Xi'an and Shanghai

Yesterday I got back to Beijing from a week-long trip exploring around some new places in China. On Friday we had our end-of-semester exam and at 6pm that day I boarded an overnight train with 5 classmates to Xi'an, China's ancient capital city and home to the Terracotta Warriors. Xi'an is a beautiful city, and much more preserved than Beijing in terms of old architecture as shown by its city walls (and the traditional architecture in the photo below). We spent the weekend there and then took a plane to Shanghai, where we spent the rest of the week. Shanghai was a shocker. After spending a month in Beijing, I could not believe how modern and westernized Shanghai is. Beijing and Shanghai are like night and day. I'm even tempted to say that Shanghai is hardly a Chinese city, especially when you consider that it was founded and then governed by foreigners for so long. Essentially, in Shanghai it is easy to forget that you are in China, you can eat at Western restaurants, only have Western friends, live in Western houses, whereas in Beijing the reminder of being in China is there every time you bite into your pork bun for breakfast or breath in the thick suspiciously-foggy air.