started to get full. That's all for the past days, 再见！

Luciano Sebastianelli (施智强)

April 27th-28th

Yesterday, my dad and I went all over Beijing to visit 两个博物馆(two museums), the Capital Museum and the Military Museum. The first one we went to was the 军事博物馆 (military museum). I thought the most interesting part about the museum was how so much of the stuff on the first floor was from 外国 (foreign country), like 美国，日本，意大利，德国，还有俄国 (America, Japan, Italy, Germany, and Russia). I asked my Chinese father, and he said that it was because much of the stuff had either been stolen during various wars or had been modeled after technology that had been donated to the Chinese and they had replicated many copies of it, like with many of the Soviet and U.S. weapons. Most of the technology was all pre-1980, but there were bomber planes, heavy artillery, and all sorts of different pistols. It was pretty cool how China’s weapon technology expanded and changed throughout the years. Yet none of the more recent things were shown, so I couldn’t completely see the changes.

At the 首都博物馆 (capital museum), the first thing I noticed was the sheer size of the building. It was massive, and had six full floors of artifacts. They had various different kinds of poetry, weapons and carvings scattered throughout the levels, and the top floor even showed what life was like back in the dynastic times. It had fake stores and shops and even model parades. The sixth floor also contained a little movie theater that had a short film in Chinese about some stuff I couldn’t understand.

Finally, once we finished there, we went to a 商店 (Department Store), and I got to try some Chinese fast food, Jackie Chan’s own branch. Afterwards, we went went to 看电影 (watch a movie), and we saw Avengers: Endgame. I thought that it was a very suitable end to the series but took a while to get going. Later, we went to Pizza Hut for 晚饭 (dinner), and I had three of my favorite foods killed. 比萨，意大利面，还有牛排 (Pizza, pasta, and steak) all were murdered within minutes of watching an amazing movie. Note to self, never have American food in China. The “traditional” foods are so ridiculously good that I have yet to find a local dish I dislike in China. Going out for dinner to an American restaurant was arguably one of the silliest mistakes I have made here, especially since I didn’t even really like Pizza Hut in America. It reminded me of having 中餐 (Chinese food) in America, how it was just less good, toned down versions of their true selves. For instance, 中国饺子 (Chinese dumplings) were easily 100 times better than any I’ve had before, and it was the same with American food here compared to back home.

This morning, when I woke up, I let loose a huge moan. Today was the first day ever I would have to go to school on Sunday. Just the idea of school on the weekend kind of stunk, but it was worth it in the end because we have the May Day break in the middle of the week, from Wednesday to Saturday. My host family is taking me to Tianjin, and I was 很兴奋 (very excited) because I hadn’t been anywhere in China outside of 北京 (Beijing) and 西安 (Xi’an).

The day kind of just floated by, everything flowing into one another, and it actually felt like a regular weekday, which was really odd. Today, Lucas, Keita, Devin and I decided to go over to the middle school for a friendly match of 踢足球 (soccer) with the students. We wound up playing nineteen of them by the time Lucas got a headcount. Whenever anyone on our team would get the ball, they would become mobbed by middle schoolers, especially since I had to stay in the goal, the odds were down to 18 of them to three of us, with Lucky Boy and I as the goalies. To be honest, it was a little terrifying because whenever any of them got the ball, it was basically a one on one with me because we had to continuously attack their side of the field, and I wound up ripping my elbows open for about the hundredth time diving for a ball. Once we had won the game four to three, we went to the convenience store for a little bit of celebration ice cream. Although it wasn’t ice cream, I finally got to try some mochi, which is a Japanese treat made from something that I have no idea what it was.

Luciano Sebastianelli (施智强)

May 1st

Today, among other things, was the first day of the May Day vacation. My family and I were all going to go to Tianjin, and we got up at 4:30 am to catch the train. It was a quick thirty minute ride full of anticipation, for it was another chance for me to see more of China. Upon arrival, the first thing I noticed was that the air was much cleaner and fresher. The Haihe river running through the middle of the city, and all of the combinations of buildings, new, modern high rises and 酒店 (hotels) right next to old houses made of porcelain and hundreds of old celebrities’ homes all made a rather homey, environment and it reminded me of 波士顿 (Boston).

The first place we went to was the 瓷房子 (China House), which was a mansion made completely out of porcelain pieces, like vases, broken plates and other things. It was really impressive, and it was four stories tall! Personally, I thought that the coolest part was on the inside of the house, where on the walls the porcelain pieces were laid into the wall in the shapes of 僧人，龙，鸟，神明还有公鸡 (Buddhist monks, dragons, birds, gods and deities, and roosters). There were tables scattered around the house, overflowing with money and offerings to the gods, and I'm pretty sure most of the 钱 (money) had been there almost since the house was built in the 1900s because a few of the bills were more towards the insides of the pile were much different than the ones I had seen and used in China. While Alan and I were leaving, we were stopped by a mob of girls a little older than us who kept saying "我们能拍张照吗? (Can we take a picture?)” I didn’t understand what they were saying at first, but then they began miming taking a picture and I understood. For about five or so minutes straight, there was just a bunch of people posing with me, their friends taking pictures. It went on for so long that I began to feel like I was part of the house itself. As soon as we got outside, Alan and I just cracked up with 笑声 (laughter). Posing with people and taking pictures every so often whenever we went out has become normal, and when it doesn’t happen, it feels a little weird.

In America, this has never happened to me before and I still find it odd. The culture surrounding other people in China is so much different than other foreign countries I’ve been to, like in Mexico, Spain or Italy. I don’t get treated like Im anything special or people constantly asking for pictures or my WeChat. I think that it is really cool, and whenever the five of us American students or the six of us with Mr. Reddington, if a stranger wants to talk to us, they immediately go to Keita because he is the only one in the group who is Asian and looks slightly Chinese, even though he is Japanese and hasn’t taken Chinese until we got to China. In reality, the one they should be talking to is Lucas because he has been taking Chinese the longest out of the five of us, and is much better, but occasionally, we’ll pick up words, phrases or sentences when strangers rapidly speak to us. Thankfully, Ms. Han taught us ”说慢点儿,“ which means “speak slowly” so that now we can understand their speaking better.

Afterwards, we strolled around the city and met up with Alan’s mom’s 大学里的朋友和她的家人 (friend from college and her family). They didn’t speak any English, except for their son, who was Alan’s age, so it was a good chance to try and improve my Chinese skills. For lunch we went out for 奶茶还有狗不理包子 (Milk tea and Goubuli Steamed buns). The 奶茶 was so good, and it was arguably the best I’ve ever had (sorry Coco), and the 狗不理包子 were also good. The 肉 (meat) inside was so good, and they filled me up really quickly, as I was only able to eat four of them. We all finished with lunch and headed to the 古文化街 (Ancient culture street). It was full of people and little shops selling all sorts of things, like 木剑，扇子，木青蛙，空竹，筷子还有食物 (wooden swords, fans, wooden frogs, chopsticks and food). Finally, I was able to try the beautiful designs of sugar on a stick, which was exactly what it sounded like, sugar used as paint and was made into all sorts of different shapes and sizes. It was so good, but I thought that the coolest part about it was watching it being made. The man working the little shop seemed so focused, so content and so happy to be doing this, ad it was really nice t see that little glimpse into someone else’s life. While we were walking through the streets, I saw something hadn’t seen in almost two years: 空钟 (Chinese yoyo). Immediately, I went over to the vendor and began to bargain, bringing the price down into a more reasonable range.

To wrap up the day, my family surprised me by taking me out for 火锅 (Hot pot). Thy said they were taking me there for my birthday, and I thought it was really nice that they had remembered it. We had all sorts of different kinds of foods there, like cow heart and squid tentacles, but also 羊肉，豆腐，牛肉还有虾肉 (mutton, tofu, beef and shrimp). After dinner, this man came out with a piece of dough for noodles and began to dance with it, tossing the strand around and around himself like a ballerina. It was mesmerizing, this dance of noodles, and I found it so fascinating that people in china eat the noodles for longevity, and that nearly every food serves a purpose for them, like how different foods should be eaten at different times year. I wondered why we don’t have anything like this in America, but then I realized that we do, only not as extreme. Usually, for Thanksgiving, we have turkey, and the Fourth of July, we almost always have barbecue, or at least in my family. Each of these things in China are all eaten in a balance, and nearly all pas of the animals are used, like for pigs’ feet or cow heart. In China, I have eaten things that I would normally have never tried before in America, but the have all turned out to be so good.

Luciano Sebastianelli (施智强)

May 7th-8th

Today and yesterday, we were the first Wayland group ever to go on a special, overnight trip with 八年级 (Eighth grade) to Chengde. The first day, we went to the emperor’s old 夏宫 (summer palace), and to say the least, the thing was HUGE! I had thought that castles and stuff like that in Europe had been large, but the 夏宫 in Chengde completely dwarfed them. Essentially, it is a walled-in city, easily capable of housing the emperor and his family, one of which had fifty seven children! It was crazy to think that one person could have so many children, but I believe it makes sense in Chinese culture, because the emperors would usually take 妾 (concubines) who they would also have children with, and didn’t necessarily have all of the tools that people today have for birth control. The strategy in ancient times was to have as many children as possible so that your lineage could continue because there were so many ways to die back then. In many other places around the world, people usually didn’t have more than one wife unless their previous one died, and even if they did have children with another person who wasn’t their 爱人 (spouse), the child was considered a bastard, a mistake, something that wasn’t supposed to happen or simply that they don’t exist at all. In China however, these children of the emperor are treated the same as his own with the empress, and his concubines have sometimes even managed to control the 国家 (country) from behind the scenes. An interesting thing about China is that the emperors get to choose who their successor is out of their children, unlike in Europe or other places around the world where the crown falls in order from oldest to youngest.

The rest of the day flew by and before I knew it, we arrived at the hotel and had dinner. Afterwards, us Americans changed clothes and went out for the night, scouring the streets of yet another brand-new city. We quickly found the 夜市 (night market), and we strolled through there, with 又新又奇怪的气味 (new and strange smells) coming at us from all sides. The sound of all the different shop owners calling out to people passing by, the mashed up gifts of the old and new, jewelry, old Chinese toys and weapons side-by-side with western toys made of brightly colored plastics, phone chargers, fake clothing brands like Superme, and even some live animals here and there to be sold as pets. Out of everything in China, this was the one thing I will probably miss the most. I loved haggling with the various stores, trying to find what I wanted in such a diverse place bursting to the seams full of cool things, and even getting denied sometimes from an exceedingly large price drop. I found it so neat that these things were practically universal across almost all of China’s cities. I really liked how everyone there worked together in a mismatched harmony, offering passersby nearly anything that they could want.

This morning, we got up at around 7 and scarfed down a quick breakfast from the hotel. We hopped on the bus and drove back out towards the summer palace, but this time, we were going to go to the temples on the outside of the walls, slightly smaller models of Buddhist temples out in Tibet. They were full of these people called 喇嘛, or Buddhist lamas, who were Tibetan or Mongolian monks that stayed within the temple and worshipped the Buddha. Once we finished with our tour of the temples, we got back on the bus with the rest of the eighth grade and headed back to JSYY.

About halfway through the ride, I pulled out my speaker and started playing some music for everyone, but I didn’t expect that many people would know it, as all of the students were Chinese and I was playing some fairly new stuff and random songs. To my surprise, most of the students around me actually knew the songs and were singing along as well. I put the music on full volume and the entire bus was jamming the whole way back to school. It was really nice and kind of interesting to find this new connection to the students in a way I never would have thought of, through music. They started shouting out requests for songs and we complied, everyone laughing and having a good time. It felt really good to be able to make the bus ride which had at first seemed really boring becoming a blast, all because of a little music. No longer did I feel like I was on the outside of the school, a foreigner, but I finally felt like I truly belonged, like I was just like everyone else there.

Luciano Sebastianelli (施智强)

May 17

Today, as it was JSYY’s 生日 (birthday), each of the grades prepared a poem / presentation for the school. Many of the grades chose to theme their presentation on the phrase “我爱你，中国“ which means “I love you, China.” I thought that it was very interesting how this same theme was continuously used over and over, but somehow was shown in very different ways. I wondered if this was the way that they had all chosen to present or if their teachers chose for them. I wouldn’t be surprised either way, because China, unlike America, shows a seemingly full belief in the political figures of their government. When they announced the winners of the competition, I was surprised to find out there were three winners, but soon, it made sense, because there was a winner for each of the schools, 小学，中学还有高中 (elementary school, middle school and high school). I was very proud to see that my high school sibling’s class had won for the high school group.

Another thing that made today really nice was that we were allowed to leave school at 十二点 (12:00). Keita and I, along with his host sibling Helen, and some of her friends decided to go out for the afternoon and went to an arcade / trampoline park. We started off at this strange place where there were dozens of grabber-arm games, and apparently, this was a really popular activity for Helen and her friends, because they were all extremely good at each of the games and all of them left with at least four new stuffed animals each. I found it crazy how good they were at these games, but it was rather annoying for me and Keita watching because we couldn’t do any of the games because they all required WeChat Pay to activate. One time, I was murmuring to Keita about how I thought my 表妹 (younger cousin) would like one of the animals, and one of Helen’s friends came over and snatched it first-try and gave it to me. I was awestruck at the simple gesture, and I thought it was very nice that they would do something like that for a foreigner they had just met minutes before.

Later, we finally arrived at the trampoline park. In all, the place was huge, but not quite what I was expecting. There was an arcade full of various games filling up an entire floor space, with overflow up onto the trampoline / parkour floor. After bouncing around a bit and climbing around in the miniature parkour course, Keith and I retire to the foam pit, where we were quickly assaulted by little kids who spoke really good English. There was a five year old little boy that I was playing with who could speak English perfectly, and didn’t have a hint of an accent. At first I thought that he was just another foreigner, but then his mom picked him up and they were speaking rapid Chinese to each other. Before saying goodbye, he came and gave me a little squeeze, and told me “Your identity is safe with me, Captain America”. I tried really hard not to laugh, but I kept it together in front of him, nearly crying with laughter on the inside. For the time I had been in China, I had been called Captain America nearly wherever I went in public, even when I went to watch Avengers Endgame with Alan and his friend. It was kind of funny to be seen as this character straight out of the comic books and whose MCU alter ego looks slightly like me. I’m not going to lie, I kind of like the attention.

Easily the weirdest thing to happen during the day was when we went out for dinner. When we went out, we found this place that supposedly served really 辣食物 (spicy food). We ordered 米粉，宫保鸡丁还有好的东西 (rice, kung pay chicken and some good stuff). We all happily ate and talked about what had happened during the day, Keita and I struggling to keep up with their speedy Chinese, and then hopelessly giving up, switching to English mostly. One of the girls was on their phone and they saw that their “boyfriend" was close by, so they called him and five minutes later, he showed up. The strangest part however, was when he finally showed up, he paid for the meal, gave everyone hugs and then just left. Keita and I both were extremely confused and didn’t understand why he didn’t stay. Personally, it made me rather uncomfortable that they had just used this kid as their own little wallet and used his feelings for Helen’s friend, who we found out later, wasn’t actually his girlfriend, and the two weren’t even dating. Keith and I both agreed that if we found the kid, we would pay him back and then take hm out for dinner, but I’m not even sure whether he goes to JSYY or not because he was out of uniform.

Luciano Sebastianelli (施智强)

May 23

Today was the day that we finally went to my most anticipated city of this entire trip. 上海 (Shanghai). This was really special to me because we had to plan this entire four day long excursion ourselves with Mr. Reddington, and none of the other groups had ever gone to Shanghai, making it another first-time trip. We spent 四个小时 (four hours) on a 火车 (train), but it was easily worth it. Upon arrival, I immediately realized how much Beijing and Shanghai were different. In Beijing, much of the subway is in Chinese or pinyin, which is the pronunciations in English and how it is said. However, in Shanghai, everything also has an English translation, and many of the people can understand and speak English, unlike Beijing, where very few people can speak English well. So most communications are also done through hand gestures and pointing. Seeing as it is the capital, I was surprised to figure out that Beijing is actually less populous and not as well developed as Shanghai. The bus systems and subways were much nicer, and I personally just overall liked the feel of shanghai better than Beijing, partially because the air was much cleaner and the city was right on the water.

After we checked in at our hostel and dropped our bags off, we walked down the famous 南京路 (Nanjing Road), where we grabbed lunch. It was full of all sorts of different shops, such as a Lego store, a huge food court, all kinds of food vendors, as well as more American stores like Starbucks, Nike and Jordan’s. We strolled through there for such a long time, lingering around 蟹肉饺子店 and 快乐柠檬 (crab dumpling shops and Happy Lemon), which are both rather famous in Shanghai for drinks and good food. I personally thought that the people in Shanghai and the environment that everything was kept, felt a lot like a really large American city. I think that this might be partially because Shanghai is a coastal city and has been influenced by all sorts of different cultures from across the world.

Later that day, the six of us went to the Bund, which is an area in Shanghai that overlooks the financial district where all of the really cool-looking skyscrapers are. The Bund didn’t disappoint. It was full of all kinds of flashing lights, with old buildings interlocking with brand-new ones, tracing around the river separating the Bund from the financial district. We waltzed through the crowds of people who, to my surprise, were a pretty even mix between foreigners and Chinese. I found it rather interesting how there were so many other foreigners around and yet this older Chinese couple, still wanted take a picture with us. I think it is partially because they aren’t from around the area, but one thing that I really like about Shanghai is that there are so many less people who stopped us and asked for pictures together. It made travel much quicker.

We wound up crossing the river through an underground tunnel that was full of different glowing lights and designs, there was one section that was “molten lava,” and another that was in the cosmos. It felt quite childish, but it was a nice relaxing ride on a tram, and it was crazy to think that we were all underwater the entire time, despite being covered in concrete, bright paint and sporadic lighting. The six of us traveled to the financial district, 歌咏和婆娑 (singing and dancing) through the streets of Shanghai, until we came upon a 海鲜店 (seafood restaurant) and ordered some traditional Chinese seafood like 烤鱼 (roast fish) and also some other food like 菠萝猪肉 (pineapple and pork), both of which were extremely tasty. After wandering around a bit more, we decided to go up to the top of the Shanghai Tower, the second-tallest building in the world and home to the fastest elevator.

The line that we had to wait in took us about thirty minutes to go through, but it was completely worth it. Even though we had just walked through these streets, it was completely different to see from above. Everything was lit up during the night, and it was beautiful. The Shanghai skyline looked so much different from a good 100 feet taller than everything else. I could see the entire city, and a little bit beyond. You could see where the urban area ended and the rural country began, judging by how the lights began to disappear and the closer towards the financial center that you looked, the more the lights and livelihood of the city grew stronger. Looking at Nanjing Road from above was really interesting because all along the sides, it was glaringly bright, but down the middle it was dark because there were hundreds of people walking through, unlike every other street that were all littered with cars and honking buses. I wondered why the population of cities in China were so much larger than in the U.S.A, like how Boston and Chicago pale in size compared to Beijing or Shanghai. Its pretty cool how so many people can live harmoniously in the same space.