South Korea/China: Pudong and The Bund
Pudong is full of tall buildings that make up much of Shanghai's financial district, high-end hotels, and tourist attractions. After a breakfast of sponge cake cookies and dan tat, we headed over to the museum at the bast of the Oriental Pearl Tower, then walked along the Pudong side of the river.
Oddly enough, locals and tourist guidebooks alike both recommend a Paulaner brewhouse and a Starbucks, of all things, for the "good view across the river". WTF...
We headed down to the SE end of Pudong afterwards, paid the unexpected admission fee to the Century Park and wandered quite a bit on the empty pathways. I wonder if it's more crowded on weekends, or if the admission fee stops almost everyone from using it?
Stopped by the Shanghai Stock Exchange on the way to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium, which was closed by the time we got there. Evidently the guidebooks only list summer hours, which are considerably later than winter hours. *sigh* We headed to the Jin Mao tower instead, where the views of Shanghai from the 88th floor are very impressive. Looking down into the lobby of the Grand Hyatt in the Jin Mao tower (on the 57th floor or so, so 30 floors down) is almost as amazing.
Took the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel across to The Bund side next-- utter waste of money, when the ferry is 1/10th or 1/15th the cost. Cheesy lights and puppets as you go across, no thanks!
Wandered the promenade on Central Henan Lu (Central Hunan Street) and found a place called Shanghai Snack for dinner, then back to The Bund to take pictures and enjoy the crowd.
