Dumbstruck.

Splashed my first fortune on a pair of shoes today. The pair that I wore to Shanghai has given way to all the rainwater the city has to offer for the past couple of days and I can’t continue wearing that pair of junk anymore. So I went to buy a new pair of shoes at about 650 RMB. It sucks to be splashing out so much for a pair of shoes, but the pair that I bought seemed pretty decent, so I guess it should be able to see me through this horrible Shanghai weather.

In any case me and Lee Tong went to our office and met our boss, Virginia, and she was again reminding us about how horrible things can be like here in Shanghai. Just as we thought everything’s better than what we expect, Virginia pulls us all back into reality. But I guess what she said is true – you can never be trusting to everyone around you. Also, the only way to prevent getting bullied is to make yourself look big so that others will think again before trying to bully you. I’ll heed that piece of advice.

After going to the office, we went over to Pudong to meet Shallene and Fionna, after which we had a walkabout in Lujiazui area and saw the Oriental Pearl Tower and Jinmao Tower. One of them is that tower that you will always see in any Shanghai postcard depicting the night scenery, while the other one is the tallest building in Shanghai. Both look pretty majestic and nothing back home can compare to them, really.

Oriental Pearl Tower 东方明珠塔 – The tower by day.

The tower by night.

Wanjing, one of our NOC seniors brought the few of us to Nanjing Road Pedestrian Zone and the only word I have for the place is “Wow” because the place is so beautiful. The neon lights, the people, the buildings… everything is just so Shanghai and I really have never seen anything like that before in my life.

Nanjing Road Pedestrian Zone 南京路步行街 – The biggest commercial zone in Shanghai IMHO.

One of the many 老上海 buildings in Nanjing Road.

Another view of Nanjing Road.

Yet another view of Nanjing Road.

And yet another view of Nanjing Road.

And yet another view of Nanjing Road.

Then what struck me even more was The Bund. I’ve seen The Bund on TV and on pictures and I already thought that was impressive enough, but I think the gradeur of The Bund has to be appreciated in person. The whole scenery there is simply brilliant – in fact I think it is the second most beautiful night scenery in the world (the first being Hong Kong Victoria Peak). It was 3 degrees Celcius on the street, but with a scenery like that, I don’t really care how cold it was. Talk about enjoying the scenery.

The Bund from the Puxi riverside.

The Huangpujiang 黄浦江 from the ferry we took from Puxi to Pudong.

Another view of Huangpujiang.

A fun thing we saw at Nanjing Road East:

All in all, today has been a great sightseeing day and it sets me in the perfect mood for work tomorrow. I don’t know what to expect at work tomorrow, but I hope it would be fun.

Discovery of the day: If you want to see the whole of Shanghai City from the top of somewhere, you have an option of Jinmao Tower or the Oriental Pearl Tower, it’s either 50 RMB for Jinmao, or 80 RMB for lower levels of Oriental Pearl Tower, or 100RMB++ for somewhere higher. Your call (Our call was neither cos at that kind of price it really feels like a rip-off).