Bird's Eye View and a Bit of Kung Fu

On Monday, I was allowed the most incredible view from the observatory of the Shanghai World Financial Center aka "The Bottle Opener." Most of the entire group went to the Bottle Opener, but only seven of us decided to pay 120 yuan (less than $20) to go all the way to the top (well, as far up as they let tourists go). The rest of the group went to the bar on the 92nd floor for free. The seven of us who went up further were more picky with the view we wanted. In the bar, you couldn't get right up next to the exterior glass windows.

When we got off the metro and walked outside, this is how we were greeted.

The pointy, colorful one is the Oriental Pearl

My phone camera definitely doesn't do it near the justice deserved, but I think it still captures a good degree of how incredible it was. Growing up in the country definitely had a hand in the amount of awe I felt, for sure. When 80-100 ft silos are the tallest things you're used to seeing, any decent-sized structure makes you stop for a second. I know, I sound like I've never been off a farm before, but even Chicago (and especially Indianapolis) doesn't compare with the feeling you get in the financial district of Shanghai at night. I mean, just look at this; I wish you could see it first hand.

I really have no idea what these buildings are

If you're wondering why it's called the Bottle Opener, and don't want to look it up (and you know I'll show you, so why bother), here's a picture of it:


 

If you haven't guessed, it's the blue-lit one on the left. The dark trapezoid up top is a hole in the building. Originally, it was planned with a circular hole, but the mayor thought it looked too much like the Japanese flag, so it was changed to the trapezoid it has now. As we got closer, I was able to get a pretty neat picture with the three tallest towers in Shanghai. I think they posed quite well for a selfie with me.

The Bottle Opener (492m), the Shanghai Tower (632m), and the Jin Mao Tower (382.5m)

The Oriental Pearl was also kind enough to pose with me. It just lit up when it realized a foreigner wanted to take a picture with it.

Initially when I got to Shanghai, I didn't want to be "the tourist" and take pictures of everything and selfies with everything, but that notion quickly got thrown out of the window as I was put in awe by the amazing sights of this city. This night was no exception, and if I put all the photos up, you'd get sick of them. Someday I may put up a bunch on Facebook, but not today. I don't really feel like sorting through all of them. It might not even happen until I go back home to Indiana. Who knows? 

There was a nice elevated pedestrian walkway that went from the metro station to the Bottle Opener and on further. It provided a nice platform for good pictures, without worrying about the low, street-level stuff. It also provided a chance for a good panorama shot that turned out pretty decent in my opinion.

The building on the left with the blue left edge is the Bottle Opener

Before we went up to the top of the Bottle Opener, we got to see a little scale model of this small section of Shanghai.

We first went to the floor just under the opening in the tower. The ceiling was glass, and we could see up into the floor just above the opening, which has a glass floor (not the whole floor, just part). It had a pretty amazing view, but we were quite eager to get up to the highest possible point possible.

The view up top was absolutely stunning! At 100 floors in the air, almost all of us felt a little wobbly at our first glances out the windows, which slanted outward, only making us more conscious of how high up we were.

This is undoubtedly the best picture I have of the Oriental Pearl. Just look at it.

You really can't beat this view (okay, maybe from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai)

I was pretty happy to be almost 500 meters in the sky (You convert that to feet. I'm not in the US anymore.)

Marshall being absolutely fabulous

Another picture with the Oriental Pearl

I'm standing on a square piece of glass, 100 floors in the air

The Crew: Marshall, Shaadwal, me, Sagar, Srijit, Cai, and Tommy

It was an absolute blast to experience the Bottle Opener Observatory with these six guys! We all agreed that the $20 we paid to get up there was most definitely worth it. If you ever find yourself in Shanghai, you should seriously consider heading up there.

On Thursday afternoon, we took a field trip to the Shanghai Urban Planning and Exhibition Center. On one floor, they had a huge scale model of a good chunk of Shanghai. I couldn't get the whole thing in one picture, so you'll have to be content with multiple shots of small sections.

The blue tall buildings in the center are the Shanghai Tower and the Bottle Opener

The lit-up road near the bottom is the one we took from the airport to the hotel the first day

The lights cycled to show the city at different times of the day

We had a fun time trying to find our campus among the many buildings. We finally found it by using notable buildings near campus. The athletic track in the center with the red laser dot on it is ours. It's oriented North-South with North to the left side. (This picture >>)

The next floor up was open to the model below, allowing me to capture a good chunk of it in one shot. There were other cool things there, but the model was definitely what held my attention.

The field trip on Thursday actually started with a trip to a Kung Fu (Gōngfū in Mandarin) school in the morning. We were divided into groups of three or four and were tasked with getting to the school via taxi. No problem right? Well my group had quite the time accomplishing that little task. Twice, a taxi with a green light passed us up, which was quite frustrating. Finally, after standing and walking (to get to a place where there might be more available taxis) in the cold drizzle for half an hour we were able to hail a cab. We were the last group to arrive at the school.

David, me, Theo (Anny was sitting up front)

There were three instructors who each did a short demonstration before we got started. We started with some warm-up runs and stretches and such. That's when I realized how out of shape I am. I'm skinny, but that doesn't mean I'm fit. We learned how to get into the correct fighting stance, and then were taught a simple punch from each hand and a kick with the right foot.

Warm-up stretches

The Kung Fu "salute" (is that what you'd call it?)

Thej (black sweatshirt on the right) sometimes had trouble remembering which hand he was supposed to use to punch.

All of us at the end with the instructors and our Chinese Culture teacher

When we were all done, the instructors were willing to take a picture with me, so that was pretty neat.

I don't know his name, me, I don't know his name, and I don't know his name either

It was a ton of fun, but I was extremely sore on Friday. I'm still feeling it a bit today, and it's been three days.

I've now been in Shanghai for 16 days, and I'm still alive and enjoying myself, so that's great. There's still lots to do and many adventures to be had, so keep checking in to follow along with me.

Have a Splendiferous Day!