The Bund (Wai Tan)--Shanghai 10/20/06

Shanghai is divided by the Huangpu River into Shanghai East (Pudong) and West (Puxi). The Bund (which means the Embankment) refers to Shanghai's famous waterfront running along the western shore of the river. It was the chief shipping, trading, and financial district of the colonialists after the British and other Western nations opened up the city following the First Opium War in 1842. Trade was in silk, tea, and opium, and Shanghai had a worldwide monopoly on these commodities in the late 19th century. During the 1920s and 1930s the great buildings that line the river were built, functioning as foreign banks, the Customs House, luxury hotels, private clubs, and embassies.



The Bund Promenade provides a pedestrian-only walkway stretching one mile along the river shore. Mornings on the promenade feature local workers practicing tai chi and other traditional exercises and most of the day (and night) it is crowded with international and Chinese tourists.



Further down the Bund Promenade.



The Bund, as seen from the Huangpu River.



1920s era building on the Bund.



View from the Bund.



The above photo was taken from the roof-top balcony of New Heights restaurant located at 3 on the Bund. Several buildings along this strip offer spectacular roof-top views of the river and the Pudong District.



Derek and Stacey at New Heights restaurant at 3 on the Bund.



Street-level on the Bund.



A view of the street separating the Bund's colonial buildings from the Bund Promenade, located on the other side of the trees. Just beyond that is the Huangpu River, and the skyscrapers of the Pudong District.

Shanghai Urban Planning Museum

First, a little background on the city: Shanghai, which means "above the sea", is China's most heavily populated city, with around 19 million people. It is centrally located near the eastern coast of China. (We have included a link to a pretty good map of China and its provinces in the "Links" area in the right margin.)

Shanghai has functioned as China's best example of East-meets-West. It was the first city in China with electricity, streetlights, roads and cars. In the early 1900s old Shanghai was considered a playground for foreign adventurers and a free-trade show for overseas exploiters. It was a major trading port, especially for textiles and handicrafts. In the early 1990s the city of Shanghai began a new transformation. It was essentially torn apart and rebuilt. The city's visionaries believed it could turn into one of THE great cities in the world. It was said that 1-in-5 of the world's high-lift cranes were there at that time.

Shanghai is a fascinating city that serves as China's capital of commerce, industry and finance, and has classic Chinese, European colonial, and modern architecture. It is currently competing with Hong Kong, Beijing, and Singapore to be considered the "capital" of Asia.


The Shanghai Urban Planning Museum features exhibits of colonial and contemporary Shanghai within its five stories. However, the main highlight is the massive scale model of urban Shanghai present and future. As China's largest city, the population of Shanghai is around 19 million people, including a "floating" population of between 3-4 million people. It's hard to fully appreciate the sheer size of the scale model, but to give you an idea, the above picture is actually 6 individual photographs I stitched together to make one.


A look at the Pudong District of Shanghai East. The tallest, blue building on the right is the Shanghai World Financial Center which is currently under construction. The bridge spanning the river is the Yangpu Bridge, which boasts the longest bridge span of its type in the world at 1,975 feet.



If you look closely at the center of this photo you will see two workers performing maintenance on some of the buildings.



GODZILLA!!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
This gives a good representation of the size of the models and the detail that has been put into making each one look like the real thing. (This worker also brings back memories of Dave Stanley "snorkeling" in Mexico.)

Heading to Shanghai, Weekend of October 20th, 2006

Our first venture in China outside of Beijing had a very inauspicious beginning. Five minutes before leaving for the airport, as I was washing some dishes, the pipes beneath the sink decided to fall apart. Because I was wearing the rather thick slippers shown in the picture, I did not feel the water gushing out from under the sink. By the time I looked down there was a nice layer covering the entire kitchen floor. When we were done cleaning twenty-five minutes later Stacey and I ran out the door, hailed a cab and rushed to the airport, making it just in time. Notice how the pipes in the photo are not exactly connected? You've gotta love China. (As a follow up, after we returned from Shanghai and had a maintenance person fix the sink, it broke again two days later, gushing water over the floor...again, making us repeat the mopping and cleaning...again.)

Soup in a Bag

A couple of times a week I meander to the local marketplace along our street in order to grab lunch. The "restaurant" I frequently patron (my Beijing version of Asian Max) is a hole-in-the-wall joint run by three sisters. The place is tiny, and has just enough room to seat two people outdoors. As such, I often take my meals to go.

A few weeks ago, as I was waiting in line, one of the sisters yelled: Lee xiao jie, jin tian wo men you niu rou mian. Translation: Little Miss Lee, today we have a beef noodle soup. It sounded delicious, so I ordered it as my lunch--to go.

Being the naive American that I am, I figured the beef noodle soup would come in some sort of container (preferably plastic). But chalk it up to Chinese charm, they threw the entire liquid based meal into a plastic bag. A poor quality plastic bag. With holes. So I asked for a second plastic bag for extra support--but of course the second bag also had holes.

I walked home (quick like a bunny), bag leaking the whole way there. And below is the end product: a plastic bag of noodles and beef with not much soup (or even beef). So basically, a plastic bag of wet noodles.

Thanksmas

SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

My Dad and Debbie made a surprise visit to Beijing. Although they were only in town for basically a day and a half, we packed in the fun. We visited some art galleries and museums, and were able to celebrate Thanksgiving one night and Christmas the other. It's always good to have family visit (especially around the holidays). Thus far, Dad is leading the charge with 2 visits in 2 months. Now that we have moved to China we see him a lot more than when we were in Minnesota and he was in Texas.