My mate Kane works in Pudong in Shanghai, which is the New District on the opposite side of the river to The Bund, and the old areas of Shanghai that begun developing in the 1840's. The decision to develop Pudong happened in 1990 and it is the site of all the new fancy buildings in Shanghai including the much photographed Pearl Tower.
An early start and I had breakfast in town before heading up the tallest building in Shanghai - the second(?) tallest in the world behind one in Taipei. The Shanghai World Finance Center only opened in August this year and I headed up to the 94, 95 and 100th floor to test my vertigo. The experience is fully multi-media supported and very space age as well and it was a buzz. It was a cloudy at the top (I think it is often) so my viewing was limited but fun.
I hit the ground again and negotiated my way through the Pudong streets down to the Pearl Tower. I went into a museum in the base of the tower that is a museum of Shanghai and it was interesting to see how Shanghai has developed from being a International settlement with concessions for British, French and Japanese - to now being China's financial center.
I wandered down to the river to look across at the Bund before meeting Kane and getting to the station for our train to Nanjing.
It was a fast train to Nanjing - reaching speeds of over 250kph and took about 3 hours to get to our destination. Kane checked in with his business friends at the Sheraton and I was lucky enough to have the car continue to drive me on and drop me at the university. I got a room in a hotel run by the uni for a really cheap rate and after having a bit of a walk around in the dark trying to orient myself - I eventually chase a restaurant to eat in because it seemed busy. I think all the meals were for sharing in that restaurant but I had a pretty good go at eating food for 2 (it was yum) before heading back to bed.
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