Shanghai-ed in Shanghai

There's nothing like getting up at 4:30 am to catch a flight to make you wonder why you travel. Especially when you get up that early to make sure your luggage gets to the airport before you do. That doesn't happen in the US because God/Goddess forbid you not be in possession of your luggage the entire time! But we are a group of of American students and teachers. How harmful can we be? Especially at 4:30 in the morning. 


Once we arrive at the airport, we are already checked in (thanks to our handy guide assistant) so all we have to do is got through security and find our gate. Easy enough! Flight to Shanghai--smooth sailing, so to speak and we land in the port city in the pouring rain. 


Unfortuately, some luggage didn't land with us--a drawback of having someone else check us in. So we spent some time in baggage claim sorting out a lost bag and a damaged bag. Luckily, the Chinese are very helpful and the lost bag is on the next flight and the damaged bag is replaced. And it only took us about 3 hours to solve this issue!

Ready to ride!

As an "extra" on this tour, Daniel has set it up a ride on the bullet train into the city from the airport. It costs about $50 yuan and can go up to 400 km an hour. We hop on and get our seats. It's not crowded at all. Turns out not many people ride this train. I think the entire ride took about 10 minutes but it was fun to watch the city go by so fast!

View from the train

First up on our list of attractions was the World Financial Center Building--the tallest building in China and 4th tallest in the world! (although the Chinese are currently building another sky scraper that is supposed to surpass this one when it is finished). It has an observation deck on the 101st floor, so we are going to see the city from way up high. The building is obviously designed for tourists too and we are ushered into lines to board elevators that will take us up to the 94th floor. From there, you need a ticket to get to the 97th floor, and then another ticket to get to the 101st floor. This is not a ride for the clausterphobic. You are crammed into the elevator with as many people as possilble to get up there, but the ride is very fast (10 meters pers second) and they provide you with an entertaining and hypnotic video on the ceiling.

I have to tell you that even on a cloudy, misty, rainy day, the ride up to see the views are well worth it. But what surprised us the most were the window washers! They were all the way up to the observation deck--outisde--on their scaffolding!! They would do their job but wave and laugh at us as we seemed very surprised to see them up there. 

You can head back down to the 97th floor where there is a gift shop and public toliet. I know this sounds quite strange, but you must try the toilets! They are the most fancy one's I have ever experienced. There are about 5 buttons on the side of the seat that will warm the seat for you, rinse you off and dry you off. If you use the handicap one in the ladies room, it comes with a view! From what I have heard, you get a view in the men's room too. Daniel advertised it as a 7 star "happy house." He was right on the money!! And compared to most toilets in China (and some in the States) it was quite luxurious!

Our plan after the viewings was to meet back down in front of the building. Unfortunately, navigating the building was a little difficult and some of us got lost. So today was a day of just running late. We were able to get some great skyline pictures taken, though.

When we were finally all together, we boarded our bus and headed to our hotel to check in and rest a little before the night excursion. Daniel has scheduled time for us to take a boatride around the harbor and check out the night lights of Shanghai!

straight down...

info I cannot read

straight up!

outside