Well, we've arrived. After a relatively smooth journey, China Eastern flight MU504 touched down at the brand new Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Normally such an event probably wouldn't be worth mentioning (even given the fact I'm typing this at the ludicrously cheap rate of 70 kiwi cents per hour), however, the fact that that pile of bolts arrived at all was a minor miracle. It wasn't quite the decrepit DC3 crammed with passengers between chicken crates that I was expecting, but it was pretty darn close. Think ancient A300, crammed to the brim with rather disgusting stained seats and a hideous interior colour that was pretty close to the burn orange of that prehistoric 486 monitor in the garage... There were also some sexy stripes on the wings, if oil stains can be called that. At least the flight attendants understood enough English to interpret "A coke please". The only other positive was the fact the safety demonstration video was done as an anime clip, with doe eyed "flight attendants" (looking suspiciously like sailor suited school girls) taking the passengers through one of the more original safety demonstrations I've seen. But anyway, seeing as I'm typing this, we obviously survived, so I'll move onto more interesting events.
Day one started as every day in China should start, with an enormous pile of fried noodles and pork steamed buns. Once Rock returned from the buffet table for the 3rd time, the party was ready to hit the sights. First on the agenda was a wander up the main shopping street - Nanjing Lu. I've got to pause here to mention the pollution. It's simply appalling. Anything further than a few blocks is barely visible through the thick fog-like haze. The impressive skyline is unfortunately just a ghostly silhouette under the pale glow of a sickly looking sun. Thus wandering down Nanjing Lu was something like playing anything on Melchior - a bad case of scenery pop-up as the next block suddenly emerges through the haze.
The other thing that immediately strikes you (apart from one of the insane taxis at the deadly "pedestrain crossings") is the construction. It's simply everywhere. You won't get a better illustration of what it takes to get 9% GDP growth. Everywhere you turn a new building is cropping up, and the sky is dotted with tower cranes.
Our eventual destination was the Shanghai Museum. An superbly designed building architectually with 4 floors chocka with all things Chinese (not counting the fat white tourists obviously). Statues, jade carvings, ancient seals... it was all on display. But given that the only thing more boring than a real museum is reading about a museum, i'll leave it there.
Moving on to more exciting things, out next stop was the Bund. If I wanted to do a Jared and regurgitate Lonely Planet, I could tell you what Bund means and how it came about... :) Suffice it to say, it's the waterfront along the Pudong River. All done up and very flash and the view of the Pudong Financial district on the other side of the river is superb (photos will tell the true story, but alas, no USB ports available at the moment...). Towering in the foreground is the Pearl of the Orient tower, flanked by the mighty Jin Mao tower and the brand new Citigroup Tower.
Obviously sight of the latter was enough to send us scurrying for the ferry office for a quick trip across the river. Mei's day was made when the tickets proved to be "so cheap" at 2 yuan a pop (divide by 6 for kiwi). Anyway, the financial district is simply stunning. Everything is brand new and the architecture on the plethora of gleeming office towers is superb (though disappointing Citi is a bit of a let down - a simple rectangle in a forest of curves and angles). Citigroup, ABN Amro, HSBC, RBS... this truely is the Wall Street of the East - heck, it even has a Central Park.
The highlight (apart from basking in the glow of the enormous Citi sign :) was a trip to the obervation deck on floor 88 of the stunning Jin Mao tower (4th highest building in the world). Even with the smog, the view is well worth the 50 yuans that Rock grudgingly forked over. Again, photos will have to tell the rest of the story, especially because my time is up... it's almost like someone is too cheap to fork over another 70 cents.
Over and out chaps, keep those comments coming.
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7 comments:
Reading Rock writing about Rock in the 3rd person is scary. It's almost like Mei's suddenly gone and done a 5 year Master's degree in British-English (not to be confused with the bastardised English the rest of us speakers use, what!). Scarier than that is the thought of her berating me in perfect English on her return.
Sounds exciting for day 1 though, let us know if the draw distance improves further into your Shanghai-based travels ;-)
And hey waddaya know, my Blogger account from 200 years ago (the dark ages of the internet, where ghouls of HTML 3.0 roamed the streets and serif fonts were cool) still works.
Weird.
Shifting between first and third person with the same voice? Mrs Sims would be rolling around in her grave. If she was dead, that is.
I hope this is not going to turn into another 'worship-the-shinyglass-financial-district-and-frottage-every-Citigroup-tower-in-China' thing, 'cause there was a little bit too much of that in the last blog I was forced to read. Culture, people, culture.
Having said that though, I just like to announce that FenManDV(tm) is pouring out product, and at this rate will soon be paying dividends to the shareholders. That translates to: I’ll probably owe you a shout of fish 'n chips when I see you next. Assuming sales remain strong--will keep an eye on those third quarter projections.
Ok, forget culture, it's over-rated, I don't have any and it hasn’t stopped me from...well, errr, stuff, y'know? Let’s just focus on finance and capitalism. If you happen past any electronic items stores, time some time to see what the prices are on a Panasonic PV-GS400. Am leaning toward that over the Sony DCR-PC1000E. If the cameras are too expensive, then focus on purchasing me an inexpensive Chinese wife. Cheap, obedient and flexible are my only criteria. Are you heading past Taiwan at any point? I understand all the best ones are in Taiwan.
(It is at this point that I'd like to reject any suggestions that I am bored at work.)
Finally, remember to pick up some groceries for me when you head back. It’s too cold to be bothered leaving the house.
Woot! It’s time to escape the public service for the day; here I go...
You started that post at 8.30am didn't you Ian? Come on, admit it. As a loyal ex-taxpayer of that fine land I deserve to know where my tax dollars are going...
I think I'll forego the obligatory finance comment lest I draw attention to the fact that the Holey Dollar probably didn't exactly dominate the Shanghai skyline...I'll have to take solace in the fact that every new tower is potentially another drop in the bucket of the Maccas fee machine as the aussie miners ride the resource wave... But hey, this is a travel journal not that fine tome that is the AFR, before we get Rock started on Supercycles [insert copious disclamer here to avoid being sued by Citigroup Saloman Smith Barney] let's move on...
I'm a little disappointed by the food description I must say. I mean hey, the fact that Rock pigged out isn't really the most enlightening review considering quality is not gerenally a significant factor in Rock's propensity to consume. So let's have the details. How does it compare to Beijing? Dirt cheap (this is where Devan no doubt reminisces about the fabled street corner roti stand)?
And how about accomodation, cheap (geez Jared, forget about cost for a change...and stinkin stop writing in the 3rd person...)?
Man, China Eastern sounds cool. I still regret not flying Aeroflot on the Moscow trip. I mean how often does one get the opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory (literally) for the motherland. Once again we are missing vital details though. How did the flight attendants stack up? I mean sexual discrimination in the selection process is hardly going to be an issue for an airline that uses anime chicks in the safety vid...
Ian, don't you think you'd better watch how many times you use the word Taiwan in your posts? After all we wouldn't want Big Brother Mao blocking the the blog altogether now would we? Perhaps you should consider replacing all occurances with something more party friendly...perhaps along the lines of 'strategic invasion target #1'...
Anyway, enough of the ramblings of the mundane stuck at home crowd. After all, Ian's already posted...
8:30am? Are you crazy? Who the heck gets to work that early in the morning?!?!
And if we want to move on to the subject of financial irregularities, let's review a certain scholarship gratuity, and the benefits that investment has thus far made for 'the farmers of New Zealand' ... or more pertinently, for the tourist economies of Europe, Asia and Sydney. I'm sure Ken Lay would be inspired by such accounting practises.
;-)
[26 April, 2347 hours] Day 2 ends. Winding our way down from shanghai by car with mei dad. At suzhou. Struggling to find net cafe not many and not marked. Did my post make it to the blog yesterday? Saw the venice of the east today. Awesome maze of canals and 900 year old buildings.
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