(p.s. I really love this photo, haha, took it inside a mall near the pearl tower)
All of us got up at around 10am today and plan to leave the hostel at around 11am. Everyone look pretty trashed, haha. One of the girls who helped to organise this trip got up extra early to get breakfast takeaway for us. It is again, the most typical breakfast for Shanghai people: soy milk and deep fried dough sticks wrapped inside a Chinese pakcake. This is exactly what I told my mum before I came to China, I will have trouble with breakfast, because I'm not a fan of neither soy milk nor deep fried dough sticks. So there's my breakfast gone, Jordan 'had' to eat my share (like he was forced, but to be honest, I think he's more than happy to eat it for me).
Our first trip of the day is to travel from western Shanghai to eastern Shanghai. That's where the more modern stuff will be (like buildings etc). Our bus went up and down the messy and massive bridges in the Shanghai city, just like a roller coaster you know? Shanghai is famous for its wild roads, bridges (not for the sea, but just for extra road space on land) going up and down, in and out, vertical and horizontal between different roads. This is really different to Beijing. Beijing is very organised in terms of the ring system: 6 rings now, expanding from the central (from Tian'anmen Square) and expands all around the directions. Shanghai is more like a city built too quickly so that it had to build things on top of tthings, make things happen while make something else happening too; it's quite crazy but very fascinating as well. On the way to the eastern Shanghai, we saw so many constructions sites (everywher!!), new buildings for expo, new residential buildings, new hotels, renovations, new subway lines (apparently they're building 4 new subway lines together), new roads etc etc. All these constructions made Shanghai very dusty and relatively messy, roads are no longer safe and easy, but rather mixed with workers / cars / construction sites / buses / pedestrians / bikers etc; the amount of honking in Shanghai is definitely more than Beijing. I really hope the mess and dust are only because of the construction for expo, and hopefully things will get better later. The expo buildings are no way near done (for my standard) but Rex said: it's China, of course it'll be done before May 2010, you've seen 2012 right? I immediately laughed, haha, good logic, good point, we're Chinese, what can't we do?! LOL
We first arrived at the bottom of Pearl Tower. I didn't even know in the beginning, until I got out the bus and I was just walking around, then Rex came up to me and said I must be concentrating on other things too much to not notice what's above my head in the sky. I looked up, and I shouted OH MY GOD! The Shanghai Pearl Tower is right in front of me (well, it's so big that it look slike it's right in front of me) and it's MASSIVELY tall!!!!
The Pearl Tower was the tallest tower in Asia and it's the most symbolic tower in China. There are songs about it, stories about it, millions of photos of it. It's the pride of Shanghai, and also the pride of China. I heard that it's really expensive to get up the tower, and there's no plan to go up today. I may consider next time I come (with a better weather, look at the sky behind the tower in the photo!)
Walking distance from the Pearl Tower are the two tallest towers in Shanghai. One is the Jin Mao Tower (used to be the tallest tower in Shanghai and Asia) and Shanghai Global Financial Hub (replaced Jin Mao Tower to be the tallest building now). This is where all the most talented, skilled, rich and powerful people are. This is where billions of dollars will come in and out daily. As three finance directors for LCs in AIESEC New Zealand, Calumn, Chrissy and I decided to take a photo with the $$ tower!
We made some finance director hoodies back home in New Zealand. Each one of us have our own money related nicknames. Calum is Cash Baron; Chrissy is Gold Digger; I am Pika-Ching! (note, i'm not wearing my jacket because i accidentally left it at the hostel..but I'm wearing Charles's jacket, another finance director from Wellington). Miss my AIESECers back home; miss conference and miss hanging out with you guys =(
Proud to be the dominating group in this tour, us kiwis decided to take another group photo. We have an extra kiwi now = Danni. She was an AIESECer from Auckland and now she's in Rex's LC for a CEEDership (exchange within AIESEC) program. She'll be in Shanghai until the end of December helping AIESEC FDU and then return to NZ for university.
I really think the best thing about travelling is when you can travel with friends! It's so fun and so easy. Don't have to worry too much about people around because you're surrounded by your own friends! Together we had so much fun and I just misses them so much. Calum and Chrissy will be coming to Beijing in few weeks' time and I really hope to see them again and show them around in Beijing.
Right outside the Pearl Tower there's a shopping centre. Rex said that because we have some free time so we can actually go in there and have a look around (especially there's Christmas deals on atm). I walked into the shopping mall, hmmm, it looks quite the same as other malls I saw in Beijing. Similar shops, similar price. But as I went up the escalator, I was so surprised! This shopping centre is extended further in. There are lifts and escalators everywhere in the shopping centre that leads to a new platform or level or even between levels.
There are shops everywhere shining and promoting for their 'Christmas Sale'. It's so pretty! There are few levels dedicated just to restaurants and food courts; there's a level for cinema and entertainment only; and then to my surprise again, not only that there're like 12 floors and with floors inserted between these 12 floors, there are actually 2 undeground floors too. It's just like a puzzle or maze in here, and it's a very pleasant one =)
(you can tell how happy I am from the photo, lol)
Rex took us to this amazing place in Shanghai. It's by the riverside, it's called PuDong. (ignoring the fact that the river is very dirty), the view is just unbelivable. Arturs (see photo) was so excited, haha and we were all WOW when we saw the scenary. I would love to put the group photos on here but then I realised it's in my friend's camera =(
Maybe it's just the not-so-good weather in Shanghai this weekend, but I really wished that the sky would clear up a bit. The grey sky, grey building and grey river really made the city look relaly dull and dirty. This somehow reminds me of Ukraine. I was in Ukraine for 2 months back in 2007. It was winter time in Ukraine, just like China now. Maybe it's just a winter thing, but the sky was so dulll and grey; lack of sunshine; lack of greens; everyone walks really fast and cover themselves up with clothes/scarfs; lack of communication and smiles between people. hmmmm this city makes me feel lonely and sad.
If I werent' surrounded by my friends, I think I'll just stay silent for the whole day. I enjoy my stay in Shanghai, but it was as exciting as I was hoping to be. I want to stay here longer, to actually learn and settle down in this city; to actually get to know this city.
So far I like Beijing more. It feels more of a home, a more established city. An easier going culture.
For me, the most exciting place for the day was when we visited this place called: 1933 Millhouse. We were all very confused at what this place is, and even some of the locals AIESECers had no idea. When we were on the tour bus, Rex told us the story: 1933 Millhouse was a slaughter house back in the days (around the 30's). This place was kept and maintained after the shut down of the slaughterhouse and now it's a place of art. The building and the design itself are already pieces of art. Artists from around the country and the world gathered here and utilised some of the spaces and creative designs inside the maze-looking interior of the building, and turned the building into a collection of arts. This reminds me of 798 Factory in Beijing, where it was used to be a old factory plant and now it has been turned into an art. But to be honest, both of these places give me a little chill from behind, it's like an old factory and an old slaughter hosue, hmmmmmm just the icy-cold-old-image of these buildings are already quite 'chilly' for me.
Just right outside the 1933 millhouse, we found something really familiary, AGAIN. It's the 2010 world expo toy sculpture. A friend (won't mention his name, haha, for his sake) started telling me about what he thinks of this expo symbol/toy. It was such a crack up. He said that this statue shapes like a condom, yeah, in his exact words: like a condom. He said that if you take away his hands, he'll look like a condom. From that moment onwards, I never want to see this toy again. Lucky I didn't buy a souvenir of this toy.
So, here we are:
1933 Millhouse.
This is a very old building. It's located in a residential area now (houses built around it). The environment is pretty old fashioned/styled, with very little amoutn of pedestrians near by. The concrete walls sends out extra chill into the environment, mmm not my personal favourite for a building
On the outside of the building there was the head of an old train. Not sure why there's a train out here because there's no railways around, but maybe this
train was used back in the days for transporting raw materials?
The inside of the millhouse is very dark and dull. Firstly due to the fact that it wasn't a sunny day in Shanghai; secondly because of the lack of windows and doors in the millhouse; and thirdly, my least favourite concrete. All the walls, floors and stairs are made of concrete with no extra refinining of paint or anything. It's very chilly inside, very negative energy. There are stairs coming out from random places and leaing up to random places. I've walked on some stairs that I had to squeeze myself through because it was just too narrow; i've also went on some stairs that led me to this random platform between two platforms, and i heard music playing but see no one around, it was just so freaky.
The little rooms scattered around inside the building are occupied by different artists and displaying different themes. The building is not just one square block, but rather several blocks extended to and from different places with staircases, tunnels, rooms etc.
I took this photo (see insert) at this particular bridge linking between two buildings. The tunnels and stairs and bridges liking the buildings are just fascinating. There are so many of them. This particular scene reminds me of Harry Potter and Hogwarts. You know the magic school? The tunnels and bridges between buildings, like a maze, it makes the buildings look really alive. This photo really reminds me of Harry Potter, the msterious atmosphere waiting for me to discover, hoho.
There this creative furniture exhibition held by a design company that captured my eyesight. The overall lighting inside the exhibition is quite dimmed, with few strong lights shimmering on some of the artworks. To enter the exihibition, the first challenge is to find a way to get to the main door, but there are so many dead ends and roads inside the millhouse that makes this a challenge. Once I found the main door, then I realised it's not a normal door as such, it's like a 360 degrees round tube that I'm standing in and there's a monitor on the wall with a hand print on the screen. After few seconds I clicked so I put my hand over it, then one part of the
this 'tube' started to spin and the entrance to the exhibition was revealed.
There are so many little decorations, creative art on used-to-be-boring utensils, furnitures etc. I pictured that if I have my home in the future, I will definitely try my best to make it unique and creative like this. This exhibition really gives off this very comfortable feeling, relaxing, and cheering. Look at me in the photo, haha. This is a bunch of soft toys we found which are letters, and it spells out ' I LOVE' with the letter V made into a shape of a heart. 'hearts' shape is my favourite shape, and
it's in my favourite colour, soooo happy~~
Other creative arts and furnitures we saw include Japanese style utensils and homeware, like this set of white clay tea cups with flowers representing the four seasons of the year; blossom tree; a lamp that is shaped as the statute of liberty; lamp with the shape of a bear; knife and folk for the cakes in a heart shape with this piece missing in the middle which allows the knife and folk to 'lock' back together like a puzzle. All these just make a 'home' so much more fun and sensational!
Our tour pretty much ended after we got out from 1933 Millhouse. I went with some AIESECers to a shopping centre near Fudan University to get some food before my flight. I thought this will be the last piece of story I'll have about Shanghai, but I was wrong.
When Jordan and I decided to take a cab instead of bus to the airport, we thought we'll just get to the airport a bit earlier and rest there. During the taxi ride, the taxi driver (being another VERY talkative taxi driver) was telling us that it's good how we're going early so maybe we can avoid the delays. We asked him why would there be delays? Obviously we didnt' know enough before we asked that question, he replied 'WHAT? you didn't know' with the max volume!!! Then there he goes, went on and on about what had happened in Shanghai Pudong Airport yesterday (Saturday).
This is the best karaoke place I've ever been to. Ok, imagine this: a five-star hotel lobby, five-star services, all the staff will say 'welcome to cashbox' to you, one staff responsible of taking care of the room that we booked, buffet (altough buffet was not like 5-star, but at least 3-star) etc. The lobby was so beautiful! It was seriously just like a 5-star hotel. I was very amazed and definitely recommend this to anyone. We picked a particular rate at booking and it works like this: as long as we get in by 7pm, then we can pay for 1 hour (small room for max 6 people, 180RMB per room per hour) and get 2 hours for free! There's buffet everynight until 9pm, and it's 25RMB per person. Therefore, if we can have 6 people to fill up the room, then we pay 55RMB per person for 3 hours including buffet dinner. This is so cheap! Hoho. In Auckland, I usually go to K-Box by the Viaduct, it's usually 15-20NZD per person including one meal for 3 hours (which is actually really cheap coz it's happy hour). We ended the night by meeting up with Gerard and Josi nearby and walked around the area. We saw Melody (another karaoke place) as well, it's another massive karaoke. 
