The Bund lit up at night, as seen from the Pudong side
The Jin Mao Tower (11th tallest building in the world) on the left, the Shanghai World Financial Center (third tallest building in the world) on the right. A Chinese friend told me that the original design for the Financial Center called for a circular opening near the top, as the sky is represented in Chinese mythology with a circle. However, Chinese people protested this design because it would look too much like the Japanese flag, so it was changed. I thought this was just a myth, but Wikipedia corroborated this on the page for the building.
Standing in front of the buildings while they're lit up at night
A piece from the art exhibition
Another piece from the Exhibition, this one about the Three GorgesA few final thoughts on Shanghai:
-The taxi drivers' medallions have a space for stars, given to them based on experience and competence I think. I got lost three times in Shanghai in a taxi and had to call the place I was going to and have them speak to the driver. All three times the driver had zero stars. When the driver had three stars, he knew any address I gave him.
-The traffic in Shanghai is brutal, which was not surprising. What was surprising for me was what causes a lot of these traffic jams. Almost every day when there was a huge traffic jam, it was because a car stalled in the middle of the road, closing a lane. I don't know if this is a result of people not doing proper maintenance on their cars, or because they drive older cars, but it was extremely frustrating.
-Speaking of traffic, whenever I spoke to locals their first complaint was the traffic. They said Shanghai has too many cars, and that something needs to be done about it. However, everyone who said this owned a car. In the same light, people's second complaint was about pollution. They spoke about always wanting to leave the city to get away from the pollution and bad air.
-I asked three people what their favorite city in China is and they all said immediately Dalian, which is in Northern China, somewhat close to the border with North Korea. Their second favorite was Qingdao, which is south of Beijing and has a lot of German architecture, as it was occupied by the Germans at some point. It's also the site of Qingdao brewery and the home of Confucius. I think I'll incorporate these cities into my next trip to China.
-I talked to one recent graduate and current paralegal, and we started talking about the World Cup. He said that since China's national team is so bad, many Chinese people adopted North Korea as their team for this World Cup. I asked him why and he said they hate the Japanese (because of WWII and the Rape of Nanjing, etc.). I then asked him why they didn't root for South Korea and he said because they stole the Dragon Boat Festival from the Chinese. He said they started really following the North Korean team after they lost 2-1 to Brazil in their first game. It might have been premature, as they lost their next game to Portugal, 7-0.
-I noticed that my conversations with locals usually end up in a few places, once we get beyond introducing ourselves: The economic crisis, how the world views China, the 2008 Olympics, American TV shows and movies, and finally, Yao Ming.
I'm off to Hong Kong tomorrow...
-The taxi drivers' medallions have a space for stars, given to them based on experience and competence I think. I got lost three times in Shanghai in a taxi and had to call the place I was going to and have them speak to the driver. All three times the driver had zero stars. When the driver had three stars, he knew any address I gave him.
-The traffic in Shanghai is brutal, which was not surprising. What was surprising for me was what causes a lot of these traffic jams. Almost every day when there was a huge traffic jam, it was because a car stalled in the middle of the road, closing a lane. I don't know if this is a result of people not doing proper maintenance on their cars, or because they drive older cars, but it was extremely frustrating.
-Speaking of traffic, whenever I spoke to locals their first complaint was the traffic. They said Shanghai has too many cars, and that something needs to be done about it. However, everyone who said this owned a car. In the same light, people's second complaint was about pollution. They spoke about always wanting to leave the city to get away from the pollution and bad air.
-I asked three people what their favorite city in China is and they all said immediately Dalian, which is in Northern China, somewhat close to the border with North Korea. Their second favorite was Qingdao, which is south of Beijing and has a lot of German architecture, as it was occupied by the Germans at some point. It's also the site of Qingdao brewery and the home of Confucius. I think I'll incorporate these cities into my next trip to China.
-I talked to one recent graduate and current paralegal, and we started talking about the World Cup. He said that since China's national team is so bad, many Chinese people adopted North Korea as their team for this World Cup. I asked him why and he said they hate the Japanese (because of WWII and the Rape of Nanjing, etc.). I then asked him why they didn't root for South Korea and he said because they stole the Dragon Boat Festival from the Chinese. He said they started really following the North Korean team after they lost 2-1 to Brazil in their first game. It might have been premature, as they lost their next game to Portugal, 7-0.
-I noticed that my conversations with locals usually end up in a few places, once we get beyond introducing ourselves: The economic crisis, how the world views China, the 2008 Olympics, American TV shows and movies, and finally, Yao Ming.
I'm off to Hong Kong tomorrow...
I love the pictures!
ReplyDeletehttp://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/where-are-chinas-soccer-stars/?scp=1&sq=china%20soccer&st=cse
ReplyDeleteop ed article from the Times this week about why china is bad at soccer