China - Shanghai

The last two days of our China visit were spent in Shanghai.  The skyline, the crowds, and the development are all staggering and very exciting!  We cut away from our tour group for both days in Shanghai and explored on our own.  It was nice to be back at our pace and creating our own schedule.

Our first evening we took a river boat ride viewing the skyline of Shanghai.  

The Chinese light up all of their skyscrapers at night which makes for an impressive sight - to say the least!

As we have traveled, we continue to visit the tallest buildings along the way.  In Santiago, we went to the top of the tallest building in South America.  In Auckland, the tallest in New Zealand.  In Melbourne we visited the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.  And here we went to the top of the Shanghai Tower which is the tallest building in China and the second tallest building in the world.  In just two days we'll be in Dubai and we will visit the Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the world.

We loved the curves on this building.

Although it was a sunny day, notice the smog and haze.  The Chinese smog you read about is always hanging in the air.  This made us very grateful for our Environmental Protection Agency in the US.  Hopefully that agency still exists when we return!

The view from the top

The Shanghai World Financial Center

Cameron was excited to visit the Apple Store in Shanghai.  Notice the Apple logo on the glass sphere leading down the spiral stairs to the underground store.  Fantastic!

Apple store entrance with Shanghai Tower behind

Our second night in Shanghai we were entertained by the Chinese Acrobats.  Awesome!!

This was like a flexible balance beam. The guy on top was launched high into the air and landed back on the beam.

One afternoon we visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall.   It contained a three dimensional model of the entire city - photo below.  I would highly recommend a visit if you are in Shanghai!  The Chinese have a very interesting approach to urban planning.  They have the funds to get projects done and of course the government can just move forward without any opposition or roadblocks - for better or for worse.

Though the city is huge, people work in their own neighborhoods. 

Street scenes from around the city:

Notice the power lines. It is amazing the electricity keeps flowing. This type of wiring wasn't limited to Shanghai. We saw it in every city we visited in China.

The Bund is a wide walkway running along the West bank of the Huangpu River with views over to the Pudong skyline on the East bank.  Up until the 1990's, Pudong was a sleepy suburb of Shanghai and now has one of the most impressive skylines in the world!

The Bund

Pudong skyline

We have loved every day of our time in China.  The country and culture are so vast and impressive. So much to learn and so much to see.  I'm sure we'll be back again to experience more!

Next stop: Dubai!