Day 64 Shanghai, China

Experiencing one of the worlds largest and certainly the fastest growing city is a thrill. Even as you near the city you begin to get a feeling for the size and scope of activity this city commands. We took the shuttle bus into the city and were met by my brother in law, Tom, and my niece, Sara. They took us over to the office of City Planning for the city of Shanghai. In there we viewed a scale model of the city as they project it to be in the year 2020. This scale model encompasses about three quarters of the entire floor of this building. I hope the pictures we post do it justice. This is a good example of how organized and coordinated the Chinese people are. They clearly have their eye on the future.
Next we visited the Shanghai World Financial Center building. This is one of the tallest buildings in the world and the tallest in Shanghai, at least for the moment. Here we rode the elevator up to the top of this 492 meter building where we could walk across a glass floor which spans the 100 floor from one side of the building to the other. It is really creepy to be able to look down and see the street and ground below, although it made me feel better to be inside instead of the window washers we saw who were just descending the building to begin their job. As uncomfortable as it was for us to feel the building sway beneath us we at least knew someone else had it worse.
From the top of this building we could see the constantly expanding landscape of this fascinating city. There is construction going on all over the place. This is in part due to the opening of the worlds Expo at the end of April. The Chinese are very proud of this and are determined to show the same level of accomplishment as they did for the Olympics. From what we saw they should be proud.
After we left the building we were able to meet up with my sister Nancy who along with her family have been residents of Shanghai for 14 years. It was good to see her as she was just returning from a business trip to India. We will be back to see more of this city in about 5 days after we finish the cruise and spend a few days in Beijing.
Shanghai is an impressive moder city that rivals any in the world and I am looking forward to returning to spend more time here and get a deeper understanding of the day to day lives of these interesting people.
Tomorrow a sea day.

Chris - Family! - It was fabulous to get to Shanghai and meet up with Tom, Sara and Nancy! It will be great to be able to experience this beautiful city with our own personal tour guides for five days when we come back. Today was a day to get an overall view and feeling for Shanghai. As Paul mentioned the model of the city was very impressive. Shanghai is New York times three in people and wayyyyy more in land mass, maybe by 6 or more! When Nancy and her family moved here in 1997 there were only a few skyscrapers, today there are 3400! This city has certainly grown up. It was fun to see it from the vantage point we did on the 100th floor of the Financial Center, which looks like a bottle opener in design. I think it has the tallest observatory floor in the world. And yes, I did ride the elevator all the way up. A walk on the wild side for me! In addition to beautiful buildings, Shanghai has made a commitment to trees and parks. It is very green and the parks, gardens and plantings are very well maintained and many are sculptured. Add the Huangpu River to the landscape as in winds through the metropolitan area and you have a very beautiful city. I really look forward to coming back and exploring it more. I particularly look forward to returning and spending time with Nancy, Tom and Sara who we wished we saw more of.