We spent a few days in Shanghai to end the traveling two week seminar. The place is basically the New York City of China. It’s really international (lots of Europeans) and the Chinese stock exchange is there. There are about 18.5 million people, about the same size as Beijing, but in a third of the area. I thought there was a lot of construction in Beijing but theres a ton in Shanghai. On the other side of the river in the Pudong area, there’s a bunch of huge, new skyscrapers under construction. They’re building what I think is the world’s tallest building. It has a big square in the top of it. It will be the tallest until they finish one in Dubai, I hear.
All the buildings look like the future would (will) look like. Almost every one has some sort of wild top. Triangles, domes, boxes, spikes, even a flying saucer. The top of the Raddison had a flying saucer and we age dinner in the rotating restaurant. It was the nicest, most expensive meal yet. I had some great crab and asparagus and a mango custard for dessert.
A spaceship landed while we where there.
Floors in the 70′s and still going up.
Friday was the last day of the traveling seminar, but Andres and I wanted to stay in Shanghai longer. (Andres is a fellow Beijing student from RIT.) We stayed in a hostel on the west end of the People’s Square.
The back streets of Shanghai are pretty awesome. The place is almost arranged like a huge grocery store with each street being its own isle. We stayed near a pet store street selling everything from puppies to birds. I don’t know if the dogs where for pets or food. Other streets had clothes, fruit and electronics. A few days ago we found a great restaurant down one street, just off a main drag of a bunch of more regular type restaurants. The place is basically like a taqueria in the states but just Chinese food in China. We went there twice. For dinner the first time I had a huge plate of rice and tofu for 7 Yuan. A day or two later we went there for lunch and I had great fried dumpling pot sticker things for real cheap and a plate of rice with vegetables and some meat. Good stuff.
Two nights later we caught a flight to Qingdao. (more photos)
