Day 11 afternoon: Nanjing Road, Urban Planning Center, French Concession

Afternoon was free time and we all went separate ways. I tagged along with Marian and Harry. We were tired of sitting in the bus and we wanted to WALK. So we did, from The Bund to Nanjing Road (famous shopping district) which is a lovely, wide tree-lined pedestrian area. Saw the ubiquitous MacDonalds. Checked out the chopstick store (sells only chopsticks - some very fancy, made of nice wood, etc.).

Then we visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre. I had no idea what to expect...I was just following Marian. But what a surprise! Wonderful photos comparing old and new views of areas of the city. And a huge scale model of what Shanghai will look like in 2020 - it took up an entire floor (see photo). There was also a very cool exhibit called "Virtual Shanghai", a computer-generated 360-degree flyover of the (future?) city - like a ride in Disneyland.

After that we were tired so we took a cab (using a note written by Ally with the Chinese characters for where we wanted to go) to the French Concession, one of the European sections of the city, which looks very much like Paris. Had a beer, found the restaurant Ally had recommended called Luna which had Western food, walked around. Met up with several of the group and had dinner. Steak and pasta and cheese and all the things that are not Chinese cuisine that we had been missing! Yum Yum.

After dinner, Elaine, Katy, Paul and I went on a river ride to see the lights of the city. It was a bit of an adventure finding it (no note from Ally), but eventually we found the place, along The Bund, and were escorted to a room where we were supposed to wait. There were other people there so we were pretty sure we were in the right place. But the surprise came when we all were led out of the room, down the walk, away from the water, and onto a BUS. What? Are we being kidnapped? No, of course not, but it was very strange. The bus went quite a long way down The Bund and finally arrived at the dock where we boarded the boat and had a nice ride. It was especially good to be on the water because there was a slight breeze - a welcome relief after the hot and humid day.

First photo below is the Puxi (old) side of the river. The other photo is the Pudong side with all the new buildings. This building is a TV tower, a very distinctive part of the skyline. Here, at night with all the lights, I think it looks like a rocket or some space-age thing.