Shanghai, cont.

Started the second day in Shanghai with a long morning walk, making way towards the Bund, a long riverside promenade, which was blocked and covered with construction crews. Crossed the Huangpu river on a ferry and reached Pudong, home to the Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center, two extremely tall buildings.Inside the SWFC, took what seemed like the fastest elevator on the planet to the top floor. The observation deck is touted as being the highest in the world. The view was surreal; sky-scraping city stretching on, and on, and on, in every direction. Afterwards, lunch on the ground floor at Jamaica Blue Coffee and ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery were a nice Western diversion. Spent nearly the entire day with my neck craned up at the skyscrapers around Pudong, before eventually taking the neon-lit space tunnel back across the river to Nanjing.In the evening joined the group and our guide for our last night before the second half of the tour, which a new guide would join us for. We went to “Shanghai Grandmother,” a nice place with great food. Afterwards, again, spent time camped out on Nanjing Rd. watching the people amble past.On day three I visited Century park, where I spent most of the day sitting in the misty weather, taking pictures, watching people drive paddle boats, and trying different things to eat. Enjoyed riding around the Shanghai subway, pushing the limits of my own navigational skills. Had lunch at a Japanese restaurant.Met our new tour guide in the evening and joined him for dinner at a very local-style restaurant. He clued us in that most places have menus in Chinese and menus in English, but English menus have higher prices. The new guide has a habit of walking much faster than the previous one. Walked afterwards back down to the riverfront for some night-skyline photos.On the final day, in between rain showers, visited the Shanghai museum, ate at a place called Yoshinoya, went shopping at “Meters Bonwe,”  mailed postcards, went to Starbucks. Two things struck me at the Shanghai museum; Buddha was depicted with a slim figure prior to the 15th century or so, and also, I was perplexed that China was so advanced in the craft of porcelain, but most of the country hasn’t adopted the use of porcelain bowl toilets.For the last night in Shanghai, visited the rooftop bar of a YHA hostel, with a great skyline view. Early the next morning dragged our luggage across Nanjing, stuffed into a taxi, and took a menacingly speedy trip to the train station.