Day seven was a transfer day from Lanzhou to Shanghai. We got up early to check out before 8 am when we boarded the bus to the airport. As a little detour we visited a scenic spot, from which we were able to see the Huang He (yellow river) in his name-giving yellow colour as well as the skyline of Lanzhou at dawn.
Huang He and Lanzhou at Dawn
Back on the parking field we officially said farewell to Mr. Stephen Zhu, our governmental tour-guide and his assistant. We honoured his good organisation that enabled us to gain more knowledge about the cultures of some Chinese minorities (the Tibetans and the Hui) as well as the opportunity to visit a steel plant and a factory that produces patches after the rules of traditional Tibetan medicine. To express our gratitude we handed over a book to Mr. Stephen Zhu about cultural differences between Asians and Europeans, which was signed by all students.
At the airport we checked in with China’s super-lowcost airline ‘Spring Air’. It is a “no-frills”-airline, meaning that all convenient extras are dropped in order to be cost-effective, as Edelweiss, Ryanair or Easyjet in Europe and Virgin America or Southwest in America. The airline has a 15kg-luggage policy, other hand-luggage rules as proposed by the IATA. Nevertheless the airline remitted the amount for the overweight luggage for the hole group which was a nice gesture of them.
Sping Airlines Logo
Finally arrived in Shanghai Pudong Airport, Professor Rüttimann and the org-team led the whole team to the Maglev with a well organised plan , as usually only known in the world’s best army. After every five minute walk the travel group waited in order that the team leaders could successfully report the presence of their team to the leader of the org-team. The Maglev train is the only one of his kind, as the train does not roll on the tracks but floats on them (so called magnetic levitation). The vessel is designed by two German engineering companies (Siemens and ThyssenKrupp) and built by Chinese. It reaches a speed of up to 430 km/h for commercial purposes and more than 500 km/h as potential high-speed. According to Professor Rüttimann this system is not used in other cities, due to the high energy consumption.
Maglev reaching top-speed
After a short ride with the subway we finally arrived at the Bund Riverside Hotel which is very central located and offered an incredible breakfast.
In the evening we walked with Professor Rüttimann around Lujiazui, the new financial hub east of Nanjing Street. We saw the impressing skyline of Shanghai from multiple spots. As the German Beergarden was busy, we went into an Italian restaurant to enjoy the view on the Huangpu River and the skyscrapers of Shanghai.
Chang Jiang and the Bund at night
Group 4 – Iris Hettich, Florian Maier, Benjamin Fischer, Lukas Bühler, Christian Röthlin