Farewell ShanghaiJul 26, 2011
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The city, Huangpu River, and smog. By the way, the building directly...
The Bund across the Huangpu River at twilight. This is the spot...
| We started the day by wanting to go on a riverboat tour of the Huangpu River. This is the river that runs through Shanghai and to the East China Sea. The tour was supposed to last 3 hours and even go to the port of Shanghai. Finding the place was a challenge and we were almost too late, but we made it. However, they canceled it for the day because of wind when we got there. We were kind of let down, but opted for a shorter 45 minute tour of the river that they offered. It was okay, giving us different views of the city. After that, we made it over to the side of the city known as Pudong. It's the side with all the really high buildings. Roughly 10 years ago, almost none of these buildings existed. We went to the world's highest observation deck on the world's 3rd tallest building, as I mentioned yesterday. Smog, however, really reduced the visibility, but it was impressive nonetheless. As evening set in, we watched the other side of city and the riverfront known as the Bund light up. It was pretty peaceful for being such a large city. The Bund is an area that was developed and controlled around the 1920s and 30s by the US and some other European countries. The architecture, therefore, looks like early 1900s Chicago and New York, not Asian. Tomorrow evening we leave for Beijing, our last stop on this trip. I'm so glad we aren't taking an overnight train like originally planned. We are taking the new Beijing-Shanghai high-speed bullet train route. It opened just this month. It's the world's longest high-speed train route. We will be traveling over 800 miles at speeds close to 200 mph. The trip should take a little under 5 hours. Little by little, I'm getting closer to home now. I'll post again in the coming days from Beijing! |
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