Shanghai is incredible, especially at night. We arrived into Shanghai early in the morning, traversing a river for several hours until we reached the city center. This was certainly a location that would not have been accessible in a larger ship. The award-winning Shanghai International Cruise Terminal, close to the famous Bund, designed by Spark Architects and completed in 2011, combines a series of headquarter office buildings with more than 430,000 sq. ft. of retail space within a mile long riverside park. From our ship, we were able to walk along the riverside along with citizens enjoying the sweeping views of the city.

A game John and I often play when we are on walks is a sort of “I spy” competition where one of us will say something like “A: Clothing featuring Disney or B: Clothing featuring a major league sports team” and the other will choose one of the options. Then we ‘compete’ to see which of the two options we can find first in the crowd. Truth be told, we don’t always pick socially appropriate things to be on the lookout for and the options are very much dependent on the location we’re in. For example, we’ve played this game in the U.S. in some crowds where we have chosen things like “A: muffin top or B: camel toe”.  If you’re not aware of what those are, I apologize for what your search results are about to show you. Anyway, we played this game here as we strolled along and I’ll say that the two things that stumped us the longest (as in, it took us a while to find them in the crowd) were “adult in shorts other than John” and “natural blonde.” 😊

Anyway, our ship was situated along a section called the Bund. The Bund is located on the left bank of the Huangpu River and is characterized by its 1930s heritage and historic commercial buildings.

As one website noted, “the main symbols of modern China can be found here: history and heritage on the left bank, and the rush toward economic growth on the right bank, traditional ways of living in the parks and the frenzied modernity experienced by a workforce in a hurry.” This was indeed the feel for the area. Originally a simple mud bank, the Bund was not laid down until 1846, when Shanghai became a trading port. Over time, the buildings multiplied: offices, consulates, chambers of commerce, and banks all opened. Gradually, the city began to experience a cultural and economic revolution. It was only at the end of the 1990s that the city authorities decided to make the Bund into Shanghai’s main tourist attraction. Works were undertaken to refresh the promenade and the boulevard, making it the essential destination for visitors to the city, which it remains today. Let me just say, the views of the entire area are breathtaking – both during the day and especially at night (and I’d say especially at night from the ship where we could easily see views of all sides of the city along the water).

In addition to simply experiencing the area near our ship and the spectacular views, we also went on an excursion that afforded us two additional fun experiences. First, we saw China’s architectural future in soaring skyscrapers in the New Pudong District (which amazingly was farmland little more than a decade ago). We rode a high-speed elevator to the observation deck on the 88th floor of the Jin Mao Tower where we saw an incredible view of the financial district and far beyond.

Within the observation deck, we could see a hotel lobby many stories below. It was a strange feeling to look down so far.

After the Jin Mao Tower, we had the opportunity to ride the famous Maglev Train. The train ride one-way (to and from the Pudong airport) only took about seven minutes but the experience was cool. The wheel-less Maglev floats on an electromagnetic cushion and can race along a guideway at speeds of up to 200 mph.

There was a portion the trip that felt like we were moving sideways, as if on a roller coaster. There was a sign that indicated how fast we were moving, and showed how quickly we got up to speed. Our top speed was 301 kph (187 mph).

The Maglev was cool to ride given it holds the record for the fastest ever record for a ground-operated mode of transport.

After we rode the train, we spent a little time in a museum dedicated to the Maglev. It really is an impressive mode of transportation and cool that we got to experience it.

As the last part of this post, it’s only to say that we were impressed with Shanghai. I’m not sure what we were expecting, but it was incredible. The city was vibrant, the people were friendly, and overall it was clean and orderly. Considering the large number of people here, it was rather quiet. There were surveillance cameras everywhere (and a lot of them) and visa checks were strict, but otherwise it was a welcoming city. And the buildings… well, just amazing. One last shot of a building that seemed to disappear into the heavens…. 🙂