Shanghai October 2015
There were no big surprises on my maybe 6th or 7th visit to Shanghai. Since it was a business trip, I didn’t see much of the town, but I managed to get to the Bund one evening.
Before that – look at the sky over Tokyo and from much lower height the sky over Shanghai… The pictures speak for themselves.
Actually the smog was less severe than the last time I’ve been in Shanghai for longer than a few hours (see the from Hongqiao to Pudong blog entry last winter).
The last time I’ve been longer in Shanghai was in June 2013 and at that time the smog was particularly bad.
This time I arrived at the older Hongqiao airport, which is closer to our office in Shanghai and ventured to the hotel by taxi.
Of course the taxi driver didn’t speak a word of English and the print-out of the hotel’s name in Chinese proved essential again. The ride was luckily rather short and after some obligatory traffic jam I arrived at the hotel only 28 yuan later. I told the driver by hand sign to make it 40. Later I noticed the shrewd gentleman had interpreted that as giving me back 40 yuan from the 100 bill I gave him. Haha! Well, 60 yuan is still way cheaper than the 400 something they want to have for a “limousine” service from the airport.
The taxi quality ranges from acceptable to total crap, the first taxi fell under the latter category, very smelly, old and dirty… Uhhhh… Anyway, I was grateful to arrive safely at the hotel.
Heading to the Bund meant a good 2km walk to the next subway station past crowded 5 lane highways and tons of electric scooters who don’t have much love for pedestrians.
The subway is the best way to move from A to B in Shanghai, it’s fast, clean, no traffic jams, cheap and amazingly not painfully crowded, despite riding at evening rush hour.
The subway doesn’t stop directly at the Bund and there are so many exists at East Nanjing Road station, you don’t know into which direction you’re heading when you get out. I was lost for a while but then spotted the Oriental Pearl Tower and changed direction. Unfortunately I only saw the Bund at night this time, but in all its nightly glory with a relatively clear sky and the moon shining over the sky scrapers.
Note the new round tower, simply called Shanghai Tower, which is a staggering 632 meters high, a Chinese colleague told me later it’s not yet fully operational but from the outside it looked finished. The Internet says it will open next month – that will be some celebration I guess!
The Bund is quite a sight, old Shanghai behind you and glitzy Pudong in front of you. There were a lot of people on the promenade but not painful masses.
I wandered back in a loop to the station I arrived at, landing in the shopping center street which is as bright as day during the night and the Apple Store is still a very popular location.
The other days were filled with conference and meetings. On the last night we went into one of the restaurant streets and there was some Halloween decoration but far less than in Japan. I wonder when the Chinese will completely pick up on Halloween.
In the “normal” restaurants there you have to deal with frowning and not very friendly waiters, something I’m not quite used to anymore 
