One Girl, Two Coasts: Day Twenty-Five: A Trip to the Golden Mountain

Day Twenty Five

Didn't think I'd really be able to commit to doing these blog posts about every.single.day for the entirety of my trip to China, but I'm glad I've been able to do so! We only have a few days left, folks! If you've gotten bored already, the final stretch is here!

Today, we took a trip with my cousin to her hometown of JinShan (which also means Golden Mountain), which is also where my aunt and uncle frequently work and live when they're not in Shanghai. We stayed there for around a week last time we came, but there was only time for a day trip this time around. It was pouring rain again, but we only had this one day to go, because my cousin had taken today off from work. After eating breakfast, we left with our cousin for the railway station. It was impossible to flag down an empty taxi in this rain, and we walked for quite a ways before getting on a bus to get to the station. Not a very fun morning. Our shoes were thoroughly soaked and we were shivering when we got on the high-speed train.

From there, it was only a short hour-long ride to JinShan. It was merely drizzling when we got out of the station and hailed a taxi to get to my aunt's company. She worked in a huge, fancy building that had China Agricultural Bank's logo on the top. Jason and I were very much reminded of the corporate building in "the Matrix" in which they have an epic shoot-out. Each floor had many homogenous doorways with numbers on them, and each door was protected by various security measures. We went up to the 10th floor, found my aunt's office that she shared with three other co-workers, and rested there for a little bit before we went to lunch in the cafeteria on the third floor.

The cafeteria was very clean, and was already filled with many workers when we got there. On one side, they have a bunch of different individual dishes laid out, with bowls of rice and noodles and soup, and you choose whatever you want. I grabbed two vegetable dishes, some pork, and a yogurt. Jason had ordered a bowl of noodles, which I tried as well.

While our aunt was up there, she told her co-worker friends that we were American, which caused a lot of staring and gawking to ensure while we ate. Darn it, I was so sure we would blend in this time! I mean, sure, we were wearing Red Sox and Chicago Bulls t-shirts, but I totally thought we looked like we fit in with the dresses and suits. Hmph.

After we were done, we went back up to the office. Jason and I had wanted to watch a movie for a while, so my cousin searched for the movie times at the theater in JinShan to see what was available. We rushed to the mall nearby to watch Maleficent in IMAX, and then walked around the mall for an hour or so after the movie was over. We spent a lot of time in Watson's, a drugstore that's a lot better than the ones we have here...they sell really great cosmetics and skin care products, which I wanted to buy. My cousin encouraged me to get some skin care and makeup remover products, because I don't use too much of them, so I walked out with some new purchases for the future that will hopefully do wonders for my skin.

We then took a bus to the beach, where we'd gone many times last time. JinShan is right on the water, which gives it a very breezy, chill vibe. It had rained today for awhile, so the beach wasn't as nice as it usually was. We strolled around for a bit before hopping back on a bus to go back to my aunt's office. Their building had a badminton court on the fifth floor and a ping pong table on the tenth floor, and she knew how we liked badminton, so she wanted us to squeeze in some time to play before we left.

The badminton court was really nice, and you didn't have to worry about low ceilings, since the five floors above it were all open space above the court. Felt a bit weird playing in an office building, but it's a nice touch that they added some areas to exercise. Great idea!

Once we finished playing for more than an hour, we headed to my uncle's car and we drove off to dinner. We ate at a really nice restaurant called Private Kitchen, which had a very vintage and decorative environment inside. There were floral love seats in the hallways, mirrors and framed paintings on the walls, and gorgeous vases on the shelves. Loved the whole feel of the place. My aunt ordered our meal, choosing vegetable curry, beef curry, mango shrimp, tangy fish with veggies, fried rice, and more. It was one of the best meals I ate in China...very flavorful, delicious, and just wonderful in every way! I'm a fan of curry, and the way they made it here was oh so good. We also got a free dessert because my aunt decided to get a membership card, so that was a great ending to everything.

It was time to catch the next train back to Shanghai, so my uncle dropped us off at the station again and we took off running. We were able to get on a train quickly, and were chugging along back towards Shanghai before we knew it. Once off the train, it was only a short bus ride before we got back to the apartment and greeted our family. All in all, a great day trip!