Shanghai I

I have at last, after six weeks of travel, settled back home in Korea. Tomorrow I will start work again which is something I have mixed feelings about... Anyway, I returned from Shanghai last Wednesday and had a phenomenal experience. I had purchased a digital camera for the trip and took many, many pictures. I am going to try to get as much of the trip out as possible and the best way to do this would be geographically and not chronologically. This is Shanghai...

Well, this doesn't really give you a good perspective on the city itself. However, most of the action is along the east shore of the river which is called the Huangpo and feeds into the Yangtze to the North. After landing in Pudong airport, I took the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train into the city. This train is one of only two in the world and the ride is about 7 minutes long. The train starts to slow down after 4 or 5 minutes. It is funny because everyone is busy watching the speedometer above the door in the front of the car and ignoring the scenery flying past.

From the train, it was across the street into one of the nicest subway systems I have ever been in. I actually took one taxi the whole time I was in Shanghai, and that was with a Chinese friend I had made. Mainly, I relied on the subway and my feet to get around.

I popped up in Nanjing rd East which is a long rod filled with hotels, cafes, bars and department stores. This road is blocked of to traffic and is a mecca for tourists.

It took me a long time to find the hotel as they are all on the upper floors of these department stores, frankly I was completely starstruck by all of the sights, signs and sounds of this road. Everyday I walked along it, I noticed new things, places and features. It was like a puzzle whose pieces started to fit together the more I looked at. Of course, this road is a fishing pond for touters, prostitutes and panhandlers. The longer I stayed, the less the seemed to bother me though.