Shanghai October 2012

A week's holiday to celebrate Chinese National Day saw us back in Shanghai a few weeks after our last visit. They call this the Golden Week where hundreds of millions travel in China. The day we left was certainly busy. Around six fast trains (16 carriages) an hour from Nanjing to Shanghai alone gives an idea of the numbers moving.

Not only was it the Golden week but the weather in Shanghai was golden as well. Clear blue skies, little cloud and temperatures 23 - 27 C made for an enjoyable stay.

First stop was the old city area where large numbers of traditional Chinese shops are selling all sorts of souvenirs of your visit to Shanghai. It was teeming with people with a noticeable numbers of foreigners around too.

Street corner in the Old City



Street snacks being made

We came across this stall where the man had a charcoal fire being fanned by the blower being operated by his right hand. He was turning something like a pressure cooker to make the snacks for sale in the photo below.

Snacks for sale



Colourful shop front, near Fangbang Chonglu



Dragons for sale, please enter!



The noodle maker



Street food stall



Street food seller



Another street food stall



Dumpling maker

The next set of photos were taken on a different day when the YuYuan Gardens were the main attraction.

Main entrance to the Yu Gardens precinct

Yuyuan Garden is an excellent model of classical Chinese gardening architecture

under state preservation. It was built during the reign of Ming Emperor Jiajing (1559)

as the  private garden of Pan Yunduan,

an administrative commissioner of Sichuan Province ......



The dragon wall



Dragons above a gate



All sorts of carvings adorn the rooves.
They keep evil spirits and fires at bay.

Being the holidays, the crowds were rather large, even by Chinese standards. The following shots give an idea of the many thousands around this area.

Shanghai at night takes on a rather colourful appearance. This trip I came armed with the tripod to get some better photos at night than the ones from my last trip.

Buildings along The Bund



Nanjing Rd East

The above photo was taken from the steps of one of the metro exits. I didn't venture beyond this spot as there were possibly 2-3 million people from here all the way down to The Bund.

Pudong looking across the Huangpu River from The Bund



Xizang Rd from a pedestrian overpass

A larger selection of photos of Shanghai by night can be found here if you didn't click on the link earlier.

No trip to Shanghai should be complete with a trip up to one of the observations floors of at least one of the tall structures over at Pudong. This time we opted for the tallest building in China (at present), the Shanghai World Financial Centre (SWFC). The views from the Skywalk at 100 floors up speak for themselves as you can see below.

China's tall buildings at Pudong

The building to the left is the SWFC - like a bottle opener! The Skywalk is at the top with a glass floor at level 100 looking down at the glass top on level 94 where you begin the tour. At 474 m this is at present the tallest building in China - or was when it opened. The circular building under construction will be 100-150m taller. The Jinmao Tower (built like a pagoda) between these two is only 421m high! The Grand Hyatt Hotel is between the 53rd and 87th floors and has a 33-story interior atrium from the 56th floor reception!

Now lets get in the lift and go up to floor 94 of the SWFC.

Looking down the Huangpu River



Upstream, Haungpu River

 Having seen all there is to see at floor 94, another lift takes you to the Skywalk, 474m high at floor 100.

Lujiazu Park



Looking down on the Jinmao tower



The Pearl Tower takes centre stage

On our previous trip to Shanghai, The Pearl Tower appears huge when viewed from its base before going up as far as we could go. From here, it looks rather small! The cruise ship is the Sea Princess. From this perspective, at 261 m long and 77,500 t it too is rather small - maybe it is because we are so high up!!!

The road below looking through the glass floor

With our feet firmly back on the ground it was time to head off after adding another tower to our list of "been there, done thats".