Shanghai, China (GMT +8)

(Originally written by Fuji on November 6, 2010)

Portman Carlton-Ritz

OK, was up at 3am this morning after hitting the hay at ~2300 - getting better! May have something to do with the fact that I'm checking out of the hotel today and heading for Shanghai's Pu Dong airport (about 1 hr out of the city) to catch a flight to Beijing.

Met up with my friend, Todd

Had a very good 'touristy' day yesterday. Worked until noonish out of my room and then hooked up with a colleague/friend, Todd, and taxi'd down to the Huang Pu River and the Bund area of Shanghai. It's the most iconic of locations where Old Shanghai (Puxi area westside) meets the New Shanghai (Pudong area eastside) separated by a wide, large river, the Huangpu. When one sees commercials about global travel and the like, you see the skyline of Shanghai's Pudong area.

Todd was itching to get out of the hotel, where he'd also been sequestered in meetings all week, and see some of Shanghai.  I was only too willing to be his running mate. :-) He'd never been to Shanghai before... and turns out it was his birthday!

Shanghai Cityscape

Pu Dong Skyline

We walked the entire length of the 'boardwalk' of the Bund and took a ton of photos. From my trip to China with NYU Stern ~8yrs ago, I don't recall it being as hazy (read smog) as it has been all week here in Shanghai. Guess it should be no surprise due to the accelerated growth across the board in this region. Tons of traffic and no real emissions control that I'm aware of - yet.

Lady visitors to Shanghai from Tibet or Nepal

Entrance to Old Shanghai

Just really neat being here. We eventually meandered our way to an area of Shanghai known as the Yuyuan Gardens area - I know this 'cause I had a taxi card that listed ~3 dozen places to see/shop/eat at while in Shanghai and 1 of the places listed was the Gardens and at a location relatively near the Bund. So, we walked to that area, dropped into the Hotel Indigo and asked the folks there where it was and they basically pointed us to where we needed to walk.

Yuyuan Gardens

This was the best part of the day! We got lost in a neighborhood that harkened back to earlier, less developed days in Shanghai. Tons of vendors peddling all types of merchandise in relatively confined quarters; side streets packed with foods of all types/textures being made fresh and for sale, produce of all types, meats and seafoods of all types (mostly live) for sale - the modern equivalent to me of our food courts in malls, except so much more diverse and interesting with a Chinese farmers market woven throughout the fabric of the neighborhood. The main street meandering through this part of town was Fang Bang Rd... just thought that was a cool name for a road. :-)

We did eventually make our way to what appeared to be the entrance to the Yuyuan Gardens but, we had enjoyed ourselves in the market area so much, didn't feel like going in and hailed a taxi to drive us back to the Ritz. As I think back to that experience, I really should have tried some of the more interesting looking cooked food that was available... as Andrew Zimmern says on the Travel Channel, "if it looks good, eat it", really could have applied. Having said that we only partook of some fresh fruit - a couple of succulent wedges of watermelon for our light lunch.

Roadside food proprietors

Got back to the hotel, via lots of traffic, at around 1530.  We (as in everyone at the hotel from Dell) all met in the lobby to go to dinner just outside of the hotel at a Sechuan restaurant. The food was very good and served on one of my not so favorite table-top amenities... a lazy susan! But, I got over it and enjoyed a wide variety of foods for dinner including all the green tea one could drink, a couple of Asahi beers and really good company. One of the guys sitting by me, Ken, was pretty interesting with his Aerospace background. We had a very enjoyable converation. Finished off the evening at the 2nd floor bar in the hotel where Will and I toasted Todd and his birthday. Got back to the room at 2230ish to end my day!

More from Beijing this evening!

Boardwalk at the Bund, Huang Pu River