After a leisurely stroll in a breeze and drizzle down the lake and after enjoying the charms at Xintiandi, we headed to Pudong, the "new" Shanghai, an area that was known as paddy growing area till about 20 years back. Though the distance from Xintiandi to Pudong was about 20 kilometers, Shaun's Roewe brought us to Pudong in about 20 minutes.
As we entered Pudong business district, we were spellbound - I was spell-struck - was this a paddy field 20 years back? And here, we still cannot get the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link done despite more than 25 years of "planning"!
Shaun drove us to the Orient Pearl Tower, where Roewe was parked. We then headed to the Subway outlet there and grabbed a sub each. Shaun was decent enough to offer to pay for his meal, but we declined and gladly paid for his sub.
Then we headed for the Shanghai World Financial Center or the SWFC as it is called here. We walked past the access of the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel - which is said to be one of Shanghai's top tourist attractions and perhaps one of its strangest. Since we thought of getting this kind of audio-visual frenzy was rather bizarre, we gave it a pass.
Instead, we took a skywalk that led us to the Jin Mao Tower, in the vicinity of the SWFC.
The Orient Pearl Tower, a distinct landmark of Shanghai gets hidden in the midst of low lying clouds...
The tower was completed in 1994 and with a height of 468 metres, it was the tallest structure in China till 2007, when it was surpassed by the SWFC.
The tower has fifteen observatory levels and still is a prominent attraction in city.
It is believed that the design of the Orient Pearl Tower is inspired by a verse of the Tang Dynasty poem Pipa Song by Bai Juyi about the wonderful sprinkling sound of a pipa instrument, like pearls, big and small falling on a jade plate.
However, the designer Jiang Huancheng is claimed to have said that he did not have the poem in mind when he designed the tower. It was the chief of the jury board who said it reminded him of that poem.
The Pipa Song is now presented as a popular opera show!
A snake carved out of the hedge on the traffic island reminded me that we were in the Year of the Snake!!!
And round we went along the skywalk...
A panoramic view of cloud kissed building tops!
Pudong is the land of skyscrapers.
The first photo shows the tallest three buildings in the city - the first (on the extreme left) is the Shanghai Tower, which is expected to be completed in 2014 and will stand at 632 metres. On the right is the Jin Mao Tower, which is at 421 metres and right behind it is the SWFC at 494 metres.....
A lovely roundabout!
Showing us the way....
The first pic shows the Shanghai Tower - glass cladding is underway!
The second pic shows the SWFC.
The original design of the SWFC was to have a circular aperture, to reduce wind stresses and as a reference to the Chinese mythological depiction of the sky as a circle.
Since the SWFC was being developed by a Japanese company, the Mori Building Company, the design was seen as a symbol of Japanese "imperialism", similar to rising sun design of the Japanese flag.
That was too much for the Chinese to take - this design began facing massive protests, including from the mayor of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu....
Our guide, Shaun felt very proud when he told us this story and justifiably so....!
Who would have imagined a few years back that a nation that was at the receiving end of the Opium Wars and later, the Second World War would bounce back so strongly....
As a compromise, the design was changed to incorporate a trapezoid aperture at the peak, which is very similar to the Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal's Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia...
The pic on right clearly shows the sword profile....
With our tickets in hand, we were ready to ascend to the skies...
And the ascent begins....
Moving up from the 94th level...
The "Did You Know" on the SWFC....
The spire of Jin Mao Tower....
That's the viewing gallery at the 100th floor, 474 metres.....
Alas, it was a cloudy day, today, but Jin Mao Tower is still visible...
People informally refer to the SWFC as the bottle opener, and in fact, metal replicas of the building that function as actual bottle openers are sold in the observation deck gift shop.
The rear of the entry ticket shows the SWFC as the tallest building in the world! It actually isn't, it is the 6th tallest tower....
And after picking up souvenirs, it was time to head to terra firma...
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