This produced the bumper crop of pictures which you can see here, but you might want to read the rest of this post for some background before you look at them.
Shanghai is divided by the Huangpu river into two parts: Puxi (the west side and the part we live on) and Pudong (the east side). When Miles first started coming to Shanghai, there was almost no development on the Pudong side. In 1994, the first of the Pudong towers was completed. It's a beautifully wacky building called "The Pearl of the Orient." Its function is as a TV tower, but it sent a message to the world: "look out, Shanghai is on the move." Since then, at a dizzying rate, the Pudong side of Shanghai has become home to ever-taller towers. One of these, the Jin Mao Tower, was briefly the tallest. It has been eclipsed by the Shanghai World Financial Centre Tower, which has been open just over a year (it's first birthday was back in April).
The day started out very hot, very dry, and crystal clear — a real treasure after several days of rain and humidity. It should have been a great day for spectacular views from the top of the SWFC Tower — which has the tallest observatory deck in the world up on its 100th floor. Unfortunately, haze and humidity developed in the late afternoon, so the views were not as great as we had hoped. No matter. We had a great time, including a very civilized afternoon high tea on the Riverside Promenade, a trip up to the trio of observatory decks in the SWFC Tower — on the 100th, 97th, and 94th floors, and finally a pleasant dinner at a nice restaurant on the 3rd floor, almost all the way back down to the ground.
I can't resist including this wonderful picture I took of Miles up on the 100th floor:
What a great day!
Now go look at the pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment