Some Travels all over Shanghai, Part 1

Alright, I'm in China this week and since I don't do Facebook anymore and I don't do Instagram anymore I need a creative outlet for my pictures and stories.

blog.resurrect(now)

So, how did I get here?

I work for a large tech company who has a couple of large tech offices in Shanghai. The one I am specifically concerned with is in the Caohejing High-Tech Park, on the east side of town. I'm out here with a coupe of coworkers doing some training and software support.

I came in the usual way: On a plane.
Pretty boring view out my window. At least I didn't have anyone sitting next to me.

Magically in Shanghai!
With just one little snag.
 United was having some problems on Tuesday when I left. Fog in Boise, Fog in San Francisco, Mechanical problems with the plane I was supposed to fly on, etc. After a couple of hours delay they rebooked me on another flight, which was nice. When I got to SFO I checked and my original flight still hadn't left, which meant it had been delayed by at least six hours. Unfortunately, my bag was still on that plane. It didn't make my Shanghai connection.

I did get it the next day though, which was nice. The front desk woke me up at 11 PM to tell me it was here, which was both nice and not nice. When I have this much jet lag I react by not being able to sleep through the night. So instead I called my wife to chat with her for a few minutes, since it was 8 AM back home.

I had a beard
I got rid of it
View out my hotel window. That's my office building on the extreme left. Long commute. 
 I have a thing for Asian breakfasts, or at least for breakfasts at the hotels I've stayed at in Asia. Usually the hotels where I stay serve clientele from all over the world, and have a generous breakfast to support all kinds of cultures. The Caohejing High-Tech Park is home to offices of quite a few foreign corporations. Some of the bigger names you may know are Peugot, Rockwell Automation, Micron, VISA, Jabil Circuit, and American Standard, just off the top of my head.

Anyway, it makes for a never boring breakfast.

Fried noodles for breakfast is where it's at

My Asian take on the Full English breakfast


I decided I like beans for breakfast
 An interesting thing about China is experiencing "Chinglish" or odd Chinese to English translations. I try to take pictures of them whenever I can. These ones are on the lawn outside the hotel:


Alright, time to hop on the subway and start exploring. I got on Line 9 at Caohejing High-Tech Park station and headed into town. First stop: Xuijahui. This is a huge shopping area, with something like 5 malls surrounding the intersection. It's also a major metro hub, with three lines intersecting.
This is Xujiahui, one of the busier intersections in the city. This was taken early in the morning so it wasn't super busy yet.
I switched trains and went to my old stomping ground, the French Concession. This is close to where the old Micron office was before they moved to Caohejing HTP. It's where I wandered around on my first trip here in 2010. The French Concession has some neat older buildings and residences, and to me feels a little slower-paced than most of the rest of Shanghai.

I love the tree-lined streets in the French Concession. It's especially pretty during the spring and summer.
Next stop: the park next to the K Wah Centre building. I used to walk past this park every morning on my way to work on my first visit here. There were always people doing some Tai Chi or something similar. Today there were a bunch of aerobic dance groups and these old guys who were painting characters on the ground with water. I didn't want to be too conspicuous as I took his picture but his drawings and method were quite beautiful to watch. I like to think he was writing poetry but I really have no idea.

Between here and there I stopped to talk to my family on the phone. Thanks, T-Mobile for having superior international roaming plans! I like being just a phone call or text message away.

Next stop: Square Park. Square park was designed to entertain the five senses: Touch Taste, Smell, Sound, and Sight. They do this with different plants, arrangements, and landscaping. It was a neat idea and I could have spent more time there.
The Sense Pavilion


Next stop: Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road is a famous shopping area and it was PACKED. Foot traffic only, lots of people, lots of aggressive pushy peddlers. I'm pretty good at just ignoring people but it makes me feel a little heartless. I didn't get any pictures of Nanjing Road itself, I'll rectify that at some point in the future. For now, some pictures of places around Nanjing Road.
A drink stop for nerds.

That guy totally photobombed my shot. This is one of the side streets, lined with all kinds of food shops.
From there, I wandered down some side streets, finding the "mechanical stuff" storefronts and then walking through a fish market street. Let's just say I preferred the smells of the Sense Pavilion to the olfactory assault, not to mention I hate to think what my shoes went through. There were lots of fish in tubs, overcrowded but technically "live fish" for sale, as well as crabs and shellfish.

I didn't buy anything.

Next stop: The Bund. The Bund is the old business area of town. Many banks and trading houses were established here around the turn of the century. It was super hazy though so the pictures didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.
The Bund
 I took a panorama of Pudong, or at least part of Pudong, which is the new financial and business part of Shanghai. All those skyscrapers are pretty new. Like within the last 20 years new.
Pudong from The Bund

1 comment:

Suzanne said...

Pretty amazing pics. Fun to see what you are up to while we are here.