Last Thursday I arranged to meet up with some of my new-found friends at another Brits Abroad function – Breakfast at the Paulaner Bauhaus in Pudong and from there go on afterwards to visit the Aurora Museum which is just across the road.

It was a blisteringly hot day and time had to be made for walking slowly wherever I had to walk, but I had also made time to arrive a little early so that I could walk along the Riverside Promenade on the west side of the Pudong Peninsula.  Armed with an umbrella to keep off the sun, it was not particularly easy to take photographs, but an umbrella is much cooler than a hat which just gets hot and steamy after a while.

A Working River

The first thing that struck me was that the Huangpu river is most certainly a working river.  The number of ships  – and these are ships not boats – going up and down the river are considerable as these photographs all taken within about 20 minutes will show. And although many of the banks are built up with concrete, especially along the bund, vegetation still grows along the eastern edge of the river.

Puxi – Meaning The West Bank – The Bund

This set of photographs is of the Bund starting from the South and going North.

The Pudong Meaning East Bank

On the East Bank –  the Pudong – is the Oriental Pearl Tower, The Super Brand Mall, The Aurora Museum and the Shanghai Tower.

The Oriental Pearl Tower

The Super Brand Mall

The Aurora Museum Entrance

The Shanghai Tower

A Nicely Placed Photographer’s Rickshaw

A Group of Tourists

The Pudong is only twenty years old.  All along the Riverside Promenade there are numerous opportunities to buy a cup of coffee.  I wondered how they can all survive, but maybe at lunchtime they come into their element as the office workers pour out of their glass and metal towers in search of fresh air and sustenance.  There were so many places, including the strangely named

Haagen-Dazs

Muskcat Coffee

Starbucks

A Chinese Cafe & Bar

Lavazza

Photography

Photography.   What is that all about?  But anyway I didn’t need to make a choice between the Chinese, or the American, or the Russian, or the Italian, or the Dutch coffee, because I had an appointment at the German Paulaner Bauhaus, a place I associate with Munich Beer Kellers, but where I was off to for a late breakfast.

The Paulaner Bauhaus

The Shanghai Brits Abroad had organised a lovely breakfast of croissant and rolls with a delicious scrambled egg and true to its German roots plates of cheese and meats.  The coffee came in big mugs and for an extra sum I had a tall glass of freshly squeezed orange juice all washed down with excellent company.

After our leisurely breakfast the three of us, Linda, Fiona and myself, accompanied by the lovely Janet who joined us as the last members standing (we seem to be making a habit of this) went off to look around the Aurora Museum, of which, another day.  On the way out of the Paulaner Bauhaus, for some reason, I was amused to see a table of Chinese tucking into a lunch of bratwurst and kartoffelsalat.  I can’t think of anything more un-Chinese than that.

Pudong Skyscrapers

The Jinmao Tower

The Shanghai World Financial Centre

After the museum Janet, who lived just around the corner, invited us back to her apartment, which meant that I could have a much closer look at the tall beasts of the Pudong, namely The Jinmao Tower (designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill), which echos the 1930s Art Deco heritage of Shanghai.

The Shanghai Tower

The Twisting Shanghai Tower

It stands at 88 floors high and was the tallest tower in China until the opening of its neighbour the Shanghai World Financial Centre (designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox) – the one that looks like a 100 storey bottle opener, but when you look at it side-on as I did that day, it looks like a chisel.

For now the tallest building in China, The Shanghai Tower next door, designed by the US firm Gentler stands at 632 metres tall, which stands almost within touching distance of the

Janet’s Home

Want A Mobile?

chisel.  Janet’s block in the Skyline Compound is short by comparison.  I was amused to see these phones for sale laid out on the pavement outside the compound.  They must have been expecting quite a few customers to just walk past that day just a little different from the way Carphone Warehouse go about things.

From 40 floors up in Janet’s lovely modern flat I could get a good view of the base of her compound and the base of the Shanghai Tower over the road.

Base of Janet’s Block

Base of The Shanghai Tower

The Shanghai Tower From
Janet’s Flat

but nothing quite prepared me for the sight of looking up from Janet’s 40th Floor flat to the top of the tower opposite.  Quite a neighbour!