Shanghai hen hao

The skyline of the Pudong area and the smog! It was a sunny day today, but you'd never know it.

View from where we had lunch on the Bund, "New Heights"

A boat that looked like a house floating along the Huangpu River. The skyline of Pudong (the newer business district) is in the background. 

Times Square on steroids - Nanjing Lu pedestrian street. Woops, I just noticed the woman over my shoulder .... 

In the title is the one bit of Mandarin I have managed to pick up: "hen hao" means "very good." I'm back at my hotel having some tea off of the lobby after a great afternoon of sight-seeing in Shanghai. My feet are tired and I need to rest up for dinner. 

Jason met me at about 11 this morning and we began our afternoon of seeing the sights in Shanghai. Shanghai is definitely more cosmopolitan and Westernized than Guangzhou, though it still feels very Chinese. You pretty much know when you are in a Western/ex-pat area and when you are smack in the middle of a very Chinese part of town. 

First, we walked through Old Shanghai and got a glimpse of the daily weekend life: street-side restaurants open to the outside, dead chickens hanging above doorways to restaurants, laundry hanging everywhere and sometimes dripping wet over the sidewalk, and best of all: a couple strolling the streets in their pajamas. I SOOOO wish I could have whipped out my camera, but it felt very inappropriate. Jason let me know that it's the thing to do here on the weekends, especially in the summer in the late afternoon. It signals "this is my neighborhood" - sort of "I own this place, so I can just wear my PJs if I want to."

After Old Shanghai, we went down to the Bund - the area on the Huangpu River that has a lot of old Colonial Shanghai buildings, a large promenade, and an amazing view of the skyline of the Pudong area across the river. We had lunch on the top floor of a building with a wraparound view of the skyline and the boats going up and down the river. It was so cool. It's very polluted here (it might even seem more polluted than GZ), so you'll notice my pics are very hazy. That's just how it is even though it is a bright sunny day. 

From there, we walked down Nanjing Lu, primarily a pedestrian street. I have never seen more people in one place in my entire life. I tried to capture it in photos, but it was impossible. This was the first time I've had people coming up to me in China trying to sell me things. One person pulled Jason aside and offered him "bags, watch, friend?" I think I know what that meant! NO THANK YOU, PLEASE. Jason taught me to say "bu yao, xie xie ni" which is sort of a nice way of saying "please leave me alone." Anyway, it was a sight to see. 

Our final stop was the new Nike flagship store on Nanjing Lu. Jason works at Weiden & Kennedy Shanghai running the Nike account, so he had to pay a visit to the new store and buy a new pair of shoes. The store was mobbed - it definitely did not feel like a recession in there!!

Tonight we're having dinner with a group of Jason's friends, including another guy I know from Saatchi NY, Kevin. Kevin's now here working on the Gillette account at BBDO Shanghai. Should be a fun night. In the meantime... tea & a nice hot bath. I love this hotel. 

PS - FINALLY it seems I have figured out how to caption my pictures. It only took me about 2 weeks and it's as simple as typing below the picture!!!