Granny in Shanghai update....

An update from the Hornbys in Shanghai!

Exploring the city of over 20 million.

That's right, 20 million plus. It's amazing to witness the movement, noise and smells of this city. Even though it was so exciting to see all the sites and lights and people it was welcome silence we got when we arrived at our hotel. I'm allergic to cigarette smells but found myself welcoming them a few times over the sewer smells. This city is growing so fast with advanced technologies yet they haven't figured out that environmental issues are important too! The pollution of the rivers and air and the noise pollution is something I hope they recognize soon.
Now, having said that, I have to say this is the most BEAUTIFUL city I've ever seen. The architecture is truly......unbelievable.....too astounding for words. I've never really noticed buildings too much because we just don't have many that stand out here on the West Coast of the USA. Not only does Shanghai have the most beautiful architecture but they have so MANY (3000-4000 skyscrapers just in the past few years....twice the number of New York City!) different buildings to see and I read that they have plans to build 1000 more skyscrapers by the 2010 World Expo! From our room at the JW Marriott we literally could see nothing but buildings and parks. Oh yeah, and the landscaping of their parks is remarkable....no, that's not the right word, it was just plain awesome. Since landscaping is something I do notice, I was amazed at the way they were using the same plants I have in my yard, in a way that made its parks so interesting and just beautiful. I can't wait to try some of this in my own yard. Check out these pictures of how they make the trees grow they way they want and the way they trim plants at different levels to accent the beauty of each plant.

The picture at the beginning of this blog is of the Huangpu River and the Pudong district. It was taken from the rooftop of the New Heights restaurant, part of a new development called Three on the Bund. This development also has art galleries, swanky stores they call "fashion outlets" (like Georgio, Armani, etc.) and the Evian spa. Next door is M on the Bund, the restaurant that put "Shanghai dining on the world map, drawing international reviews for its gourmet Continental cooking" according to the book, Frommer's Shanghai (which I HIGHLY recommend if and when you go to Shanghai!). We actually tried to eat there but since we were wearing shorts and packing our camera's like a couple tourist we got turned away. (After all, we are Hewlett Packard geeks, not high class society types!)

Night time on the Bund was purely awesome. We sat at our table on the rooftop and enjoyed the ever changing lights of the skyscrapers on the Pudong side of the river. The river boats were lit up too which made the whole area seem magical. The Reuben sandwich we had was perfect, and was one of the only meals we had that wasn't Asian. Our pictures don't do justice to the beauty of this night. You will just have to go see for yourself someday! More pictures and stories in our next blog....ta ta for now....