Impressions Of Shanghai

Shanghai, China - Looking out the window of the suite of Central Hotel, Shanghai's famous Nanjing Road "bu xing jie" (major pedestrian street) is impressive. . .

The night scene is just as beautiful!

Literally, tons of people throng that street lined with shops and eating places. Here, I get a taste of 17 million population in a busy city!

For the last three days, my wife and I visited several places of attraction:

Huai Hai Road - Shanghai's 'Orchard Road' - a straight, long, road of modern shopping centers. If I blindfold you and airdrop you there, you probably won't know which city you're in :)

Along this road, we chanced upon a great joint for body massage - almost the best service I ever experienced! They even serve us food after the wonderfully soothing massage. If you need the details, just drop me a mail at roger@rogerloh.com

Yu Yuan - several 'criss-crossed' streets of shopping and eating places, with a taste of ancient China, definitely worth a visit.


The Bund - the famous beach that's lined with around 30 historic buildings of yester year, some government buildings like the Russian consulate, corporate buildings like AIA, and hotels like Peace Hotel (which gotten famous through the Hong Kong TV serial, 'Shanghai Beach').

The bund is along the Huangpu River which meanders from north (adjoining from Yangtze River) to the south, cutting across the Shanghai province.

Several bridges and tunnels connect the the bund to the opposite side, one of which is an 'sightseeing' tunnel (for details, visit http://lyw.sh.gov.cn/en/scenic_spot/bundtunnel.aspx). Modern high technologies are applied in the decoration of the interior walls of the tunnel, providing the passengers with background music as well as pictures, patterns and views about people, history, culture, science and technology and natural scenery.

Opposite the bund is the Oriental TV Tower, Asian's tallest at 468m, where you can ride the elevator to 263m or even 350m at a nominal price. It is the 3rd tallest tower in the world (for the highest towers of the world, visit http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0886190.html)

Not far from the TV Tower is the famous Jin Mao Tower, currently the tallest in China. Hyatt Hotel occupies 53rd to 87th floor (where Cloud 9, a coffee house, is located). An observatory deck is located on 88th floor. It is the 5th tallest building in the world (for the highest buildings in the world, visit http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001338.html)

The night scene at the bund is an experience you don't want to miss if you are in Shanghai! The buildings are all lit up till 10.30pm and you feel that you are in fairyland if you look from the upper floors of Jin Mao! (Thus, the crowd at Cloud 9, located on the 87th floor). Tonight, there was even a surprise firework display for a good half hour!

There's even a barge (see picture on the left) that carries a giant screen on one side that keeps playing video ads of giant companies such as Intel and Microsoft.

Xin Tien Di - Innocently-looking from the main road (you have to walk through a side road to get in), this place boasts of completely refurbished old-Chinese styled buildings It has a great night life with bars with live music, eating places and fine restaurants. . . and even live performances of opera and dance while I was there!

(Note: 'day-time' photo here is not representative of the night life there)