City above the Sea

Feb 18, 2015

Shanghai literally means "city above the sea" and is a quickly growing city. While Beijing is considered the Washington DC of the East, Shanghai is the New York. Most of the sky rise buildings in the city were built since 1990. 1990!!! When they called it a young city, they really mean a YOUNG city.

Our Wednesday itinerary was a relaxed one with only 2 scheduled stops-Oriental Pearl Tower and the Bund.

Built in 1994, the tower is a very distinct landmark on the skyline (see pics) on the Huangpu River. We took the elevator ride up to the 2nd pearl, 259m of the 794m. It was a beautiful 360degree view of the city. It really reminded me of the Sky Tower in Auckland, and is the 2nd tallest building in China. We enjoyed the views and I finally managed to find SINGLE postcards. I never thought that would be a challenge, but all the postcards we've seen have been packs of 10, and I only needed 3. After climbing down we walked through the Shanghai Wax Museum, which I was pretty impressed with. The sings were not only translated to English, but they were *just* enough info to be informative, but not a brain drain.

The Bund is the area near the Huangpu River which also had a great view of the skyline. After walking for a while it we clearly noticed the divide between the "old" side of the city, with European influenced architecture, and the "new" side of the city, with the modern buildings that were built in the 90s. April and I were QUITE the celebrities and were asked for photos with the locals at least a dozen times. It must have been our blonde hair…we were the only ones in the whole Bund!

At lunch we decided to sign up for the optional night excursion-dinner and an acrobatic show. April had never been to something like that, and it was only $33. For dinner and a show, we couldn't do much better. We were hoping to find something fun and local to do to celebrate the Spring Festival aka Chinese New Year, but due to the stampede at the end of December, the government cancelled all the parades. The acrobatic show was 100% worth it, and afterwards we decided to come back to the hotel room and celebrate in the traditional Chinese fashion, by watching the "gala" on tv. It is the tradition to have a family reunion for the Spring Festival and watch the gala at night, eat dumplings and set off fire crackers.

The gala reminded us of the Rockin New Year's Eve countdown and the fire crackers went off ALLLLLLLLLL night. As early as 9:30,  there were fireworks all over the skyline. At midnight there was a big show right outside of our hotel room window and even thought it wasn't what we were expecting, I guess it was the traditional Chinese way, and like lots of other things, it was just part of the unexpected adventure.