Surviving The Chaos: City of Shanghai

We had a couple of days to tour around the city. We covered a lot of ground and saw a lot in the two days we were there.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Jin Mao Tower - It's an 88-story landmark skyscraper in the Lujiazui area of the Pudong district of Shanghai. It has an observation deck on the 88th floor that we went up to for a panoramic view of the city. It was an amazing site to look out and see buildings as far as your eyes could see. There were a few grassy areas but we're told they often charge to use a park. It is truly a concrete jungle.

This is the Jin Mao Tower

This is the view from the observation deck on the 88th floor.

Oriental Pearl TV Tower - At 468m (1,535 feet) high, it was the tallest structure in China from 1994-2007

Jade Buddha Temple - is a Buddhist temple in Shanghai, China. As with many modern Chinese Buddhist temples, the current temple draws from both the Pure Land and Chan traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. It was founded in 1882 with two jade Buddha statues imported to Shanghai from Burma by sea. These were a sitting Buddha (1.95 metres tall), and a smaller reclining Buddha representing Buddha's death.

The Bund - (meaning 'embankment') is Shanghai’s world famous waterfront which stretches for 1 mile along the western bank of the Huangpu River.

Jing'an Temple - The Jing'an Temple is the most famous landmark in the Jing'an District. It is the oldest landmark in the city, dating back to 247 AD, built more than 1,000 years before the official beginning of Shanghai in 1292. Originally located beside Suzhou Creek, the temple was relocated to its current site in 1216 during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). In contrast to its name, ‘Jing’an’ which means "peace and tranquility" in Chinese, the small, brightly decorated temple is a very popular attraction and often busy with visitors.

This man painted all of these pictures with the outside edge of his hand. I bought one as my souvenir for this part of the trip. It was pretty fascinating to watch.

Underground shopping - small store fronts set up underground at the major subway station where any knock off item a tourist could want, is sold. Tailor made suites, bags, knick knacks, clothing, souvenirs, etc. They had it all. You better brush us on your negotiating skills before you intend to shop here or you'll pay for it.

We picked up a few little fun things for the boys. They love to use chopsticks so these training sticks were perfect for them.

These toys fold into little balls and pop open once on this magnetic card.

Massages - who could pass up a 90 minute relaxing oil massage for $32?? We couldn't so we went back a second night for a 100 minute foot/body massage for $25. That one wasn't as good but it was still worth it to me.

This was a real sign that I took a picture of in one of the massage parlors.

The food - since I don't eat rice or seafood and I'm not an adventurous eater, I was a little nervous about finding things to eat in China. I packed a few granola bars in case I had to eat them in lieu of a meal. Luckily we found some places to eat at which included McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Haagen Daz Ice Cream, Subway, an Italian place and a Western Burger restaurant. Overall I think we did pretty well and we still found a few new menu items to try.

The Chinese version on a Cesar salad.

Pizza from Pizza Hut had never tasted so good.

I loved the Coke Light cans. Similar to our Diet Coke but doesn't taste exactly the same.

We tried an Italian restaurant and the garlic bread hit the spot.

All of the noodles were imported.

This is the Chinese version of a food truck. They had areas were half a dozen were set up in the morning to serve those going to work and they were slammed.

Starbucks for lunch one day. The menu in China is about a third the size of the menu in the States.

This was breakfast at the hotel. They had the best fruit selection ever. I was very proud of myself for trying the dragon fruit (white with seeds) because I thought it was pretty adventurous.

This is the Western style burger. It was huge. I had to cut in down but it was the closest thing I had all week to what is served here at home.

I tried this creme puff from Choux Creme. It was SO yummy!

Shanghai Maglev Train - It is the first commercially operated high-speed magnetic levitation line in the world and only the third Maglev line to be operated. The train line was designed to connect Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the outskirts of central Pudong where passengers could interchange to the Shanghai Metro to continue their trip to the city center.

Our top speed on the train was 431 km/h (267 mph)

We relied on taxis, tour buses and our Chinese clients for transportation. I am again very grateful that we made it home alive. It is one crazy city to drive in. There was a ton of shopping malls and districts but the reality is that everything was so much more expensive there then it is here in the States. At first I was excited because they don't have taxes but even then it was still more and therefore also not worth the hassle of lugging it all the way home. It was very very hot and humid so if I were to go again I'd go in the fall. I learned they don't really sell sweatshirts because it's never really cold there and they don't sell shot glasses except in the underground stores. Overall I liked a lot of things about the city and would go back again. The difference is that I feel like we saw everything there was to see in the city so it would be better to go explore some of the smaller outskirts next time.