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Inger Katrine Bjerke's China Blog
June 26, 2017 | Women's Soccer
The senior defender is spending the summer in China
Ni hao and Happy Monday from Shanghai!
After living in China for five weeks, I decided to reflect back on the cities I have visited and my experiences so far.
I have learned that China has a very diverse culture. The country consists of 23 provinces which all have their own language, food and history. I have spent most of my time in Shanghai, a global financial center and transportation hub with 25 million people. Shanghai is probably the most Western city in China. The city has surprisingly modern technology, with one of the best metro systems in the world. Five to seven million people use the Metro system every day, and organized chaos would be the best way to describe the movement of people in the city. However, I would advise people to avoid taking the metro during rush hour, unless you want to see how many people that are able to fit into one metro train at the same time. It is crowded and personal space is nonexistent.
I traveled to Nanjing with my class. We were very unlucky with the weather the first day. It rained cats and dogs (300 mm), but that did not stop adventurous students from exploring China's old capital. Nanjing has a very interesting history. The city used to be the capital of six dynasties, and also the capital of the Republic of China prior to its flight to Taiwan. China and Japan have had a tense relationship for a long time and one of the main reasons for this is the Rape of Nanjing in 1937. Between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted, and the Imperial Japanese force brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people.
I have also had the opportunity to visit Zhangjiajie. Zhangjiajie is in the Hunan province, and known for their spectacular and breathtaking mountains. The city is considered one of the 35 most surreal places to visit in the world, and the Avatar movie was filmed there. Zhangjiajie was very different from Shanghai. It was less developed, had lower buildings, and not many people could speak English. Moreover, the city had fewer international tourists, their food was saltier and usually cooked in a red colored oil. The city was also less populated, only 1.5 million people live in Zhangjiajie. It is funny how I now think that 1.5 million people is less populated taken into consideration that there is a total of five million people living in my home country, Norway. It shows how fast one can adapted to a new culture. I would truly recommend everyone that enjoys hiking and nature to take a trip to Zhangjiajie.
Have a great week,
Katrine
After living in China for five weeks, I decided to reflect back on the cities I have visited and my experiences so far.
I have learned that China has a very diverse culture. The country consists of 23 provinces which all have their own language, food and history. I have spent most of my time in Shanghai, a global financial center and transportation hub with 25 million people. Shanghai is probably the most Western city in China. The city has surprisingly modern technology, with one of the best metro systems in the world. Five to seven million people use the Metro system every day, and organized chaos would be the best way to describe the movement of people in the city. However, I would advise people to avoid taking the metro during rush hour, unless you want to see how many people that are able to fit into one metro train at the same time. It is crowded and personal space is nonexistent.
I traveled to Nanjing with my class. We were very unlucky with the weather the first day. It rained cats and dogs (300 mm), but that did not stop adventurous students from exploring China's old capital. Nanjing has a very interesting history. The city used to be the capital of six dynasties, and also the capital of the Republic of China prior to its flight to Taiwan. China and Japan have had a tense relationship for a long time and one of the main reasons for this is the Rape of Nanjing in 1937. Between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted, and the Imperial Japanese force brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people.
I have also had the opportunity to visit Zhangjiajie. Zhangjiajie is in the Hunan province, and known for their spectacular and breathtaking mountains. The city is considered one of the 35 most surreal places to visit in the world, and the Avatar movie was filmed there. Zhangjiajie was very different from Shanghai. It was less developed, had lower buildings, and not many people could speak English. Moreover, the city had fewer international tourists, their food was saltier and usually cooked in a red colored oil. The city was also less populated, only 1.5 million people live in Zhangjiajie. It is funny how I now think that 1.5 million people is less populated taken into consideration that there is a total of five million people living in my home country, Norway. It shows how fast one can adapted to a new culture. I would truly recommend everyone that enjoys hiking and nature to take a trip to Zhangjiajie.
Have a great week,
Katrine
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