Shanghai Impresses

Our last two nights were to be spent in Shanghai.  We had a late morning flight from Guilin that got us into Shanghai around 2:15 pm. 

We bused from the airport directly to the Shanghai Tower, which is the second tallest building in the world.  It scrapes the sky at 632 meters (2073 feet).  The building was completed in 2015, and boasts the second-fastest elevator in the world, hitting top speed at 46 miles per hour, aka triple the speed of I-395 during rush hour.

After looking at some displays about the building, and the other tallest buildings in the world, we took the speedy elevator from basement level two up 120 floors to the 118^th floor.  Ears popped as we went up. 

At the top, we were afforded striking, albeit polluted, views of the entire city as we ranged around the circular viewing area.  We climbed one flight of stairs, up to the 119^th floor, and saw the same views, from one floor higher.

The river cuts the city in half, with the near-constant shipping traffic visible below.  We had a good look at the Bund across the river – buildings built by the British, French, and Germans back at the turn of the last century.  They look impressive, but small, dwarfed by the many skyscrapers. 

Off in the distance were uncountable numbers of apartment buildings, and even a few houses.  Thirty million people in a city have to live somewhere.

We had good ice cream cones at what might be the highest ice cream store in a building in the world.  If there is NOT an ice cream store high up in the tallest building, then this one wears that crown.  And it was good ice cream.

After dinner at a really good restaurant, a large number of the group met Leo at 8:45 in the hotel lobby to take an optional walk on the Bund.  Our hotel, the Fairmont Peace, is right on the west bank of the Huangpu River, just across the street from the famed Bund.  Carol and I figured "Bund" had a German origin, but according to Wikipedia, the real origin story is far more interesting:

The word bund means an embankment or an embanked quay. The word comes from the Persian word band, through Hindustani, meaning an embankment, levee or dam (a cognate of English terms "bind", "bond" and "band", and the German word "Bund"). Mumbai's Apollo Bunder and city names like Bandar Abbas and Banda Aceh share the same etymology. The various "bunds" in east Asia, may therefore be named after the bunds/levees in Baghdad along the Tigris, given by the immigrating Baghdadi Jews, like the prominent Baghdadi Sassoon family who settled their businesses in Shanghai, and other port cities in east Asia in the 19th century, and heavily built up their harbors. In these Chinese port cities, the English term came to mean, especially, the embanked quay along the shore.

The Bund features many official foreign buildings built in the late 1800s through the early 1930s.  

It's really lively place spot right on the river.  The skyscrapers across the way were all lit up.  And they were lit! (Millennials now think I’m cool for using “lit” – right daughters?  Right?  Right?).  The Bund was packed with people, but we could patiently wait for spots at the railing to take pictures of the buildings all lit up.  It's like a mellower Times Square.

Shanghai is China’s most worldly city, as we saw plenty of foreigners out enjoying the Bund.  We came upon people dressed in military uniforms with huge numbers of China flags being waved triumphantly.  At first we thought it was a pro-government demonstration, but it turns out a movie was being filmed about the Cultural Revolution.  They needed the backdrop of the older buildings rather than new Shanghai.  

When we looked more closely, we could see that members of the cast were roller skating.  And there were two drones filming.  I’m guessing it was a musical number, because there were a multitude of flags and roller skaters.  Clearly it will be the feel good movie of the year!

After walking some more and enjoying the light show, the river, the boats, and all the people, we headed back to the Hotel.  We went up to the Terrace Bar on the ninth floor, and had a spectacular view of the light show.  Alas, we got up there close around 9:30, and the light show ended at 10 pm. 

It was cold.  They had large blankets for warmth.  We weren’t the only party up there.  The poor bartender had more people up there than he could handle, but it was a fun, invigorating time nonetheless.  Finally, the bar was shutting down, we were getting cold, and we called it a night.  Fun times.