Browsing around Shanghai

So we arrived in Shanghai - Pearl of the East. Guess what greeted us?
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Nothing but gloomy weather.... didn't seem that bad at first since I was pretty tired, but oh, the disappointment when I found out it will probably be like this the rest of the January...

I keep wondering if it's just smog...

But hey it's all good, we got 5 months. Here's a few other observations:
-moped and bike riders are fearless road warriors.
-better watch out where you're stepping on as soon as you walk away from main streets, unless you like smelly shoes.
-no smoking signs are decorations.

We spent the first weekend wondering around, it is surprisingly cold, maybe it's the humidity.

To my surprise, Even having the road signs in my mother tongue still manage to get me lost. so it is final, I've got NO sense of direction...sad face.

here's a bit of what we saw:

Malls, Malls everywhere

with great mall, comes great escalators

stumbled upon fresh produce in a local market on the way to people square (Chinese mitten crabs and some lively shrimps) I should be finding the cooked version of these soon...

View of The People Square's Park from inside Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center

A sub-par view of Pudong, Shanghai's financial and Commercial hub, I promise a better shot sometimes soon.

some cool sky scrappers...

We took a ferry to Pudong eventually, these 3 skyscrapers probably deserve some special mentioning. From left to right, they are Shanghai World Financial Center, Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai Tower, which is still under construction. In the book of tallest skyscrapers according to our best friend Wikipedia, they are ranked 4th, 13th and 1st upon completion by 2012








Turned out you can actually go up the blue tower 8 o'clock at night, why?  because there's a bar at the 92nd floor! You think the view is stunning, but to my dismay, Closest place to look out was on the 91st floor and here's my version:

looking at the tip of the 13th tallest building in the world? i guess i felt a little buzzed, but that's from the pinot grigio we ordered.

That's about all I saw the first weekend, plus quite a few hours of walk. For food, I think there will be another entry for it, but here's a sneak peak from our "welcome banquet"

goose palm and sea cucumber, with a broccoli cucumber so beginners can at least eat that and not be rude

here's the boys holding up their strong arms before they go in the stomach

 Finally, here's pictures of the crew, always a pleasure to walk with white people and enjoy some extra attention, although at some points they are soon to become zoo exhibits when we take breaks.

whoever asked for a normal picture of me, i think i did pretty good here

note the extra people we picked up along the way, there's another version of us with complete strangers, always flattering to know we've all got the celeb looks.

Let's see what's next!