Adventures in Shanghai!

Hi WEPO ladies! My name is Mimi Overbaugh and I am soon to be a senior studying Mechanical Engineering at Penn State. This year, I am the WEPO 2014 Spirit Lead! I am so excited to get to know each and every one of you during the orientation in August. Until then, I hope you are getting to know the Leadership Team through the many fascinating blogs.

This past May, I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to Shanghai, China to represent Penn State’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. I traveled alongside with Katie Ciccaglione, who is the WEPO ’14 Professional Development Lead, and Katie Kirsch, who is a Penn State Mechanical Engineering alum. Together, our team taught a four-day workshop at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to Chinese students about effective technical presenting and writing skills.

The experience was memorable for so many reasons. The first unforgettable part was interacting with the Chinese students during the workshop and one-on-one consultations. Before the trip, our team was a little nervous about the language barrier. While the students learned English in school, we were unsure of their skill level and retention of our workshop material. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the students were extremely engaged in the workshop. For instance, they were asking the same questions that American students asked, meaning they understood the content of our lessons. While some students were hesitant to use their English in a group setting, they were more comfortable and confident in a one-on-one setting. During consultations, we were able to talk with one student at a time and give them suggestions on their slides or papers and also answer questions they had. In the meantime, we also learned about the research they are doing at their university. From creating prosthetic hands to improving automobile assembly line productivity, their research is groundbreaking, complex, and interesting.

Not only did we teach the workshop, but we also explored the city of Shanghai for three days in our free time! Because Shanghai has a population of about 25 million people, you can imagine how crowded it was. Regardless, we were able to see some incredible places, learn about the history of China and Shanghai, and have an unforgettable time.

      Pearl Tower- If you look at Shanghai’s skyline, you will notice a very tall tower that looks like a needle with some large, red spheres along its distance. This infamous tower is known as the Pearl Tower, and we were fortunate enough to tour it! We went to the very top of the tower, which is at 351 meters tall or about 12,000 feet tall! The tower also had lower levels to view the city’s skyline. From all views, the skyline was breathtaking. One of my favorite parts of the different viewing levels was a glass floor level. You walked out on the glass floor and it looked like you were standing on air! While it was a little nerve-wracking, it was also really awesome :) Not only were there viewing levels, but there was also a Shanghai history museum with wax figures and an arcade!

      East Nanjing Road- This road is famous for high-end shopping. While we didn’t do any high-end shopping while we were over there (I wish…), we walked along the road to see all of the shops and lights. At the end of the road is what is called “The Bund.” The Bund is basically a river walk that allows you to see the entire city from a beautiful point-of-view. On one side of The Bund is “New Shanghai,” which was built relatively recently and includes the Pearl Tower. On the other side of The Bund is “Old Shanghai” which has the historic buildings and beautiful architecture. Fortunately, we went to The Bund in the evening so we were able to see the city in lights!

·     Yuyuan Garden- Yuyuan Garden was one of the most beautiful places we visited in Shanghai. About 400 years ago, a wealthy government official built a garden in Shanghai for his parents. As he traveled across China, he would stop at his many real estates, including this garden. Now, the garden is a tourist attraction. Yuyuan Garden was a beautiful place, where you just walk around the enormous garden and look at the beautiful plants and architecture. Outside of the garden, you can shop in little market areas where people are selling bamboo art, paintings, sculptures, and more. There are also shops to buy tea, scarves, and other souvenirs. As you are walking, you see the classic Chinese architecture with the curved roofs.

     Temples- We had the chance to go to a Buddhist temple while we were in the city. It 

        was breathtaking! The statue of Buddha was so big, and people were there 

        worshipping. In addition to praying to Buddha, there were many other statues that 

        people prayed to. It was also crazy to think that there were Monks who lived behind the temple while tourists were walking around.

     The Fake Market- As you can imagine, in the Fake Market, people sell plenty of bags, sunglasses, shoes, and more. However, we focused on buying a lot of souvenirs there! It was a lot of fun to barter with the Chinese salespeople and look at the trinkets. Luckily, our Chinese guides loved to barter too, so they helped us with the language barrier!

The workshop and sight-seeing was absolutely incredible! We also did other fun things, like sing karaoke, go bowling, and watch the Spiderman movie in theaters. In addition to these two aspects, another unique experience that I appreciate was getting to know the Chinese culture and our two Chinese guides who were students at the university. We really were submerged in the culture from Day 1. For instance, they have some unique foods that we tried! I think two of the craziest foods we tried were bullfrog and abalone, which is a type of sea snail that we ate raw. While chopsticks did not come to us very easily, our survival instincts kicked in and we were eventually able to use them to eat! Not only was the food neat, but it was also so interesting to get to know our guides, Diao and Xu. We were both very intrigued with each other’s culture and openly asked questions that we were curious about or shared interesting information and customs.

At the end of the trip, I can say that our visit to Shanghai has been the most memorable and rewarding experiences I have had in my engineering education. I learned so much that I never could have learned in a classroom. I will always remember the friends that I made half-way across the world, and hope to visit again someday!

Mimi Overbaugh is a senior in Mechanical Engineering, and she is the Spirit Lead for WEPO '14!