Marta

Last week, Marta (a Polish QA lady who has come over to China to help with quality systems in the factories) had a week off work and was spending half of that time in Hong Kong and half of it in Shanghai, so we met up to do a bit of sightseeing together. We decided that we would have a spot of lunch, followed by a visit to the Pearl Oriental TV Tower – the pink bulbous one that is always shown in pictures of Shanghai  – which meant a ride up the tower and down into its basement to visit the Shanghai Municipal History Museum which I wrote about in my past post. The Oriental Pearl Tower is situated in the newly developed Pudong or east bank of the Nangpu river (we live in Puxi  – on the west bank). The whole area was

The Pearl Oriental Tower

The Shanghai Tower

farmland until 20 years or so ago, when the Chinese government set up a Special Economic Zone on the east bank and named the western most tip the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone.  It is now the financial hub of China and contains not only the Pearl Oriental Tower, but also the Jin Mao Building with architecture reminiscent of the art deco buildings over the water, the Shanghai World Financial Centre – which is known locally as the bottle opener and the super tall Shanghai Tower, a twisted building (similar to the spire of Chesterfield’s Church of St Mary and All Saints, but this one I believe is designed that way, rather than being to due to lead used in its construction, which is the Church’s problem ) which at 632 metres is the tallest building in China – until next year that is, when it will be beaten by a tower in Shenzhen.

The Pudong Disney Store

The Pudong Apple Store

Pedestrian roundabout

We started, however, with lunch – taking this overhead pedestrian roundabout (there are number of these being built at major intersections in Shanghai), passing on one side the local Disney store with its Mickey Mouse floral display and on the other, yet another of the Shanghai Apple Stores , to the rather ugly Super Brand Mall building, a mecca for designer labels and Chinese stomachs.

The Ugly Super Brand Mall

Super Brand Mall Entrance

Pudong’s Din Tai Fung

We could have had Sichuan Hotpot in a restaurant at the top of the Super Brand Mall overlooking The Bund on the other side of the River, but we opted instead to go to Din Tai Fung, a branch of the Taiwanese dim sum restaurant (it was a bit grander than the original one in Taipei which we visited when seeing Rozy in Taiwan last summer), and had dumplings and green beans and strips of seaweed, which Marta didn’t like very much.

Inside the Super Brand Mall

Strange Structure inside a Cafe

Umm – not sure how to type this

We left and headed out of the mall, passing this shop on the way – I have no idea how you pronounce the shop title, I don’t even know what the language it is – part of me wonders if the sign as been put on back to front.  Can anyone help?  It can’t be good for advertising, can it.  I mean how do say I’m going to buy a dress at (backwards) E X (backwards) C (backwards)E (backwards) P TIOM? After that conundrum we headed over to

Map of The Shanghai Area

the tower, negotiated the ticket desk and bought what turned out to be an OK ticket which gave us access to two of the three pink spheres and the museum, but not, it turned out to the topmost Space Module, and after a bit of queuing here and there up we went.  To understand what were looking at it, it is probably good to see a map of Shanghai in its surrounding hinterland. Shanghai is in the bottom right hand corner of this map.  Shanghai

11 o’clock The Suzhou Creek

sits on the Huangpu river, a tiny tributary at the mouth of the mighty Yangtze River – the biggest in China.  This tiny tributary, however is capable of taking ocean going liners and other sizeable cargo vessels.  I took several photos of the views from the top sphere that we visited starting at about 11 o’clock and turning anti-clockwise:

10 o’clock The North Bund and Puxi

At 9 o’clock the Bund with Ocean-going ships on the Huangpu River

At 8 o’clock Puxi Heading off to the horizon

At 7 o’clock The Huangpu River turning westwards

At 5 o’clock the three towers
The Shanghai World Financial Centre, The Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai Tower

At 4 o’clock The Pudong heading off the 41km non stop buildings to the airport

At 3 o’clock the Huangpu River turning north

At 1 o’clock the Yangtze River on the horizon

At 12 o’clock a Cruise ship on the Huangpu

We then took the stairs down a floor, which took the idea of a viewing platform to a whole new level (downwards):

Marta holding on tight

Marta on the Viewing Platform

Others on the Viewing Platform

Much more impressive than these people lying down was the little boy who was lying face down…….  (but I didn’t get my camera out in time).  I took some photographs as I stood looking down through the glass, this one on the right looking back down at the base tower from the outside edge of the viewing platform was a little disconcerting, a bit like looking at the Earth from Space I should imagine.

The Pedestrian Roundabout from Above

The Base of the Oriental Pearl Tower From Above

On the lowest  sphere you could also look out at the views of Shanghai, but this time through rose-tinted glass.  It didn’t really do anything for me. We then proceeded to the basement to the Shanghai History Museum, which I have already told you about.

Shanghai through rose-tinted glass

Looking up at the glass floored-viewing platform

Loki in Janet’s Conservatory

As I write this, I have had news about our male cat Loki from a neighbour, Janet, in our small town in Kent: knowing that he is behaving as normal – taking up squatter’s rights in whoever’s place has the warmest place to sleep is comforting, but also made me miss him and his sister who are being looked after by our house-sitters – when he is at home that is.