nippy on the Bund (no frying eggs)

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Well welcome to Shanghai. But first of course I had to get here, which involved the "torture" of 10 hours or so in Qantas business class, which of course I could only wish on myself on frequent flyer points (actually the only way to get up there, as economy was not available). Anyway I did my best to try three of the four wines available, along with a Para port and a sweet white wine. Not to mention a few hours in relatively total recline, and the strangely apposite movie, as it was a Chinese -- Australian coproduction, "33 postcards" - about a young female Chinese orphan who is in a choir but manages to visit out of the blue in Sydney her long-time sponsor, who despite a fancy postcard life of living in a beach house is actually doing time at Long Bay! Arrived into the incredibly sprawling Pudong airport at 6:30 PM and then found the Maglev (runs on suspended magnets or something ) train which runs at 300 km/h for a a few short minutes until it gets to a metro station where you had to change to the somewhat slower metro. This took me to Nanjing East Road station from whence it was a relatively six block walk south to the Salvo Hotel. Although it was obviously already dark this was fortunately quite easy to find as its 32 storey rooftop is quite distinctive. I could quite easily get used to the relatively large space here for about $115 per night as there is a sitting room as well as the bedroom.

Early bed time and then up at 9:30 AM for breakfast on the 31st floor which gives you the high level shots in the picture side of the blog. I was able to plug the laptop into the LAN, although there is actually a Lenovo desktop computer on the desk but its Chinese error messages drive me mad. With the result that I did not actually leave the hotel until after 2 PM - first days are always a bit slow -- and naturally headed down to the Bund. I was here in 1998 with Barbara and at that time (July) you could literally fry an egg on the Bund. It was somewhat cooler today (like about 5° at that time!). Anyway the view is one of the most spectacular (if not the best) urban walks anywhere in the world that I have seen. I think I will simply let the pictures do the talking as the view across the Hunagpu River to the Pudong area is pretty amazing. The buildings such as the Pearl TV Tower were already there in 1998 but certainly the residential looking blocks further down were not . It must have been the cold as I had to wee a couple of times and although I dreaded pay toilets with a matron and a bowl but they were pleasantly free and clean . There is quite a bit of Chinese/English signage which makes the place relatively easy to navigate fortunately. I went south a fair way then went north and headed west off the Bund and found the Peninsula Hotel which is reputed to have the best service in Shanghai. Just behind that is a row of old historic brick buildings (called Back of Bund apparently) which were nicely lit up. From there a short walk and you find the Garden Bridge which you will see in the attached photographs nicely lit up at night. Just by there is the Astor House Hotel which was the first proper hotel in Shanghai in 1846. There was a restaurant there so had a hot and sour soup and then a well softly braised dong po pork dish. A walk home via some of the Nanjing Rd shops. There is an Apple store there selling Ipads and iPhone 4s for virtually the same price as at home. Speaking of which, at dinner near me a young Chinese couple had their two-year-old son virtually ignoring food unless rice was stuffed in his mouth while he "played" on an Ipad like tablet on a stand - was this to keep him shut up or to give the parents time to talk?!

Did I say already it was cold?! But at least there was watery sun about when it was 5°. In a couple of days it is supposed to be a more tropical 12 -- 13°. A guy from Holland got in the lift and said it was colder here than at home (same season remember -- not "tropical" Sydney).

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Photos

from flr 31
a partly eaten building

over the Bund to Pudong
from hotel fl.31

love on the Bund
might just need to keep warm!

a chilly model shoot on Garden Brdg
poor girl half topless at 5deg.!