Shanghai Report I
My exposure to large Asian cities prior to Shanghai was very limited. When I was flying to Shanghai, I expected to see something akin to Bangkok with more skyscrapers (dirty, polluted, architecturally uninteresting) minus backpackers. What I really saw was a clean cosmopolitan cityf( cleaner then New York) with a mix of european buildings with unimaginably large number of skyscrapers of very unique design. The city layout itself is very original due to its colonial past. The most famous part of the city - The Bund is a well preserved european style embankment with classical buildings facing a wide river. Old hotels, restaurants and people strolling along for an evening walk are in sharp contrast to the other bank of the river. Right across from the Bund is a futuristic city out of science fiction movie with space syringe like Oriental Pearl building dominating its skyline. The name of new city is Pudong - it is the future Shanghai. Pudong already hosts one of the tallest buildings in the world and the tallest hotel in Jingmao Tower and the high tech parks hosted in its scyscrapers where many of Silicon Valley jobs get outsourced. Jingmao tower is a jewel of an asian Art Deco variation, unmatched by its design inside and outside. Grand Hayat hotel that features tallest atrium spanning 35+ flloors starts (!) on 53rd floor. What looks like a cathedral out of "Blade Runner" is an inner space with hotel rooms perched around the walls, each one having a view to die for. The last floor is at the height of about 500 meteres, from where other skyscrapers look a little taller then colonial five story buildings in the french concession area. The city also has an old town with casbah-like narrow streets with drying clothes hanging from the windows and antique shops with hidden rooms that sell fake Rolexes to everpresent tourists. The old town also hosts two large mosques as well as a Taosit temple with the sculpture of the man himself. Worth mentioning is a former jewish quarter, with one functioning synagogue, but this deserves a separate post. The Shanghai Development Pavilion among other interesting things hosts a 10,000 square meter large model of Shanghai in five years that includes every(!) single building. It blows one's mind especially taking into account that most of it was built in the last ten years.