I love the mountains in Alaska. You go right over them on the flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo. It was another 3 1/2 hours from Tokyo to Shanghai.
This is the view from my hotel. I open the blinds all night so that I can see everything. See the big pink buildings? My office is in the building on the right on the 11th floor. My office window looks right back at my hotel and the Howard Johnson's next door.
Down on the river front you look across the Hungpu river to Pudong. The tower is the Pearl Tower, the third largest tower in the world (at time of printing).
The waterfront is called the Bund. The British built it up during the concession era of pre-World War II. It's all European architecture and therefore not all that exciting for me.
The major Bund landmark is the Peace Hotel. I have to remember this because the Peace Hotel is the start of Nanjing road, where I turn to find my hotel. Taxis are so cheap that it really doesn't matter if I get lost, though.
Hey hey, it's the People's Monument! Some say it is unsightly... but those people aren't Chinese. It is not that the Chinese prefer this type of monument, it is that the architect was Chinese. On a street build completly by the British, nobody dares to critize the one Chinese structure.
Here is another picture of Pudong. I like it because you see the soldiers and the kite. Both are everywhere. The nice thing about the soldiers is that I have yet to see one on-duty. Perhaps once the EU lifts the arms sanctions China can furnish all of them with weapons. Then they will have something to do other than sightseeing. Yes, that would be nice.
This is Nanjing Road looking West, away from Pudong and the Bund. I'm standing right outside my hotel. It was kinda a dreary day. The building with the spaceship on top has a restaurant up there that I am going to try to check out. I really don't have much better to do.
This is Nanjing Road looking East, towards Pudong. If you knew what to look for then you could see Da Niang Dumpling (Grandma's Dumpling) shop. DANG they are good. As long as you don't order the gristle dumpling. The gristle dumpling is tought to get down. Now that I think about it, the gristle dumpling is tough to chew, too.
This is the view from my office. Literally, I just turned my chair around and took the picture. The biggest, shiniest building is the Sofitel, my hotel. It's 30 stories tall. The curved building on the far right is the Howard Johnson's. It looks really cool at night.
This is looking out the other side of my building. There's a lot of construction going on everywhere. It's a seriously cool view at night.
