Adventures in Asia: Shanghai, China

We began our first full day in mainland China with a visit to Nanjing Road, which is apparently one of the busiest shopping streets in the world.

We walked and walked and soaked it all, but honestly it was not all that special (although we didn't do much but window shop, so maybe its better if you're actually shopping).  We did try this somewhat odd pastry:

And passed some interesting retail locations.

Eventually we walked down to Shanghai's famous waterfront known as the Bund.  The Bund technically refers to the embankment that lines the river, but has come to refer to the strip of colonial era buildings (mostly banks and trade related buildings) that are set back behind the embankment.  They are roughly all the same age, built in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, and same size, about four storeys or so.  

They face the river, and on the other side is Shanghai's new downtown, Pudong.

Here, we were viewing Pudong from the "front," whereas from by our hotel we were seeing it from "behind."  The clouds can get much heavier than this, even, as we found out later.  The most iconic building in Pudong is the Pearl TV tower, but there's also the "bottle opener," which is simply a skyscraper that resembles a bottle opener due to a "hole" near the top, and a very large, tall building, which vies with Taipei 101 for second tallest in the world.

Ferries continue to cross the Huangpu as they have done for over a century, despite the fact that there are now tunnels carrying metros and traffic.  The ferries are cheap (2 yuan a ride) and offer a good chance to see both Pudong and the Bund and, of course, the river itself.  We took one of these back and forth, making sure to ride on the outdoor portion of the upper deck both ways.

After the ferry, we ate lunch on Nanjing Road, and then went to a "fake" market, where we spent probably about two hours.  I haggled with several stall keepers, and ending up buying a "Superdry" jacket for 150 yuan.  I was hoping to pay 100 or less, so obviously I wasn't entirely happy.  In the end I wanted the jacket more than he wanted the sale.  If it proves to be any good as a jacket I will be pleased; if it is junk but still keeps me warm in Mongolia, I will figure it was not a loss; any less than that and I really got ripped off.

We ate dinner that evening at a dumpling restaurant along West Nanjing Road.  Beside dumplings, we ate green beans and pork, Shanghai noodles, and pork ribs; all were delicious.