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At the end of June, Jon had a business trip to Shanghai
where he participated in Autodesk's Asia Pacific Major Accounts Conference. Care
decided to tag along as a tourist so that she and Jon could spend a few more
days in Hong Kong on the return. During our sabbatical two years prior
we both felt as if we had not spent enough time exploring Hong Kong so this was an
opportunity to do so.
 
On June 26th we arrived in Shanghai after 16
hours of non-stop flying. The air was warm and muggy but we were immediately
whisked off to the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Pudong where we would be staying for the
next 4 days. Pudong New Area located on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River is
over 1.5 times larger than urban Shanghai. The high rise area directly across
from the Bund is the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone where the Shanghai Stock
Exchange is located. This newly developed and fast growing area of the world is
comprised of high rises and financial organizations. The Hyatt situated in
the JinMao Financial Tower (largest building in China) is located beginning on the 54th floor and rises to
the 87th. We were swiftly deposited on the 76th floor in
a steel and glass room equipped with the latest in electronics and lighting. Our
first evening we stayed in the tower and had dinner on-site.
 
While Jon practiced his presentation on
Thursday, Care jumped in a cab and sped off to re-acquaint herself with downtown
Shanghai. Leaving the cab at the corner of the Bund and the Peace
Hotel, the morning was spent walking Nanking Road, walking through Renmin Park,
exploring the Shanghai Art Museum (former racecourse club building), reviewing
the architecture of the Performing Art Center, Shanghai Urban Planning
Exhibition Center, Shanghai Museum and many of the new structures.
 
 
 
Below is the Shanghai Opera House.
 
The Shanghai Museum is a beautiful building on the outside as it is on the
interior. A set of sculptures are situated at an entry where they can
guard the building.
 
 
  
The clouds and rain often obscure the JinMao
building from the horizon. Likewise the guests in the hotel find
themselves with nothing more than clouds to view from their room windows.
This was the case on Friday when rain, clouds and wind moved steadily past our
building for the entire day. Care spent the morning shopping in some of
the world's largest department stores in Pudong for a GSM phone. Once she
popped the chip into the new Nokia she was receiving phone mail from all the
local carriers throughout the trip.
Afternoon, Jon presented the BID vision to
the major accounts customers. That evening was the gala dinner for the
event. The dinner was a traditional multi-course Chinese meal including
entertainment of the many masked performer and the spinning plate acrobatic
female troupe.
 
  
  
Saturday Jon joined Care in seeing some of
the sights in Shanghai. Starting out with lunch in the Swiss Hotel on
Nanking Road, we then spent time in the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition
Center. In addition to historical pictures and maps of Shanghai the Center
provides much insight into the plan for Shanghai's growth. The map is area
around Fangbang Road at the time of the Ming
Dynasty.
On the upper floors of the Center exists
a full scale model of Shanghai in twenty years. It
is a massive project which borders on reality and sheer propaganda.
 
Above the model represents Pudong and below is the Bund and a view of the
Huangpu River bending at Suzhou Creek.
 
We later strolled through the Flower and Bird market but it was rather quiet.
The main attraction was the cricket vendors. Also the bonsai, turtle and fish
markets were drawing buyers.
 
 
After a loop around the Bund where we took pictures of the
old colonial buildings as well as a few pictures of the Pudong waterfront before heading in that direction. Note
the Jinmao building is hidden in the clouds.
 
 
We decided to explore the grounds around the Oriental Pearl TV
Tower before returning to our hotel. The Tower is the tallest building in Asia
and 3rd largest in world- 1245 feet. Unfortunately it was lost in the clouds so
it was hardly worth a ride to the observation desks or the top.
  
Later we had drinks on the 83 floor and dinner
on the top floor of the Jinmao building. Sunday we headed for Hong Kong.
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