So two subway rides and a bus ride I arrive and meet up with Aimee and Christine. At the park that we meet up at there is a Stride’s gum campaign and we are greeted by a bunch of zebras. After taking a picture with the main one we see at least six more cars full of zebra mascots. That was pretty interesting.

t has been a while since I’ve been to a zoo. This China zoo was pretty disappointing by international standards. The animals aren’t really free roam and I was pretty surprised to see dogs being exhibited. This poodle looks so sad and why the hell would they dye its ears? Regardless the fish aquarium area was pretty interesting looking.

China has now surpassed the United States in automobile consumption and this year the Shanghai Auto Show is one of the largest in the world. Lucky for me my cousin works for Delphi an auto parts supplier and we were able to get press passes for the initial opening of the auto show. The first two days are reversed for press and should be a lot less crowded. This means that it will still be super crowded, however by Chinese standards it is much better than it could have been.

The exhibition had a lot less exotics and high end cars that I had hoped for but it was fun nonetheless. It was interesting checking out the brands coming out of China. A lot of these cars look very familiar such as a Geely GE that looks an awful lot like a Rolls Royce. Besides all the fakes I really enjoyed the event and especially liked the cross section of the Nissan GTR.

I landed in Shanghai during the night. The flights from Kathmandu to Lasa to Chengdu and finally to Pudong International Airport was long and tiresome. My cousin Xie Ying met me at the airport and we took a taxi back to his condo. I am actually staying at Ying’s new condo. It was just finished and he has yet to move in. Shanghai is split into two parts by the Huangpu River, a tributary of the Yangtze. The two parts are east of the Huangpu River, called PuDong, and west of the Huangpu River, called PuXi. I will be staying in PuDong.

Shanghai has a population of 17million and is thus the largest city in China and the largest city in the world. The last time I came to Shanghai in 2001 the area known as LuJiaZui was just one tower; The Oriental Pearl Tower, or as I like to call it the weird spaceship looking TV tower building. Everything else around that area was flat. Now that area is full of tall skyscrapers and modern looking building. I am surprised at how modern Shanghai is. The last few years this place has been in a building frenzy.

One of the first things I check out while in Shanghai is the Shanghai World Financial Center. It’s the giant bottle opener looking building. Originally the top of the building was to have a circular cutout, but once the plans were revealed to the public, the Chinese people complained that it resembled the Japanese flag and the anti-Japanese sentiment made the architect change plans and make it a trapezoidal cutout. And thus we have the current bottle cap opener looking building today.

The Shanghai World Financial Center is a tourist attraction. It sits at 492.0 meters or 1,614.2 feet tall. We were able to visit the 94th, 97th and 100th floor after purchasing tickets. The 97th is the observation deck and you see all around the LuJiaZui area. It is amazing how expansive this city. The Bund which is the area across the river is amazing at night and is completely lit up.