Fascinating Shanghai - more than a claustrophobia test! - Liebe zur Erde

Fascinating   Shanghai -
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                                                   ...... much more than a claustrophobia test!

usually there are 3 types of weather: laundry - humidity - laundry room. We never could dream that we would have this kind of perfect whether for the time of our professional kick trough!

My favorit Skyscraper is this kind of shopping bag in the top right of the scenery above, the Shanghai World Financial Center -it has 94  floors, is rising 460  meter high and is at the moment the 4th highest building in the world. The area you look at is Pudong, which contains the central financial district Lujiazui:








Shanghai is the largest city by population with a total of over 23 million as of 2010. It is a global city, with influence in everything you can think about: commerce, culture, finance, media, fashion, technology, transport. And it´s the busiest container port in the world. The city as a whole consists of a peninsula between the Yangtze and Hangzhou Bay, mainland China's second-largest island Chongming, and a number of smaller islands.

Beyond the futuristic shapes of the skyline the ship traffic on the Huangpu River - a tributary of the Yangtze -  is intense and interesting:









Here on the right a fake Mississippi steamer with the paddle wheels in the rear:

  



  


Up here one has to sort out what have there is to see at all:
Left, a highly polished antique to futuristic-made touristic steamer. Right, a view which I always find impressive: rotting boats and barges in front of a futuristic skyline!

Impressions from the airport into the city:

Arriving by taxi from the airport, the Sky liner of this megacity give in their densely packed tight an overwhelming abundance, a very fascinating impression on us. They are so cramed in space and population is so high that the Goverment even don´t know anymore where to bury the people! And for the one who "enjoys" the monotony of German building regulations - or knows of German architects - is the wealth of forms, which are lined in a confined space together, literally a knock out of creativity!

(Click on the image to enlarge!)

                            

And always there is this colorful mix of old and new forms. You must give the credit to the Chinese: look at the way to combine new and old in the image below -  in the perspective the harmony might be seen as random, but it corresponds to the old self-understanding of the culture. Accordingly, these buildings appear - at night - although gigantomanic, but not ugly!

This picture of the bridge (above) for me is fascinating in several aspects: Behind the latest Skyline - set in the above-pointed triangle is a huge sphere which is illuminated at night in different colors, a very surreal feeling - and in front of this a setting of East-Germany-Style blocks, there called "Plattenbauten". The people living there are exposed to the scene of this bridge structure, which has 3 overlapping levels (see below) and will be noisy by day and night. And the boxes along the bridge railings are actually planted like flower boxes!













Andreas said once before: every tree is guarded by a policeman. It is not as bad as this, Shanghai has actually still greenery and parks. How this however could be defended against the building boom, is beyond my understanding.




At last we arrived at the center. This beautiful tower in the picture below, with the dome on it, is our home and hotel for 2 nights: The Radison Blue Hotel at the central People's Square. This dome up there has a revolving restaurant -  a must see if you are there by night!

We have eaten at night up there: it takes about 2 hours for once around. During a leisurely meal you can enjoy the lights sparkle and glitter in the entire city. The view from there is so spectacular that I just had forgotten my camera.













But from the 20th floor from our window the view and surrounding it not too bad either -see the right picture: The Pearl Tower right in front of our nose…













Do you see these free-floating slide in the left picture along the windows of the building - they hover well over a hundred meters above ground! Window cleaners here in front of the facade of that magnificent skyscraper which you can see on the left in its extentions!











Less pleasing is the housing situation for those who live here. As you can see in the picture on the right, there are many homes directly on the ever-congested urban highway - and closely built together. Where people are moving here, where do the children play?






On that day we have incredible luck considering the weather. The pictures below say goodbye to a perfect day - the next day is already a very good and typical Shanghai laundry day- though no clouds are hanging low:


   
                 

Excursion around the city:

The next day sees the city as gray as usual. Here are some impressions of amazing corners and preserved life forms:

The Fuxing Park

is located in the former French Concession of Shanghai, in Luwan District near Nanchang Road. The It´s about 10 ha big and is designed in the French style: with a center lake, fountains, covered pavilions, and flowerbeds.

  





In parks like these people meet to socialize though all of China -
In the morning the park fills with people and you can watch them playing
cards or mahjong, sing or dance, excersising thai chi or artistic stuff.







And always the elderly are seen around with a great dignity to repair anything - work here is an honor and not looked at as inferior substandard - this touches me deeply and I would like to see it likewise in our countries!



   
 

Almost daily there is dancing in the afternoon -

And even that is very Chinese: you do not need to have a dance partner, just if no one is there - see the man in the picture at the bottom who enjoys himself alone. People are moving here very freely and easily, you can see, this makes them fun!

Shanghai has wonderful corners beyond the big shopping malls. And the tourist traps are on the go, much to our anger. The tricks here are particularly insidious: a Chinese couple asks you to make a photo of them. They use the resulting contact as an opportunity to grind you to a "very great" shop here or there - or even in the famous/infamous teahouses. As in China tea can really sometimes be as expensive as gold, a visit in a traditional Teahouse can easily swallow a 4-digit euro amount. The unsuspecting tourists suffer from being delivered. And who can judge whether the tea ceremony was made with cheap stuff of top products? The differences are small sometimes and only for experts to taste. In a results one starts to avoid also normal and friendly encounters with the locals - a stupid thing as chances to some nice conversation are lost, too.

In the Yu Garden, near the city god temple, there is this beautiful corner:

    


Here there is everything like culinary delights, what your heart desires: eating French tarts, ice cream and coffee in all varieties, and of course brands like Hägen Dazs or chinese food...

In one of the buildings we buy our pearl necklaces - the expats know where you can shop and we have respected their advice. Shanghai floats in pearls - unfortunately I forgot to take a picture.

Finally Silke shows us one of the few still remaining remnants of

Shanghai's original parts of the city:

neighborhoods that up to now have managed not to be swallowed by the building boom.  They are surrounded by high-rise buildings, one can see them sky climbing behind every corner - just a few years it will take time before these enclaves will be disappeared, too.



   









Behind every street the rise of the skyscrapers …


 
   









We discover how the locals live in a confined space: these papers her are advertisements which offer free rooms, from 6 m2 ascending. This size is often used by whole families.



As in other Asian countries, life is largely held on the Street:

  


      


The underwear gets publicly dried on the power lines. Right next to this is advice on floral equipment for festivities - here presumably for a marriage.













Market area and living go hand in hand and you can enjoy to watch all kinds of crafts:

A wonderful contrast to all the fish, frogs and worms stuff (see the not jet finished page "what Chinese eat ...") is what is sold here besides food: Flowers!




This man peels sugarcane on at a rapid pace with a machete








lotus roots are peeled  -

and also the unconventional transport systems can be admired:













This is the traditional way how dumplings are steamed. They are filled with everything you can eat - and, as you know, everything can be enjoyed as food in China! (An other day Cindy go into raptures about jellyfish!)





It ends up with this: Chinese eat ANYTHING and the curiosity for food seems to have invested in early years - more later on a special page!

At the end of our tour, we find a Mao preserved in a side street - people are clearly proud that we specially came to see him....:

If you want to know more about the "inside-life" in a chinese neighbourhood, just go here: http://rschuckman.com/?m=201008 - its the travel blog of my american friend Richard who is living in Chongquing - his blog is full of amazing details on building structurs and their effects on daily life and the long term financial effects.


Last but not least: a glorious sunrise, for free in front of our window: For Andreas, it is still too early - he salutes now the pictures: