Hey everyone! My name is Weena Doyle and I am an upcoming sophomore majoring in International Area Studies. This past summer, I have spent my time studying in Beijing at Peking University (2 months), visiting Shanghai (1 week), and living in Hong Kong (3 weeks). In total, I have been on my own in Asia for 3 months, so I feel pretty prepared for Taiwan.
In Beijing, I had studied at Peking University (locally known an Beida) through a non-Drexel affiliated group called CIEE. It was a wonderful experience because not only did I get to drastically improve my Chinese, but it was also my first time traveling alone. At Beida, I made friends with wonderful people, both Chinese natives and Americans alike. However, as much as I enjoyed Beijing, I probably would never consider staying in the city for more than 2 weeks. This is solely a personal feeling of mine. Beijing was great, but it was not the right city for me. One fond memory I have of my first week in Beijing was the morning after a heavy thunderstorm had hit the city. My friends and I were walking to class and we passed by this window. As I'm looking out, I noticed there were mountains not too far from out campus! The air pollution in Beijing is so bad that looking out into the distance is nearly impossible until after a thundershower. Sometimes, the smog can get so heavy that you can't even see beyond 2 street blocks. Nonetheless, I suffered no breathing problems, but wearing my contacts for more than 3 hours outside did irritate my eyes.
Shanghai is another very populous city in China, and lot more "westernized" than the capital, Beijing. One month into my program in Beijing, we were given a 4 day break from study to just relax and travel. 4 friends and I had decided to take the high-speed railway ($555 RMB) down to Shanghai. If you aren't aware, the high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai had just opened this June, so it is a little over 2 months old! The ride took about 5 hours and we got the opportunity to travel through cities such as Tianjin, Jinan, Xuzhou, and Nanjing. As I had previously stated, Shanghai is a lot more western than Beijing. You can see it in the fashion of the people, the architecture of it's buildings, it's "green" movement (now that I think about it, I never saw anything "green" back in Beijing), and transportation amongst other things. However, like Beijing, it also suffers from heavy air pollution (but not as bad).
Hong Kong is nothing like Beijing or Shanghai. For one thing, in order to get by in either Beijing or Shanghai, you definitely need some knowledge of Mandarin. In Hong Kong, you need no knowledge of Mandarin, not even Cantonese (which is more widely spoken in Hong Kong). English will get you by because almost every Hong Kong citizen knows English to some degree. In addition to that, all signs, menus, advertisement, etc. is written in English alongside it's Chinese counterpart. Hong Kong is also a lot more diverse I feel. In Beijing and Shanghai, I didn't really see residential foreigners. They were mainly tourist foreigners. In Hong Kong, there is a huge group of Indian and/or Pakistanis, Africans, Filipinos, Indonesians, Thais, etc. These people live and work in this city. They send their children to schools with Chinese looking children! It's very shocking, yet nice to see diversity once again in a city. Another thing I notice about Hong Kong is that the people here LOVE to shop. You know how back in the states it is common to have a Starbucks every 5 blocks? In Hong Kong, it is more like every block! Though it's not necessarily Starbucks, shops like 7-eleven, Sasa, Watson's, Bonjour, Mannings, Chow Tai Fook, etc. are everywhere!
In less than 6 hours, I will be on my way to the airport and leaving this wonderful city I've called my temporary home. I will deeply miss Hong Kong, but a new adventure awaits me in Taiwan. =]
Feel free to email me at wvd24@drexel.edu should you have questions/comments about my trip!
