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Published: November 30th 2011
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Pudong
Including the Pearl Tower, Jin Mao, and the Bottle Opener It’s not everyday you get to go to China. And the odds are even less likely that you get to visit friends who live and work in China. With the supposed next super-power on our radar we decided to explore a few of the sights China had to offer and started our trip in Shanghai where we stayed with our Scottish friends we met while overlanding in the Middle East - Scott and Nicola.
The 12-hour flight from Vancouver on China Eastern Airlines was smooth… although no little TV’s in the seat in front of you (boo) and they chose to feed us right after take off and right before landing, leaving an 11-hour gap in between meals which left us scratching our heads and rubbing our grumbling tummies.
The welcome to the airport, however, made up for everything - Scott and Nicola were standing on the mezzanine level, overlooking the baggage carousel, enthusiastically waving a full-size Canadian flag… I could get used to a cheer-squad upon arrival! It was great to see them again after saying good-bye on Christmas Day in Alexandria in 2009 and in no time it seemed like no time had passed. From the airport
we boarded the super fast “Mag-Lev” (Magnetic Levitation) train that blasted us for 8-minutes at 450kmph toward the city, this was the first indication as to what Shanghai had to offer… very futuristic! Then from the Mag-Lev station we negotiated with a cab to let the four of us as well as the massive flagpole (yes, the Canada flag was still attached to a flagpole) into the cab and it was a short trip to Scott and Nic’s apartment. Our first night in Shanghai then consisted of a few rounds of drinks at their place, a great Korean dinner with more drinks, then a few more drinks at their local bar, all the meanwhile catching up with them and ensuring we tire ourselves out to minimize the jet-lag.
The next day was a relatively clear day, by Shanghai standards (air quality is a pretty big issue), so we decided to take in some of the cityscape by taking the metro (Shanghai has a fantastic metro system) to Lupu bridge, also the site of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo site, and climbed up the arch to the top of the bridge to see the skyline. Unfortunately it smogged up a
On top of Lupu Bridge
A hazzy skyline in the background. bit on the way up, but the views were still pretty good and a good means of orientating ourselves as to what was “Pudong” and what was “Puxi” (“Pu” means “river”, “dong” means “east” and “xi” - pronounced “shee” - means “west” … “east of the river” and “west of the river”.) We saw the amazing skyscrapers in the futuristic metropolis of Pudong and “The Bund” on the banks of Puxi where the old colonial French and British buildings still exist, with the areas known as the French Concession and the Old Town behind them.
We stayed with Scott and Nic for 10 days and had a great chance to check-out a lot of different areas of the city. The daily temperature was always around 20C (perfect for a T-Shirt & Jeans) and between pounding the pavement and using the Metro we covered a lot of ground. Our first impression was how amazingly clean and spacious the city of 30-million people was (yes, that’s the whole population in Canada in ONE city!). Forty-storey apartment buildings as far as the eye could see, interspersed with business buildings, many of which were built in the last 15-years, all looking very modern
and architecturally interesting. I continually asked myself “where is everyone?” as the sidewalks weren’t overcrowded, the traffic never seemed too bad and the Metro was orderly…? But I have never seen so many massive buildings and high-density dwellings.
In the new area if Pudong we wandered around the base of some of the tallest buildings in the world, going up to the 86
th floor of the Jin-Mao building (where a Grand Hyatt hotel has 555 rooms on the top half of the building) where we had cocktails in the Cloud-Nine bar and had a great look at the city down below, as well as the Shanghai Financial Tower, aka “the Bottle-Opener”, which is actually the tallest building in Shanghai, surpassing the Jin-Mao when it opened last year. In Pudong, we also participated in a dart tournament (no, Kels and I don’t really play darts) with Scott and Nic’s dart team at the HOOTERS Shanghai (yeah, HOOTERS exists in China…?1) and also found ourselves one night doing shots of vodka wearing North Face parkas in a “Snow Bar” … one shot was enough, we can drink in the cold all we want back at home!
On the other side
The big ones...
The bottle operner (left) 101 stories, Jin Mao (right) 88 stories of the river, Puxi, we strolled along the Bund, seeing the contrast of the old buildings on the Bund side versus the new skyscrapers on the other side; we poked into a couple of the old buildings including the old Peace Hotel which is now a Fairmont; and even had an epic Sunday Brunch at the Westin with Scott and Nic which put on an amazing spread and poured us non-stop Veuve Clicquot Champagne… we left “Bunch” at 5pm! In Puxi we also visited Yuyuan Gardens where there is plenty of shopping and market stalls to visit, as well as apparently the best dumplings in Shanghai (we agree!); we also visited Century Park which used to be the Shanghai Racecourse, but was later transformed into a beautiful piece of green space; and another day we visited the Old Town and checked out the shops and eateries down a maze of alleyways. Also in Puxi, we attended the Shanghai Wine & Spirits Exposition where we had a chance to see a fair bit of the wine that was represented in Shanghai and China. It’s a far cry from the way we do Wine Festivals in the West, as every second stall
had posters of Grand Cru Bordeaux Chateaux (Latour, Rothschild, etc) even though they didn’t represent their product… brand names have such a huge draw over here. There also wasn’t a whole lot of pouring going on either, but I did manager to try some Russian sparkling wine which was interesting none-the-less.
All-in-all, Shanghai was a lot of fun and it was great to catch up with Scott and Nic who were great hosts. In retrospect, I think Shanghai is the most “futuristic/modern” city I have visited as it seemed so efficient in handling so many people. The new buildings were very impressive, as was the colonial and Chinese history. The food options were limitless, and it almost seemed at times we were eating more non-Chinese meals then Chinese food - Tepanaki, Sushi, Ramen, Thai, French, American, Italian, Mexican - whatever you want! But the Shanghaiese food was great too, including the massive dumplings where you had to poke a hole and suck the juice out of it before biting into it; a technique I learned after attempting to bit into one, only to have hot dumpling grease shoot out and burn the tip of my nose! Kelsey had a
The Gand Hyatt
555 rooms in the Jin Mao Building... are you dizzy yet? good laugh at my expense!
Shanghai was great and a great way to get started in China - very international, but still very Chinese. Thank you Scott and Nic for such a great stay, we will be back (before and after Thailand) and now it’s off to Macau… red or black?!?
Until next time…
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