Okay, so, this is the first of the Tuesday blog posts, covering our first outing of the day.
^ Woke up to a foggy and damp Shanghai.
^ Some early morning LOST and some repacking of the camera bag for the day ahead.
^ Gatorade and Coke in their wonderous Chinese packaging.
^ Played around taking some self-portraits on my balcony. My balcony view doesn't exactly scream "Shanghai" - but it sure ain't Seighford.
^ You can walk into any shop and take a photo of any shelf and be pretty much guaranteed some cool looking packaging. The winner on this shelf has to be "Mr Brown's Coffee in a Can."
^ All over Shanghai... and the rest of China I assume - bamboo is the scaffolding of choice. The length of some of the pieces is epic, and the scale of projects that it's used on is also mind-blowing. Awesomeness, though perhaps not as fire resistant as steel.
^ Took the metro to the old part of town. The Shanghai metro system has its downs (like not being able to buy a day pass) but overall its super clean, and really well thought out. I'll confess to geeking-out over mass transit systems - a habit enduced by too much Sim City, and Shanghai's 12-13yr old system is really quite impressive. That and seeing the Alstom logo on all the trains reminds me of home.
^ A typical apartment building rising from the low-level slum-ish buildings of old Shanghai. I just really like this shot because of the birdies.
^ Old shanghai in the foreground, new shanghai in the background. Hella foggy / polluted.
^ The first of many examples of both old and new Shanghai embracing corporate America.
^ and what a tasty embrace it was.
^ This square / courtyard was really cool. Even the Chinese tourists were snapping away.
^ But I think I look much more touristy than them. What do I win?
^ This was a pretty rad sculpture / art. A floating teapot! If you can't work it out (I'm looking at you Amy) there's a transparent plastic "beam" that goes between the cup and the spout, inside the water stream. However, the funniest thing was the Chinese guy posing next to it to have his photo taken. He was holding his mobile phone to his ear to try look cool! This amused me and Tim muchly.
^ Ummm, can't remember the name of this area. But more ancient-looking-but-not-that-ancient buildings with lots of tourists.
^ Starbucks does its best to hide amongst the Chinese setting.
^ This alleyway was rad.
^ Aya had never had a burger king, so we had to introduce her. However, while waiting I was amused by their proud display of their "Okay" rating for food hygiene. Yum yum.
^ and what tasty "okay" hygiene it was!
^ This was a cool "bridge" fountain. Obviously made cooler by the dragons. Dragons make everything cooler.
^ This fast food chain is in a few spots around Shanghai. "kungfu!" featuring the likeness of Bruce Lee. Must be good, but yet to try.
^ Peering over the river to the "rich" side of Shanghai. The world's tallest hotel and the world's tallest structure (by roof) disappear into the mist.
^ Hehehehhee. This building looks like a pineapple! heheheheh!
^ I liked the colours of this particular image on the TV screen. So much so that I stood about 30 seconds waiting for this ad to come back around.
^ Which led onto Nanjing road. Everyone raved about this - but I think its mainly cool for Chinese tourists. Nanjing road is basically a shopping road, but it's just like a high street in any UK city. Lots of big-name chains. I guess for Chinamen it's pretty "cool", but... it was "meh"
^ Lots of Americanisation on Nanjing road. What does "America" mean to China? Three letters. N.B.A.
^ More corporate America.
^ This dude was gettin' his saxophone on from this balcony.
^ Even more corporate America. Aya had never had subway, so she grabbed a 6 incher from there. I argued that Subway was for douchebags (sorry readers, it is!) but I lost the arguement.
^ Finally walking through the subway on the way home I saw this poster which reminded me that I was less than 10 miles from the Shanghai International Circuit - home of the Chinese Grand Prix. *ponders: Wonder if I'm busy in April....."
Next post coming soon....sometime.... maybe. :-)
wow!! it looks amazing!! Question - - can't u post ALL ure pics onto Facebook as well as what u put on here? I know that in Nepal it wasn't possible as the download time was frikin' ridiculous but I dunno what it's like there!!??
amy xx
Jealousy is a terrible affliction... Take more night time cityscapes please and I will buy them from you!!! And you HAVE to go to the Chinese Grand Prix! Hayles x
@Amy - Erm, I can't post ALL my pics on Facebook, but I could probably post all the ones that I post on here. But, I can't be bothered typing all the captions in on Facebook; and if I put all the pics on Facebook, people will just look at them on there, instead of coming here and being subjected to my sense of humour. I'd be lost without my audience.
@ Hayley - More night time cityscapes being posted in the coming posts! If you see any you really like, lemme know which ones and I'll email you the full 10 megapixel jobbies for you to do with as you please. And OMG - Chinese Grand Prix would be craazzzzy!