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The Metro
Very Clean Sunday morning - the lovely 5:37am sun, or rather 5:37am light because it's too smoggy to see the sun, woke me up again today. Scott and I met up with some of the other students and had some breakfast at a Chinese "fast-food" joint. I had some absurdly sweet tea with some egg and bread soup. Parker and Matt (two SSP'rs) had read about the Bund, "An architecture exposition of the world" that lies at the end of East Nanjing Pedestrian Road, the most commercially prosperous road in China with all the neon lights and endless shops/bars. It edges the Huangpu River where you could look onto the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (3rd tallest in the world)! It's a big tourist attraction, so we decided to head there for the day. We, including myself, Ted (who can speak a good amount of Chinese), Parker, Matt, Sean, and Scott.
We figured out the subway ticket system (4 RMB each way) after about 5 minutes of confusion - though I still cannot purchase a round-trip ticket from the machines. The subway here is the nicest I have ever used, nicer than MARTA and even Metro in D.C. With four people, a
East Nanjing Road
Famous for its neon lights...but it's daytime taxi may have cost just as much. The subway was tight, but not chest-to-back, except one stop, just shoulder-to-shoulder. The transfer station at People's Republic Square was huge (almost like a small airport area, ha)! The floor was tile or simply smooth and made me want to (or expect to see someone) bboy in a corner and earn some "kuai" (yuan) - not sure if that's legal in China, though.
Despite expectations, I was still blown away by how many people there were along East Nanjing Road! We headed pass all the interesting shops, saying "bu yao" (No thanks) every 5-10 minutes to street/sweat-shop advertisers. A very poor and aged local with fingernails that had never been cut before tried to stop me with his cane once! Several Chinese tourists (of the Bund) tried to either sneak in pictures of our group of foreigners or walked straight up and asked for a group picture with us. It was a very interesting experience. Felt awkward but made the glares a little more comfortable.
We had to take a tunnel to cross over to the riverside due to all the construction. We took several pictures along the Huangpu
river of the Pearl Tower and boats while getting harassed by more street sellers. Also, there have been signs up for the "2010 Expo" EVERYWHERE with some blue guy as the mascot - finally learned that it's basically the World Fair that will be hosted here with the theme "Better City - Better Life". On the way back to East Nanjing road we passed by several old buildings dating back to the 19th Century (I have few pictures...), visited a famous bridge, and then ate at place called the Puzzle Piece. We left too early to see the lights along East Nanjing shopping area, but we'll head back later.
After we got back, Jeff (who used to live in Shanghai) said he'd take us up to the gym in Metro City to see if we wanted to sign up, but first we tried the food court in the basement of Metro City. I would say there are at least 50 different vendors there, a great variety. Signing up for the 3 months cost about 500 yuan ($75), a pretty good deal if you use it often, but the paperwork was ridiculous, ha. The attendant actually asked us if
East Nanjing
Lots of people we wanted to do a group photo for our ID pic when Phil and I signed up, haha.
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damom24
charmaine
Smog
Really is a lot cleaner than I imagined it would be over there. The architectural types are so varied and modern and yet ecclectic in other areas. Really amazed, and you're pics are amazing too! Do love the vice grip picture. Kind of reminded me a little of Hiro.