Shanghai on the Other Side

Yesterday was a nice day-once again a glorious sunny, if hazy days, and temperatures in high 70's to 80's. I took the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel across the river-that is a small train that goes underneath the river. The tunnel lights up and has lights and images in the tunnel, like different colors for "Paradise" and "hell". The voice said things like "spring swirl", and magna lava". The ride is maybe 10 minutes, and real cheesy.

The ride ended at the other side of the tunnel, which is in a section of town called Pudong, which is where all of the giant office towers are, including a couple that are over 100 stories tall. I walked around this section, running into many office towers, searching for the hop-on hop-off bus so I could gain some knowledge of the area. I saw the bus but had much difficulty finding where to get on the bus. In the meanwhile, I walked around. I found a great promenade on the river overlooking the Bund (where I walked the previous evening). I also found a system of elevated, landscaped walkways that went between the office buildings, shopping malls, and transit stations, and the landscaping on the group was immaculate as well.

Closer to noon, I got hungry. I found a store at ground level that was comprised of vending machines-with all types of foods, from fresh fruits to dinner to wines. But the only way to access the vending machines was by scanning with a cell phone. The combination of all Chinese and all high tech boggled me, but I was hungry and I saw a package of mandarins that looked appetizing. I found a worker who I paid cash, and he got me the food.

I then walked a little further along, and found a place for a more substantial dumpling soup, which was only about $4.00-$5.00 and was very good.

Later on, I decided to go in the Oriental Pearl Tower, which was a tall radio tower with an observation deck. Sort of freaky looking-I guess a communist style-this wasn't the tallest observation deck in the city, but it had a history museum at the bottom which I was interested in seeing. Plus, I was already in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world, so every other building would be anticlimactic. I didn't have to wait long to go to the top, since it was Tuesday, perhaps. There we're very few white people there-I felt like the only tourist. When I got up to the top-(or near the top-I didn't pay to go to the very top), I looked out on the city. The skies we're hazy-so I couldn't see really far. While the city view was impressive-I couldn't get the impression that 24 million people lived here. It looked like a similar view one might see in a Boston or smaller city. I did learn a lot about the older buildings along the Bund, built during colonization.

After the tower, I went to the museum-which showed various scenes-including the old occupations of the Chinese, including farming, and making milk from soy beans. I saw pictures of the city after colonization, and reenactments of the opium wars. It was a good 1/2 and hour, and it was interesting.

Then I walked along the promenade at sunset, and took the ferry back to the side of the river where the hostel is. I walked along the pedestrian street to the hostel-I got there around 10:00 pm.

By the way, remember I don't have access to Facebook in China-so I don't know if this is being posted.