Kathleen Marvels at Shanghai

Kathleen Chen -- Thursday, April 23
The river cruise that we went on yesterday was definitely worth all of the wind and cold. The buildings and things were all lit up, and it was so beautiful. The TV tower had both spheres lit up with lights that were alternating in color, which was very nice to watch. A lot of the other towers had lights on as well, and the whole scene was very beautiful. There was definitely a contrast between the more modern side of the river, mainly the area with the TV tower, and the older area that was on the other side. Both had lights and were visible in the night, but it was mostly the architecture and such that were different. I really liked to see all of the buildings that were so different from those in the U.S., and I have never really seen anything like it before.
A lot of people were on the cruise last night, probably for the scenery as well as for the social aspect. Many people were taking pictures, or eating in the dining area while watching the lights go by. I was on the top level with Cassandra and Emelia, and we were mainly just looking at the buildings and towers as they went by. We saw some interesting boats go by as well, such as on with a large TV screen that was advertising some product that we did not understand. Most of the boats had lights and were nice to look at, but some of the cargo ships did not and so were almost invisible in the night, which seemed pretty dangerous. While on the top deck of the ship, we met a group of students from Needham high school that had been traveling also. Their trip was strangely similar to ours, since they were in China for ten days and went to the same cities that we did. Granted we had different agendas, but it was weird to see a group from an area somewhat close to our school in such a large country.