Wednesday 10 October 2007

Come with me...

I touched down in Shanghai on Monday evening and walked right into the midst of a typhoon rain. It was windy (so umbrella is useless here) and wet (it rained throughout Monday). Thank goodness I had my raincoat with me for I stood in line at the taxi stand for more than 30 minutes getting wind and rain in my face.
I was there to attend our annual agency meeting, so it was nice to see everyone again, the agents from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, S.Korea, Australia and our colleagues from the UK office.
Since it was a working trip, I shall bring you all to work with me. Please join me on my journey to the office...

This is the view from our hotel lobby. We stayed at the Bund Hotel, which is conveniently located in the business district and merely 5 minutes walk to our office.


This creature 'protects' the hotel building against any 'bad' elements.

We're on the way to the office.

Shanghai boasts of many gleaming skyscrapers, including this building with a golden facade.

This building managed to incorporate traditional architecture into the modern facade.

Sadly, you can still find beggars in some places. These 'mother-and-child' beggars work for syndicates. It's really heart breaking to see improvished kids leading such a sad life in a big city where the rich is openly flaunting their wealth.

Shanghai is such a built-up city, the only way to cope with the heavy traffic is to build more elevated highways like this one on the left. Still, traffic gets really congested during peak hours, it's a nightmare.

We're almost there. Our office is located in the new office building in the background. In Shanghai, it's not unusual to find old residential houses right next to a spanking new office complex.

This is the little alley right next to our office building.

That's the beautifully designed Westin Hotel in the background, featuring a lotus-shaped structure at the top.

Most of the locals cycle to work.

This is probably the last time I will be seeing this old sprawling estate across our office building. It's sitting on prime land, which is probably targetted for redevelopment very soon.

While office workers are working in the cool air-conditioned offices in the skyscraper, the folks below are busy transporting their wares on these old tricycles.


We're approaching the office.

Getting into the building...

From the office lobby, you can look out at the old estate across the road.

Here's a bird's eye view of the old estate from our office on the 12th level.

My colleagues and fellow agents.

Lunch break!!

My lunch - chicken and vegetables with rice.

We snacked on bananas too. I can't understand why the guys are so obsessed with the bananas, they even marked their names on the bananas.

Bananas, anyone?

More bananas?

The vendor delivered a tub of szechuan hot and sour soup without any spoons but our guys are so clever... they poured the soup into plastic cups!
We had dinner at Chinese restaurants on both nights...too much to eat, plenty of cold and hot dishes. Some of the dishes, like the chicken feet below didn't go down too well...

Our host, a supplier, ordered this and I believe none of my colleagues ate any of this. Well, I didn't.

The famous Shanghainese dumpling was delicious.

Look at the amount of chilli that came in this dish. The fried chicken pieces were really good (sorry, all eaten up) and this is all that's left!
We went for after-dinner drinks and this is what happens after having too many drinks... Keith (the baby of our group) started playing with cherries and popcorn.
Just before I left Shanghai, I took some photos of the famous People's Square..

The same place, taken during the day.... and at night.

There were lots of people on the streets at 4pm on a weekday.
Interesting traditional architecture.

Hot roasted chestnuts.

Lots of people everywhere.


Finally, I got some nuts and snacks from the shop before leaving for the airport.
You can also find more pictures in my previous story: Shanghai Nights and Days.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, Shanghai is a beautiful city. It is so difficult to see homeless mothers and children on the street. There's that here in Chicago, and there are the homeless who have pets, and have them out in sub-zero weather to try and garner sympathy. I can't help it, I cry for those animals whenever I see that. Literally. Interestingly, it makes me less sympathetic to the homeless person.

SOUL said...

i knew you'd have great pics..and FOOD too
woo hoo

Anonymous said...

welcome back! you weren't really working...were you......?

Blur Ting said...

Yah, Holly, like you, it is such a shame that animals and children are always the ones being exploited.

Hey Soul and JY - I was really working but it would be so boring to show you pictures of us sitting round the table having discussion all day long right?

See, I was the only looney one in the group who kept taking photos...for the sake of my blog you know!

mooiness said...

Looked like a fantastic business trip. And I like the urban shots of ppl that you took. :)

WaterLearner said...

Hey ... A very nice pictorial post. A classic example of pictures speak a thousand words! .. From the number of photos your are sharing, you have spoken a million!

Blessings!

Blur Ting said...

yah, Mooiness, it's really fun cos the agents are all entrepreneurs...so we don't really have to be all serious and so corporate like.
I like taking street scenes cos such photos really can tell alot about the people, lifestyle etc.

Water learner - Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. I hope that thru the pictures, you can see and experience as much as I did while I was there.

Amel said...

ARRRGGHHHHH...I WANT EVERY PIECE OF EVERYTHING YOU ATE, incl. the chicken feet! HI HI HI...I LOVE my Mom's chicken feet. THE BEST in the world he he he...

Some of the pics reminded me of Jakarta (incl. the beggar pics), though in Jakarta there are not many Chinese decorations...

So many people indeed!!!

THANKS for the pics!!! I've never been to Shanghai, so now at least I know how it's like he he he...

The World According To Me said...

I love seeing pics of your trips. Thanks for sharing them. Always interesting, and always make me hungry!
I'm off to write my name on my banana now!

The Real Mother Hen said...

Amazing that you could squeeze in so many photos in a day :)
Good pictures :)

SOUL said...

chicken feet? how did i miss the chicken feet? hmmm bettah go have another look.
do you really eat chicken feet?
do they "taste like chicken"?
:))

SOUL said...

hmmm, well, they DO look like chicken. :)

Unknown said...

hi, blur. thanks for the tour :)
i want to try that hot and sour soup. i'm sure it tastes nothing like the chinese take-out we have here.

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