Sunny Saturday Walk

   I started my walk out by hitting up the track. I wanted some pictures of the place that I have run so many miles at, I even did an 8 miler here once until I got comfortable doing my long runs on the streets. This is one of the only times that I have seen the track in the daylight and without dozens of people walking around it. The picture on the right shows a bunch of apartment buildings near the track, mine is the one in the middle. I have a view of the track from my balcony and kitchen window, that's how easy it is for me to get there.

This is how Shanghai maintains it's trees...
They lop off the tops!

The Antiques Market

The Chinese are really good at making new things look old
so you have to understand that most stuff here is probably
not an antique. Don't get fooled! I looking for deals on jewelry.

   There are probably 100 stalls spread on 2 main streets. This is also the location of my favorite Chinese cotton cloth shop. I may or may not have picked up a few gifts here. From here I was heading into Pudong to climb to the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center (100 Floors above Shanghai) but along the way I stumbled across the Wanshang Bird and Flower Market. I decided to poke my head in to see what was going on. It didn't take me long to figure out that I couldn't stomach too much time here. It was a lot of stalls selling animals...from cats and dogs to turtles and fish and of course birds. Each animal had the tiniest little cage and looked so sad. I only lasted about 2 minutes in this place, if I stayed any longer I would be having to explain to Donald why I'm dealing with quarantine, to then confess it's for the 5 dogs that I purchased and am bringing back to Portland with me...

Left, the tiniest little turtles, frogs and salamanders. Right, a wall of bird cages.

   I finally made it to the Metro to head to Pudong. Sadly, there is never a quiet moment for me. I had a Thai kid introduced himself to me in the subway station and told me that I looked like Snow White, his Australian English teacher and a Mermaid (oh and he did tell me that I look 23!)...the kid definitely had a few loose screws. I was worried that he was going to follow me where ever I was going so I lied and said I was meeting up with my husband. Luckily, he left soon after that! Phew! I guess Shanghai has just as many crazies at LA (I've got some good stories from my time living there too).

   My timing for getting to Pudong wasn't that great b/c I wanted to get up to the top of the SWFC at dusk so I could wait for the sun to go down but it was only 3:30pm so I had to kill some time. I've been wanting to go to the Shanghai History Museum in the basement of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower so it worked out ok. 

Left, entrance to the Oriental Pearl. Right, entrance to the museum.

The museum started out with lots of pictures of old Shanghai.
This one in particular is of Nanjing Road in the 1930's.

This is a wedding sedan chair from 1927. All hand
carved and took 10 years to complete.

   The first part of the museum shows Shanghai's progression of transportation. Left, rickshaws were the main mode of passenger transportation in the 30's and I love that they are still widely used today (80+ years later). While Shawn was visiting he asked me why most taxis are Volkeswagans and I couldn't answer him but now I know the answer. In 1985, the Shanghai VW Company was established as a joint venture of The Shanghai Automotive Industry. Production of the VW Santana sedan started the very next year and became the taxi choice. Still, probably 90% of taxis are VWs in this city!

   Then I headed to the second floor of the museum that housed life-sized models of old traditional shops staffed by realistic waxworks. These shops were showing what Shanghai looked like from it's very beginnings in 1291 during the Yuan Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty.

Left, cotton cloth shop. Right, tobacco and paper shop (AKA grocery store)

Left,  1930's barber shop. Right, opium den.

Then I walked through a miniture "streets of Shanghai" of the 1930's

Off to the SWFC!

Across the street from the SWFC is the location of the future Shanghai Tower. This skyscraper is scheduled to be completed in 2014 and will be the tallest building in China and second tallest in the world. The picture on the right is one that I took when Donald was in town back in October and the one on the right I took yesterday. They've come a long way in 5 months! It's going to be yet another impressive building in the Shanghai cityscape. 

Being in the elevator felt like I was in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

Left, there were clear parts of the floor that you could look down through. YIKES!

Right, the view of Pudong.

Left, all the people waiting on the 100th floor viewing deck for all the skyscraper lights to turn on.

Right, from the 97th floor you could look up at the see-through floor of the 100th floor view deck.

The lobby of the 94th floor. Yes, they are selling all sorts of crap here.

    I only have 4 more weeks here so I decided to just go all out and enter the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. All the touring books say it is really cheesy and it turns out they were right!

At least I got dropped off at this beautiful sight. It was off to my apartment from here.