Shanghai Days

Oriental Pearl TV Tower

I had my first chance at visiting Shanghai in June 2004 on a due diligence mission on a Company we are going to acquire so I was there 2 weeks in Shanghai and after that it became an almost yearly visit in Shanghai.  As an interesting piece of trivia, it was in Shanghai that I learned how to eat using chopsticks as by the second week of the trip, I was already becoming thinner because I’m having a hard time eating with chopsticks. It was because of this that I’ve become more adept at using chopsticks.  My navigation skills here was purely having the Chinese address of the places on interest written in paper so I can just show this to the cab driver.  The MRT was easy to navigate but the signs in the MRT stations were in Chinese so I didn’t want to risk getting lost.

The Bund

Among the places of interest was the Oriental Pearl TV Tower which was one of the taller structures in the world at that time.  It is located just in opposite the area of the Bund which is spectacular at night with the old buildings illuminated by the bright lights.  There are a lot of food establishment in the area and one of the better things to do is just watch the bright lights of the Bund while having Starbucks Coffee in the side of Oriental Pearl TV Tower.  You can also cross the river between the TV Tower and the Bund by ferry ride or pass through an underground walkway where you get some interesting bit of history about the area.  There’s also an aquarium that can go several levels deep that shows different marine life in the place.

The City of Lights

Just along the bright lights of the Bund, you can go on street shopping at Nanjing Road.  I’ve also been able to enjoy the night life in Xintiandi where you can have a good meal, a drink or coffee and is a popular attraction among foreigners in the area.  I also was able to visit some temples and beautiful gardens as well as having my regular routine of eating McDonalds in the place I visit for one simple reason that it’s one of the simplest places to order food.  I also had all the liquor I can consume as people here are really good drinkings and I made a good impression since I was able to hold my own drinking with them.  Another piece of trivia, when I was first got promoted years ago, I was told that one of the good first impression I made was being able to drink well with them.  Now, who says that there are no benefits of alcohol.

Finally, I was also able to ride their High-Speed Maglev trains in several of my visits.  At full speed the train can bring you to the airport in just a few minutes.  This is such a great way to cap my days in Shanghai.