Shànghǎi: Gina and David

10th April 2013.

 

We said goodbye to our new friend Chen, who was off to have lunch with his sister.  Standing on the Bund, we looked across the Huángpǔ River to the new Pǔdōng (east) area, the location of the financial district and the famous Shànghǎi skyline.

This area is developing at a breakneck pace “like bamboo shoots after overnight rain”.  Tour guides have a story that sometimes tourists will ask about a certain building, and they have to say “i don’t know, it wasn’t there yesterday”.

 

We came across an example of this newness when Pat later asked our guide Ahwen if the Bund floral wall was always like this or only in spring.  Ahwen said he didn’t know, as the wall was so new he had only seen it in spring.

 

We watched the cross-river ferry threading its way between the constant stream of cargo-carrying barges which must have kept thousands of trucks off the roads, and decided to splash out on the 30 cents each to cross the river.

 

On the ferry, we met Gina and David, an English couple who were travelling in China after visiting their daughter who lived in Beijing.  (That’s Gina, not David).

 

From the ferry, we could look back to the Bund (an Anglo-Indian term for the embankment of a muddy waterfront). 

“The majority of art deco and neoclassical buildings here were
built in the early 20th century and presented an imposing – if strikingly un-Chinese – view for those arriving in the busy port.  Today the Bund has emerged as a designer retail and restaurant zone, featuring the city’s most exclusive boutiques, restaurants and hotels” (Lonely Planet).  At all hours of the day and night, locals and tourists alike stroll along the Bund, “contrasting the bones of the past with the futuristic geometry of Pǔdōng’s skyline”.

 

One of the first sights to greet us in Pǔdōng was an advertisement for Australian Jacob’s Creek wine.

 

With Gina and David, we walked along beside cherry blossom trees, whose petals fluttered around us like confetti.

 

The Oriental Pearl Tower, a “poured concrete shocker of a tripod TV tower” (Lonely Planet) has become a symbol of the new Shànghǎi.

 

Pedestrian walkways kept us above the traffic and gave us a bird’s-eye view of the elaborate gardens.

 

Double-dragon garden.

 

Some big names …..

 

….. and more.

 

The middle building is the Jīnmào Tower, which was the tallest building in China until overtaken by the Shànghǎi World Financial Centre on the left, which in turn will be overtaken by the building on the right, when it is completed.

 

Gina and David’s daughter had recommended that they have a drink at the Cloud 9 bar at the top of the Hyatt Hotel, which occupies the upper section of the Jīnmào Tower.

We found that the Cloud 9 bar didn’t open until 5pm, but we could have lunch in their restaurant, so up we went!

 

Here we are, about to have lunch at the Hyatt in the Jīnmào Tower.(David, Pat, Gina).  Not a bad view for lunch!

 

Even the view from the Ladies’ was stunning.

 

Gina posing at the window of the Ladies”.

I don’t have Photoshop on my travelling computer, so here it’s either Gina or the view – in this case Gina.

 

And here is the view from the Ladies’ with not much of Gina.

 

Looking across the Huángpǔ River to the Bund from about halfway up the Jīnmào Tower (with a few of the Pǔdōng “bamboo shoots” in the way. 

 

The Foyer of the Hyatt Hotel goes right across the Jīnmào Tower, from about the 56th floor.  From there up, the building is hollow, so you can look right up to the atrium at the top.

A couple of days later, we did get to Cloud 9 at the top, and I was able to take this same picture, except looking down, from the top.

 

Gina, David and orchids, on the ground floor of the Jīnmào Tower, on our way out after our splendid lunch together.  We were delighted to have met them, on our first day in Shanghai.