5 November 2011
Pudong is awesome
Shanghai is split by a river, with the western part often called Puxi, being the old part and where I am staying.
The eastern side, is called Pudong and is much more modern. I hadnt actually been there until this evening except for the airport and the maglev and the subway under it, so until now I had only really seen it from afar and in photos.
It is much more awesome in person, almost too much to take in!
You have all the amazing tall buildings which just seem a bit more amazing than other countries attempts at amazing, some have tv screens their full height for example.
Everything is joined by giant flyovers, the landscaping is interesting and then you get down to the wharf and look back at the Bund.
Its also amazing how many very large ships pass by close to the shore, one particularly large ship blew its horn and the echo went on for a good 20 seconds.
I am however grateful to stay in the old part of Shanghai, im sure its more interesting to explore, and much more possible to get lost.
I better add some humor, I have a new tactic in dealing with the scammers, they say 'hello! HELLO SIR! you wanna buy watch? shopping tour? great wall? I take you sir! You want Adidas? Armani?' to which I say....
'No, you wanna buy koala bear? Kangaroo? harbour bridge? Sydney opera house?'
Now for some more observations on media.
You might have seen the trailer for a Hugh Jackman movie called Real Steel about a man who gives up his only child because he loves robot wars. Only to discover that he cant replace his child so he makes a robot child and turns it into a boxer, robot child boxer then ultimately defeats a robot Mr T that shoots lasers from its cyclops eye.
If you are like me, you might wonder who in the hell would ever go and see that. The answer is, ALL OF CHINA.
As far as I can tell this is the biggest movie event ever to hit the mainland, with every IMAX (and theres quite a few) having giant posters advertising the movie. It seems to be the only hollywood movie on at all.
So my theory is, the producers of this movie met with Hu Jintao and asked 'Hu, what sort of movie do you want your people to see?' and Hu wrote down the plot because he too loves robots more than humans.
Twin towers.
Standing on one of the many pedestrian flyovers. It had just rained and the thousands of people dissapeared instantly. Everyone has a morbid fear of rain, except me.
I am not sure what this is out the front of the Super Brand Mall, but lots of people are interested in it and theres a few dedicated security persons, I pushed in front of everyone to take an unobscured photo.
Inside the massive Super Brand mall, this one seems to have every shop leased, and be full of people even at 8pm on a Saturday night. It really was massive, I couldnt quite work out its layout, it seemed to be split in 3.5 halves.
I stumbled upon my favourite restaurant, Din Tai Fung. The food was great as always, the service here was also fantastic, with no problem in me dining alone, in fact they had tables just for such an occurence and gave me an English magazine to read whilst I waited for my food.
Whilst Din Tai Fung is based out of Taiwan, it is actually Shanghainese food which they make. Time magazine and CNN's guide to Shanghai both recommend it as the best place to try Xiao Long Bao. Insultingly, Time even mentions it being Taiwanese, but 'just tell all your friends its a local Chinese place, they will never know otherwise.'
Looking back towards Pudong, the Aurora building and the building to its right have full motion video playing on their full height.
Looking across the river at the Bund.
More Bund....also, Photo number 100!
The pearl tv tower. You can pay to go up it. It was generally obscured by cloud at the top so that might be a waste of money.
I think this is the science museum, I might go there during the week.
In basement 2 of the Super Brand mall is the most amazing supermarket I have ever been to (and I am a true supermarket afficionado!). It was called the Lotus market and despite being more luxurious than any other place I have been, the prices seemed the same for most things as the Family Mart.
Things like meat and imported french cheese were generally cheaper than Australia too.
More pearl tv tower.
A dark and sinister building dissapears into cloud. I never saw its top all evening.