Looking Back
By: Anders Zhou, Wharton ’21
Skyline of Shanghai
Diversified Agency Services (DAS) – Shanghai, China
In two words, Shanghai was both an experience and a throwback. When people ask me how my summer went, those are the two words I usually base my answer off of. I’m really thankful that Penn Abroad allowed me the opportunity to live in Shanghai and I’ve really grown a lot. So here goes! As a tip to future Penn Abroad students living in Shanghai, here’s a sum up of my journey.
Experience
For the traveler and summer intern, Shanghai is largely experiential. As a runner, I was able to find a bunch of cool routes through the city, along the Suzhou River and around various parks that fit my needs and interests. For a city as urban and commercialized as Shanghai, it was surprising to find this much green space. As someone who enjoyed weekend fun, Shanghai nightlife was obviously a big attraction. In America, it’s hard for students to easily get into clubs and go out. In Shanghai — especially along the Bund and East Nanjing Road — clubs usually don’t discriminate against most students.
Another thing that Shanghai really offered was cheap food. In fact, throughout my time in China, I almost never spent more than $10 on food between breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My time there was marked with delicious dumplings, 5 RMB jianbing, and savory soup noodles.
Finally, my internship experience in Shanghai was really eye-opening. At my desk, I worked alongside a girl studying at Fudan from Ukraine, a Johns Hopkins graduate from Brazil and a Jiao Tong University sophomore studying German. A lot of my firm’s clients were international, meaning that having such geographical diversity on our team was a huge benefit to our work. I strongly believe that I gained a better understanding of marketing, journalism and public relations through my internship as well as a more conscious attitude towards office work and professional life. I’m sure internship experiences vary across the board, but I’m thankful that mine was a rewarding one.
Throwback
One thing I immediately noticed about Shanghai was the number of students that were — like me — also interning and studying there! Something about my trip to Shanghai screamed “throwback” to me. Sure, architecturally the Bund and the French Concession jog up a sense of reminiscence, but the people in Shanghai really drove that feeling home. I ended up meeting three long-time acquaintances while I was in Shanghai, and making new friends through them; these acquaintances were people whom I hadn’t seen for ten, seven and five years. Having the opportunity to hang out with them in Shanghai was serendipitous and exhilarating in the best way possible.
As a tip to all Penn Abroad students — reach out and see if you know anyone who is in your vicinity during the summer. Even if these are people you haven’t seen for five, ten years, this is the perfect opportunity to make “new” friends by rekindling old relationships.
All things considered, I never expected Shanghai to be the city where I would reconvene with people I hadn’t seen for a long time. I guess this goes for most of my experiences with travel: things sometimes won’t go as planned out, and surprises certainly crop up from time to time.
Conclusion
If anyone ever has the fortune to come to Shanghai, I highly recommend it. I stayed in Shanghai for more than two months and wouldn’t mind staying longer. I think one of the biggest takeaways from my Penn Abroad experience is that I feel even more positive about potentially living in Shanghai long term. Sure, my Chinese will have to improve quite a bit, but I kind of have a better feeling for life in Shanghai. Between the awesome experience and the throwback friendships that I ended up making, this summer has really been the best I think it could be.
The Global Research and Internship Program (GRIP) provides outstanding undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to intern or conduct research abroad for 8 to 12 weeks over the summer. Participants gain career-enhancing experience and global exposure that is essential in a global workforce. Placements and funding awards are available.