Day 2 (Jiao Tong, French Concession & Pudong)

Jiao Tong University

On the second day we decided to go to our university to get registered. The university has an enormous campus area and the institute where were we will be studying is state of the art. It was built in 2009. I don't have a lot of pictures yet as it was simply too hot to do anything when we got there.

As you can see the humidity in Shanghai can be overwhelming. It got the best of my camera when we exited Jiao Tong metro station.

When we got to the university the noise from the cicadas was intense. One of them surrendered to the heat and dropped from the tree next to where we were walking. We decided to take some pictures of it climbing Peter's iPhone.  

As you can see the heat was intenese! Our bodies decided to start sweating uncontrollably, so we quickly left the campus area after some rigorous fighting with Chinese university beurocracy, i.e. oblivious office clerks guiding us through dead ends and detours down long corridors with empty offices. 

We escaped the university and sought refuge at the nearest Starbucks. Here we allowed ourselves a small break . We took out our Shanghai survival kit to find a proper place to have lunch.

Shanghai is sometimes covered in a blanket of heavy smog. Some Chinese take precautions as this woman who we saw on our way to find a taxi. 

The taxi drivers are all ranked ranging from zero to five stars. I have yet to experience a five star taxi but according to Peter and Christian they are quite luxurious!

French Concession

We finally arrived in French Concession - Shanghai's bohemian quarter. Its influence is actually English and Russian rather than French. The district is known for its relatively low buildings, avenues, restaurants and hipster mentality. 

At Mummy's Kitchen to get some well deserved lunch and some synchronised tea drinking. Yes we have the same colored shirt on. No we are not millionaires or movie stars, just insanely good looking!

At least the tea cups are pretty.  The content however, is not exactly my cup of tea...

The notorious and infamous chop sticks (or Kuàzi in mandarin). I still experience the occasional chop stick cramp when trying to eat too fast.

Our Lonely Planet Shanghai City Guide. Obviously written by people who've never set foot in the places they describe. I dare say 30% of the content is gibberish. 

When all else fails...

We were hungry and ordered three dishes of chicken. The waitress gave us a puzzled look followed by some gestures to make sure that we understood that all dishes contained chicken. When we confirmed our order she laughed.

After we left the restaurant we were passed by a "pack" of Chinese construction workers. They elaborately investigated Katja who by her mere presence nearly caused a dozen neck injuries. She was of course completely oblivious to the entire incident. I decided to take a picture of them.   

Chinese women posing.

Yet another electrical installation worthy of the CERN particle accelarator.

Street vendor selling all types of delicious food. Among these chicken feet. Compared to how much the Chinese love chicken feet, the dish is actually quite boring and nothing more than skin on bones... Guess I could've told my self.

Ahhh... Sea cucumber - a dish we have yet to try. If it is anything like jellyfish, which is really delicious, I think I might like it a lot. 

Yup, it says juvenile article store. Engrish/Chenglish win!

Pudong

Later we went to the Pudong financial district. It is easily noticeable that this district is no more than 15 years old. As with most things new it lacks charm. However, it makes up for that with awesome skyscrapers galore. 

The two tallest building in Shanghai. The one furthest away is a staggering 474 m tall.

Posing picture nr. 1

Posing pic nr. 2

Peter is ambushed by a couple of Japanese who wants to have their picture taken with him. He was as much an attraction as the 500 m tall buildings.

The CCTV tower in all its erect glory!

Pudong roundabout

At night company sponsored boats sail up and down the Huangpu river.

Some of these are more impressive than others!

Katja points back too the metro and so we head on home from Shanghai's Amager!

First Impresssions (The Bund district)

This post marks the first entry of my new and very first photo blog. I decided not to do a normal blog as Peter and Katja have already written a couple of thousand novels about the same things as I could tell you. 

Peter's blog: Den Rødbedefarvede

Katja's blog: Katja in Shanghai

Instead, I have decided to document some of the things they write about. Especially the irrelevant and uninteresting bits. I will of course add things myself. These will however be less interesting. The blog features only a small selections of the pictures I've taken and I will try to upload the remaining ones later on. Also, please bear with the stupid copyright watermarks. I will try to remove these in the upcoming photo batches. 

The release of this photo blog have been postponed by the attempts of the Chinese government to keep my pictures of highly classified malls and street vendors of the interwebs. Kudos to you China! At last, we finally moved into our penthouse appartment and got our very own super slow and highly unstable yet great-firewall-of-china-free internet connection.

Here goes nothing... Day 1!

Getting to Shanghai

Katja, Peter and I met up at the airport towing our combined 130 kilos of luggage.  We checked in and quickly flew to Moscow for our 5 hours transit to Shanghai. In Moscow we met up with a bunch of Katja's Norwegian friends who would later come to visit us in Shanghai. If it hadn't been for two very drunk russians trying to explain Chinese letters to us by drawing on a window using beer, it would truly have been a forgettable experience.

After five hours we were eager to continue our journey...

Finally on our way from Moscow to Shanghai. Our concerns about flying with Aeroflot swiftly turned to pure excitement when we realised that all seats had build in gamepads. Damn you, industrious russians!

As we left from the airport in our very reasonably priced taxi, we passed the Maglev train. This is the worlds first commercial monorail train propelled by superconducting magnets capable of accelerating the train to 501 km/h. We will definitely go conduct our own test very soon.

When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by Katja's colleague Rasmus. He took us to get our very first Chinese meal at the staggering price of 20 yuan (16 kroner).

Rasmus were supposed to have met us at the airport but overslept due to massive hangovers. Instead he hooked us up with metro access cards allowing us to roam the city for no more than 6 yuan a trip. We also got our China Mobile subscription set up. Mobile, online and full we were ready to experience Shanghai!

The Bund

Our first sightseeing tour of Shanghai was to be the district were we lived. The Bund. The Bund district features a waterfront packed with numerous historical banking and trading houses. The district lays on the west side of the Huangpu river while the Pudong district lays in the east. 

First view of the Pudong financial area. This entire area did not exist 15 years ago. Preparations for its construction began in 1990 and it now inhabits 100 skyscrapers, 200,000 employees and contributes 40% of Shanghai's GDP! 

The bottom of the CCTV tower.

Katja striking a facial pose next to the phallus like CCTV tower.

Peter and Rasmus framing the AURORA building. The entire facade of the building turns into a massive tv screen at night.

Katja and Rasmus

Peter

In China pale skin is considered an ideal. It is therefore not uncommon to spot several young and old chinese women carrying umbrellas during clear skies and +35 degrees. 

Shanghai features thousands of renovation workers struggling to keep the streets clean . 

Chinese girls spend a lot of time posing in front of cameras.   

Peter assessing the Pudong district with a curious yet clueless look upon his face.

The boardwalk opposite to the Pudong district is packed with tourists - Chinese tourists. At this time of the year Shanghai has almost zero western tourists. 

Chinese man and woman (couple?) have their picture taken.

Chinese man carrying a thermos containing either hot water for a quick noodle lunch or home made (and to me tasteless) Chinese tea. Everyone has these! 

Middle aged and middle class Chinese women are certainly not afraid to express emotions in ways that even italians would be envious of. 

An example of Katja's inability to look like a normal person whenever a camera appears within a kilometer of her. It required several hundred man hours and millions of pictures to capture just a few normal expression. Mission status: ongoing! 

When in rome... In Shanghai the most efficient way to cover small distances is by bike. Many bike - even the expats. However, it is a serious health hazard to do so as the traffic is absolutely insane. 

Luckily the traffic signals provide... no safety. At least they feature a counter so you know when to ignore the red light.

Moving downtown

After a quick tour of The Bund we decided to move further downtown towards People's Square. 

Downtown in The Bund district we came across this fashion shoot. Clearly this girl messed up and needed to be learned some manners.

The electricity grid in the city is impeccable and meets only the highest of standards!

In between the large streets there is a myriad of smaller streets - mostly covered in dry cleaning

Yes this model only exists in China. No it is not prestigious to own a Chinese built car. 

Had there been two, it may have been called...

Traditional Chinese lorry truck. Capable of loading several tons. Features excellent maneuvering capabilities and is equipped with a state of the art low carbon engine. (3 gear seamless transmissions is standard)

And you thought Denmark invented the smiley inspections? Think again. As usual everything has been done before. 

Clearly this "butcher" could have used a visit from the health inspection. These shops are everywhere to be found and the majority do not prioritise hygiene 

Dumplings - street vendor style!

News stands like this are found on every street corner. They provide us with a steady supply of censored literature.

People's Square

People's Square is more or less the geographical heart of Shanghai. It underwwnt major renovations in the 1990s and now features several skyscraber, tourist attractions, parks and a gigantic metro station.

Peter reviewing People's Square. It was built recently (like most things in Shanghai) and is absolutely huge!

The Radisson phallus featuring a turning skybar enabling a 360 degree panoramic penis view. 

Mobile blood bank for the conscientious Chinese citizen.

A church featuring a very subtle cross.

Scyscraper nr. 283

Scyscraper nr. 347

Chinese news anchor displayed on a gigantic plasma screen. It is of utmost importance to keep the population (mis)informed!

A closer look at skyscraper nr. 283.

Pudong skyline by night

From People's Square we went back the The Bund waterfront to experience the Pudong skyline at night. The view is quite spectacular!

The Puding skyline by night. Absolutely amazing. Notice that the gold facade of the AURORA building on the right has now turned into a tv screen. 

This picture more closely resembles the lighting we experienced. There where no noticeable stars in the night sky. Luckily they turn off all the lights at 11 in the evening.  

Relieved and exhausted yet happy we concluded our first day in Shanghai!