Interning in Shanghai... the experience of a lifetime
by Huy Huynh

The majority of our time spent in China was in modern Shanghai with its thousands of skyscrapers. We stayed near Fudan University, one of the top 5 schools in China, and had lunch there daily. That is... until one of the SBU students got sick of the environment. The food there, however, wasn't half bad... compared to SB food, Fudan's was like that of a nice restaurant. On the weekends when we had no work to do, we would go exploring Shanghai to get a taste of the city. The experience was interesting... enriching.  But more on that later.

To take a break from the modernization that was Shanghai, Steven Leigh and I took a trip to Beijing with one of our co-workers, ZP. There we found ourselves staring at the sheer size of Tiananmen Square and getting lost in the Forbidden City with its 9,999 and 1/2 rooms. Yea... I know you're thinking 1/2 a room?!?  But the story behind that lies up above in heaven where Chinese tradition dictates that heaven contains 10,000 rooms. Thus the emperor could not build a place on earth comparable to one in heaven. 

The most memorable experience in Beijing, however, was at the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is located northwest Beijing with its own man-made lake and mountains. (The emperor wanted a lake and it appeared.) In the present day, this lake is used as a commercial attraction for tourists with its many boats (pedal and battery-powered). We rented a battery-powered boat that seemed like it had not been charged for days. It crawled at 5mph and left us wishing for the few speedboats used by the "rescuers." 

About a quarter of the way along the lake we spotted a large commercial boat about to take people across the lake. We proceeded past the boat but little did we know, it was the scheduled departure time. We were out of the field of vision of the driver and right under the stern. It started moving forward and we started panicking. If only our little boat was a little bit faster we would have made it out of harm's way but nooooo...  BAM! We got hit. Alright, maybe it wasn't that bad since I'm writing this story but we got hit none the less and got a close up look at the boat's anchor.  Luckily, the driver probably heard our screaming, turned the rotor, and ran the other way. Good thing too otherwise we would have had a bone to pick with him...

Another interesting thing happened on this lake...  We went fishing... well, sort of... actually the fish caught us... but that story is for Steven to tell...