Pudong SkyScrapers

My plan today was to go to the old town and find a tailor to make me some custom suits. I took the taxi to the nearest subway station and then I saw the city and decided that a new suits was no longer my priority, I needed to see the buildings!!!
Sometimes you have to follow your heart and throw the guidebook away and that is what I did today, I'm sure I missed some spots but then again I probably wandered places that the lonely planet editors never even knew existed! I am a big fan of skyscrapers and big buildings and let me tell you that Pudong has really got me moved today. You can find just about any type of building here. Let's start with the simple geometry...

Cube:
Rectangle:
Round
There's also all styles on offer from classical
To something I think is Greek inspired
This roman inspired building is currently under construction
And apparently will look like this when finished
This one is kind of gothic
And the JinMao tower (I think this is the one at least)
There's plenty of modern buildings as well

This one made me think of a world HQ for Dr. Evil, I'm not sure why. I tried to find out who was in it but apparently it is still empty
Then there's the more daring such as the Shanghai Stock Exchange with a hole in the middle
Or the World Financial Center (I think that's the name) that comes with a handle in case a giant ever wants to move it
There's also a contest in Pudong to find out which architect can build the bets UFO looking crown for its building:



This one I called the two part ice cream cone, one tower has the cone, the other the ice cream ball :)This building (opera house or theatre I believe) actually looks like a UFO!
This one looks like an antenna from Start Trek on the roof
Another thing I noticed in Pudong is that if a building is worth building once, why not build it more than once!

And sometimes even 4 times!
And the construction continues with the whole downtown looking like a construction yard.
As if all the construction on the buildings wasn't enough, they are also working on completing the maglev link before Expo 2010.
What is really amazing about downtown Pudong is that it didn't even exist 20 years ago! Here is a picture from 1993:
And here is one from 2 years ago:
Simply amazing. I want to come back once the MagLev is working and all the other construction completed!

On my return trip (I took the subway back), I found a shopping centre at the technology museum subway station and to my surprise they specialize in custom suits! So I got all my measurments done by two different tailors and ordered a suit from each of them ($80 for a custom suit, I don't think I can go wrong!).

Once Alex was done work, we walked for a long time to try to find a new restaurant. We walked in to an industrial part of town that didn't have too many restaurants and the few that we found on the way back to the hotel were either too smoky or just didn't look right. We ended up choosing one just a few steps from the hotel. It was our first bad choice in restaurants here. The food wasn't all that bad but one of the dishes that we selected came with green peppers, what we didn't know was that these peppers were the hot chili pepper variety. OUCH! We ended up eating only the meat of that dish. The two other dishes were mutt chops (pretty good if a bit overcooked and overseasoned) and some Chinese greens (acceptable).


The one main thing I heard about the blog is that everyone likes the pictures and want more. Hopefully I didn't drown everyone today with too much details. In case you actually meant pictures of me, here's one in the Lujiazui park in downtown Pudong.
You guys are not the only one requesting pictures of me :) Some Chinese tourist approached me with a camera and asked if I could take a picture. Sure, I'll help them out I thought and asked where they wanted to pose. They directed me to pose with a member of their gang and proceeded all giggling to take a picture of the foreigner. I wonder who's facebook page I will end up. This happenned twice today, no kidding. I feel like a rock star or something.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, any overview of the Pudong skyscrapers wouldn't be complete without having a picture of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower ;)
I don't know what I'll do tomorrow. Probably a run north of the hotel, we haven't explored that area at all yet. I have to stop going places where I can shop. Everything is so cheap I will end up buying the whole store!