SHANGHAI, CHINA
A full day seeing some of the sights of Shanghai....
I started this morning by taking the "tourist tunnel" underneath the Huangpu river, an EPCOT-like ride that transports people in futuristic little space-pods from the Bund to Pudong through a tunnel surely inspired by the psychedelic boat ride in the original Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It's a completely ridiculous "journey" under the river through a long passageway filled with lasers, smoke, strobes, projections of sharks and other sea creatures, and Time Tunnel-esque spirals of Christmas lights. This is accompanied by a soundtrack of spacy synthesizer music and a narrator barking random phrases in Chinese and English ("Blue cadence!" "Meteor shower!" "Magma waltz!" "Paradise...and HELL!"). Truly bizarre and awful--I loved it.
On the Pudong side I walked around and admired the architecture for a bit, and got a close-up look at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the rocketship-like structure that looks like it's the cousin of Brussels' Atomium. I passed on going up to the top, though, and instead added another fish-house to my list by visiting Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. I found that it features some really good exhibits on the life of the Yangtse and the Amazon, and supposedly contains the "world's longest underwater tunnel." That's stretching it a bit, though, because the tunnel actually runs through four or five separate tanks, rather than one big one. My favorite critters in the place: baby cat sharks, a hyperactive sawfish, and a school of huge arapaimas (largest freshwater fish in the world).
I then took the Metro to People's Square at the heart of the city, and checked out the Shanghai Museum, which contains one of the world's finest collections of ancient art and artifacts from China's long history. I have to say that not only are the objects themselves amazing, but the way they're displayed--presentation, lighting, descriptions, etc.--rival those of the great museums of the world. It's extremely impressive, if a bit overwhelming--there are literally thousands of years of stone and brass artifacts, paintings and calligraphy on display, and it's all interesting stuff. At the end, though, I had a headache!
After dinner at Pizza Hut (I know, shut up!), I decided instead of taking the Metro, I'd walk back to the Bund along Nanjing Donlu, one of the biggest shopping streets in the city. It's a really bustling area, great for people-watching. And the Chinese sure love their neon--the strip is a sea of it, a bit reminiscent of Leicester Square in London, or even Times Square in New York.
A full day seeing some of the sights of Shanghai....
I started this morning by taking the "tourist tunnel" underneath the Huangpu river, an EPCOT-like ride that transports people in futuristic little space-pods from the Bund to Pudong through a tunnel surely inspired by the psychedelic boat ride in the original Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It's a completely ridiculous "journey" under the river through a long passageway filled with lasers, smoke, strobes, projections of sharks and other sea creatures, and Time Tunnel-esque spirals of Christmas lights. This is accompanied by a soundtrack of spacy synthesizer music and a narrator barking random phrases in Chinese and English ("Blue cadence!" "Meteor shower!" "Magma waltz!" "Paradise...and HELL!"). Truly bizarre and awful--I loved it.
On the Pudong side I walked around and admired the architecture for a bit, and got a close-up look at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the rocketship-like structure that looks like it's the cousin of Brussels' Atomium. I passed on going up to the top, though, and instead added another fish-house to my list by visiting Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. I found that it features some really good exhibits on the life of the Yangtse and the Amazon, and supposedly contains the "world's longest underwater tunnel." That's stretching it a bit, though, because the tunnel actually runs through four or five separate tanks, rather than one big one. My favorite critters in the place: baby cat sharks, a hyperactive sawfish, and a school of huge arapaimas (largest freshwater fish in the world).
I then took the Metro to People's Square at the heart of the city, and checked out the Shanghai Museum, which contains one of the world's finest collections of ancient art and artifacts from China's long history. I have to say that not only are the objects themselves amazing, but the way they're displayed--presentation, lighting, descriptions, etc.--rival those of the great museums of the world. It's extremely impressive, if a bit overwhelming--there are literally thousands of years of stone and brass artifacts, paintings and calligraphy on display, and it's all interesting stuff. At the end, though, I had a headache!
After dinner at Pizza Hut (I know, shut up!), I decided instead of taking the Metro, I'd walk back to the Bund along Nanjing Donlu, one of the biggest shopping streets in the city. It's a really bustling area, great for people-watching. And the Chinese sure love their neon--the strip is a sea of it, a bit reminiscent of Leicester Square in London, or even Times Square in New York.
posted by John Kuge at 10:42 PM
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