Monday, July 7, 2014

PUDONG: New Area east of the Huangpu River

Please see the new blog at  Chinadayze2.Blogspot.com


I've already posted photos of Pudong. You may have seen them when I shot video from the Moon Boat building (Former Saudi Arabia Pavilion).

This day Xiaohong met me deep under the Gateway Center, where the metro line stops.   We boarded Metro line 1 for People's Square and from there transferred to line 2 to Pudong.  When we came up from under the ground we hit the rain we knew had been pouring all week.  We are in the Plum Rainy Season.  The plums are ripe and the rainy season has started.   It's the perfect ending to the 85 days of mostly sun I have been experiencing in Shanghai.  But today is overcast, low clouds hiding the upper halves of the taller buildings.
Pudong looks like it did the other day.   Here is what will be the tallest building in Shanghai, in the middle of this picture, but you'll have to take my word for it.   It's still being built.   Notice the curve?
We walked first, down to the water, and then back up to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, but first the view from the water.    And the showers begin.   Heavy at times, enough to soak you to the skin, if you don't carry an umbrella or wear Gortex.

I think this is the financial building in Pudong



The video shows the Shanghai side of the Huangpu River.   It's the Bund side that we visited back in early May or late April and posted here on May 8th.   At that time I looked across the river and saw the TV tower lit at night.
Here, we are heading back to the TV tower, but to do so, we pass by the Shanghai Convention Center (the globe, which we walked past.)
 

 The globe shaped building is the Pudong convention center.   We may see it again as we look down from the Tower.  

As we head to the tower,we pass a very fancy hotel, which Xiaohong said she stayed in for two nights right after she got back from Highline.  We went in to take a look. 

In the hotel is a jade store with some fantastic carvings on display.   After wandering around,we head for the Pearl Tower,


We will end up in the tower.

This is the line waiting for the elevators to take us to the observation deck.




The view from the tower is obscured by the clouds and rain








The Observation level, one floor below, had this special opportunity.
But the real area of interest is on the first floor of the Pearl Tower, which holds a historical museum.  The museum shows us life as it was lived by common people a century or more ago.   The life-size displays give me a sense of life of those outside of society.  We see the farmers, shop owners and others in the midst of the daily lives.                                                                     


Keeping the child warm during winter



 The museum also has models of  automobiles from around 1920.








A wedding sedan chair.

After the museum, Xiaohong called her husband, who picked us up and drove to a restaurant, where we had a feast with much food left over for them to take home.   Thank you for the delicious dinner.  And the ride all the way back to the hotel!