Day #102: The Bund

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The view of Shanghai's modern district (Pudong), from across the river on The Bund, is like looking at the future, like Gotham City or something out of a Hollywood film. The whole area has been built pretty much within the last 20 years and consists mostly of skyscrapers. We saw it first in daylight (fighting through crowds to get to the river's edge) and then on a river cruise in the evening. It it an incredible sight but as its appeal depends on its futuristic architecture I wondered how it is going to look in 30 years time - horribly dated, like looking at 1960s architecture now? The river at night time was packed with similar cruisers, usually garishly lit up with multicoloured fairy lights, and many of the skyscrapers facing the river had advertisements lit up the length of them.

The next day I went up the tallest tower, the . Before you go in the lift, you walk through a self-aggrandising film show giving a list of illustrated facts about Tokyo, New York and Shanghai, all of which reveal Shanghai to be superior (more skyscrapers...the tallest tower...faster development...less traffic....etc). This really summed up the culture in Shanghai: everything is about being bigger, better, newer. I read that Shanghai had 4000 skyscrapers and it was easy to believe from the view from the top of the tower.

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Photos

World Financial Centre
"The bottle opener"

The Bund
People say this looks like the Liver Building