东方明珠塔 is a major tourist attraction of Shanghai. At 468 meters, it is the tallest in Asia and the 3rd tallest in the world. There are several types of tickets, and how many place you can go in the tower depends on the one you bought. For e.g. the RMB 100 one which I bought allowed me to go up to 263m, and then back down to 90m, before it takes me back down to the basement to visit the Shanghai Heritage Museum. Of course, if you decide you want to go further up at 263m, there’s a ticket booth which allows you to ‘top up’ your ticket.

At 263m, there isn’t really very much to see when the skyline consists of buildings and more buildings, shrouded in mist or smog. I walked around snapping a few photos and then head off to the next stop at 90m.

In reality, the lift stops at approximately 110m when you come down from 263m, in which you take a walk through their space exhibits. There is really nothing much to see at this level, even though there is a roller coaster which was claimed to be the highest in the world, and some other games that would make you feel sick if your stomach is weak (for e.g. the F-14 Arcade Module). Following the route leads you downwards and you now get a view of Shanghai at 90m without being behind the glass.

I was a little disappointed, but fortunately there is much more to see at the basement at the Shanghai heritage museum, in which you get to learn the history of Shanghai and get to see replicas of what old Shanghai looks like from the late 19th Century to the early 20th Century before the Communist Liberation in 1949.

It took me about 40 minutes to walk through this museum before my growling stomach forces me to depart for lunch.

My next destination was the Shanghai Museum [上海博物馆] (not to be confused with the Shanghai heritage museum at 东方明珠塔). It is located near 人民广场, which is near my hotel, and just 2 metro stations away from 东方明珠塔. If I remembered correctly, there are 6 levels with different exhibits. That includes artifacts from the Bronze Age up to the early Han Dynasty era and the barbarian tribes, ceramic / porcelain artifacts, to more modern stuff like calligraphy and also a history of Chinese coin making. I also learn a bit more about Chinese history from there.

After 2 hours snapping photographs and reading stuff that interests me, I gave in to my tired legs and took a short walk back to my hotel for a rest before I head off to my next destination: 城隍庙, a Taoist temple allegedly built since the era of the 3 Kingdoms by Sun Quan [孙权] of Wu in memory of his late mother.

According to the Shanghainese, if you did not go to 城隍庙, then you have not been to Shanghai. That simply means I will need to go to Shanghai again because when I got there the temple has closed for the day. I couldn’t do much except to walk around the area in the vicinity and took night view photos of the shops.

So here are the photos. And yes, you won’t see me in them. I don’t usually take photo of myself.

* Click on the picture to view the album
And it doesn’t work in Opera so give up…

南京路步行街 is right where my hotel is and 新天地 is one of the places recommended by friends and locals.

南京路步行街 gives me the feeling of being in Orchard Road with a Chinese feel, except without all those stupid cars choking up the road. This is where you can see the ‘darker side’ of Shanghai, or perhaps China itself. This is the place that made me called Shanghai the city of paradox.

There are pimps who would harass anyone foreign looking and invite you to their premises for sex services. Unlike in Singapore where they won’t bother you further when you walk away, they might follow you for some distances before they give up. They might even offer to help you take photographs, just so you will go to their premises to take a look. According to them, the prostitutes are RMB $100 for one session, or RMB $200 if you take the girl back to your hotel for overnight. The pimp will say anything to entice you, like telling you that the girls are university students trying to make a few quick bucks. It is almost funny to hear them say, “Ma-sa-ge? Sex Ma-sa-ge?”

My personal recommendation is that you don’t take up the offer at all, unless you can’t control your pecker. After all, god knows what they’ll do to you when you get there. While it is not difficult to find the police [公安] on 南京路步行街 itself, the multitude of people there almost ensure that any criminal would have gotten away before they can do anything. I was harassed by one such pimp but I couldn’t take a photo of him, as I didn’t want to get beaten up.

Along with the sex trade also comes ‘beggar syndicates’. Some of these operates in pairs and there are certainly more than one pair operating on that stretch and they would plead with you to buy them a meal claiming that they came from some other provinces and had not eaten for days. Don’t be taken it and just walk on with a poker face. Alternatively, if you can speak Chinese, just look at them in the face and say, “怎么又是这招 ?” [Translation: “Oh, this trick again?”]

Then there are the other kind of ‘beggar syndicates’ – the kind who carries a child around and tries very hard to look pitiable. My friend from Beijing told me not to be taken in and just ignore them as I would ignore those who begs for meals. In her words, just ignore this kind as some might actually be quite well off, and the child might possibly be kidnapped from other provinces.

At night, when the shops are closed, there’s a ‘pasar malam’ being set up. There are people selling all sorts of stuff – including the Muslim minorities from the northwest selling barbecued mutton. They are like satay, except that the meet comes in bigger pieces and are at RMB $2 a piece, if I remembered correctly. Unfortunately, it was very cold at night (roughly about 7 deg. C), and I was too tired and too lazy to take photos. Not to mention that the pimps are also still out at that time.

新天地 is very much like well, Clarke Quay. There’s a lot of Western style restaurants, pubs etc there. In one of the pubs I went into there’s even a Filipino band. My friend working there calls it the Mohammed Sultan of Shanghai, except that it’s just much more successful. And of course, it’s a tourist attraction as you can see tour groups from Hong Kong and Japan every now and then at the place. So well, I got really not very much to say about it.

As usual, here are some photos…

* Click on the picture to view the album
And it doesn’t work in Opera so give up…

Took a train to Hangzhou [杭州]. It’s about 2 hours off and costs between RMB $44 – $48, depending on the hours and the type of train. According to a local, it can be even as low as RMB $29.

It was a little surprising to me that Hangzhou is another modern city when I arrived and I must say that I am completely ignorant of China and I should do something about my perception of the country of my forefathers. From Hangzhou railway station it was only about 10 – 15 mins to Xihu [西湖] or West Lake itself. Flag down far is just RMB $10 itself, and the lake is so near to the train station that the meter didn’t move at all.

Population density in Hangzhou seems to be way lower than Shanghai because I don’t feel as hemmed in and surrounded there, and it appears as orderly as Shanghai itself. However, I am not aware if the security is as good or better than Shanghai because crime rates – as I was told – differs between cities.

Anyway, about 30 minutes after arriving in Xihu, we gave in the the constant harassing of a local peddler who put us onto a vehicle that took us around Xihu for RMB $50. We only need to pay when we hit the last point of the route and he gave us brief introductions of the places he took us to. I learn a few things about the history and the origins of the places along the way as I took some photos.

You can check out the album below.

* Click on the picture to view the album
And it doesn’t work in Opera so give up…

To my friends who are watching this blog closely, this is what you have been waiting for: Photos of my Shanghai trip.

As usual, the skill of the photographer left much to be desired even with a better camera. Some of the pictures appear a little blurry and that’s because were taken in night shot mode without a tripod on a Panasonic DMC-FZ5 (borrowed from my friend Bernard). For those who wants to know how I took them, I either try to hold my hands as steady as possible or put the camera on something stable and then take them by setting the time to 2 secs.

More photos of my recent trip to Hang Zhou will follow after the write up, and since it’s late, I am going to catch some sleep before I work on the next piece.

* Click on the picture to view the album
And it doesn’t work in Opera so give up…