Renmin area, Urban Planning and a night out

While I had been through Renmin (People's) Square before, it was mostly in transit to other places and I never really took the time to have a good look around. The area is rich with parks, museums and other attractions.
Some statues here as well
It's never hard to remember that you are in the biggest city in China, just look up for the skyscrapers surrounding the area
The area also features an amusement park for kids
Check out this guy making a delivery
Museum and other cultural buildings abound here with the museum of contemporary arts
The museum of shanghai
The theatre
And the urban planning exhibition hall which I visited next
If there is time only for one stop in Shanghai and you want to learn more about the city's architecture and main attractions, this is probably a good place to go.

It features a solid exhibit of historical pictures
as well as side by side comparison of then and now
Some of the material was a bit dry for me, but I expect urban city planners from around the world would really like those schematics
There was also a fair bit of mock-ups, mostly of new buildings but some of historical value
There was a special exhibit about the Expo 2010, which is not a surprise with the whole city trying to switch gears to welcome 70 million visitors, starting in 190 days. You can learn more about the expo itself, the goals and, since this is an urban planning exhibit, the expo buildings!

There's also an exhibit about greening the city and reducing the air pollution. It's a noble (and quite urgent in my opinion!) goal but they were scarce on details except for this cute little mockup with wind and nuclear power sources
The highlight of the exhibition hall has to be the 4th floor mock up of the entire city
It features what I expect are scaled models of all the buildings within the selected area (my hotel is too far in the boonies, I couldn't find it!). It gave me a better understanding of just how big this city is! Here is a pretend night snapshot :)
There is also a dizzying computer generated virtual demo of the city that fly over the main sights of Shanghai and Pudong. I couldn't stand the motion so I stepped out midway.

Once the exhibit over, the penthouse of the building affords some nice views of People Square
As well a host an exhibit of interesting posters

After the exhibition hall, I did a bit of shopping in the D-Mall and Hong Kong Shopping Plaza which is an old bomb shelter turned into a consumer extravaganza. This alley is made to ressemble 1930's Shanghai.
When I stepped outside, I noticed that there was a fountain where there was none before!
I'm glad I took a picture because 30 minutes later the fountain was again inactive. I'm not sure why they keep it on such a schedule.

Alex then joined me for dinner in what is easily the best meal so far in Shanghai and most probably the best cantonese meal ever for me.
Sun Ya on Nanjing Rd was our selection for the night. Their Jasmine tea is literally a jasmine flower in boiling water

We had a crab meat over bokchoy which has so many interesting fish flavors every bite was different!
This thinly sliced beef cooked in pepper sauce with onions was one of the best beef dishes I have ever had. So tender, rich and sweet while still packing a punch, amazing.
The fried rice was pretty good with just the right amount of spices
And this sweet and sour pork was really good. Crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside, as it was meant to be!
Interesting sign that may have been lost in translation. I expect it meant to say dine responsibly, don't drink and drive :)
After dinner, we headed for a night out on the town. No pictures since I'm not quite sure how Shanghai is open to gay bars and venues yet and those places were pretty hard to find in the first place so I'm not sure if they mean to be publicized much.

Eddy's bar is definitively the most accesible one, almost off the main road. It was an interesting place that could have been at home even in Ottawa if it wasn't for the mainly Chinese crowd. They make a very good cosmo and we sipped and watched as the bar got full and the chinese got their mating rituals underway. These guys are much more reserved than us north american folks from what I could see. Eddy's is mostly a sitting down (or standing up) and socializing place. Not much dancing despite the good beats coming out of the sound system.

When the place got really busy, we decided to move on to Studio Shanghai which is in an underground bunker, transformed into a drinking establishment. Coming into the bar, the first thing you noticed is that, like a souvenir store at a museum, they have an all night underwear store. They had a pretty good selection, but buying underwear from a bar seemed wrong so I didn't indulge. The bar itself is divided into a bunch of rooms with one area designated as non smoking (a rare sight in Shanghai!). The barman was very friendly and upon making the cosmo asked me if I needed it topped up with more vodka since he thought he went a bit light on the free pour. The drink was already quite strong so I declined but thanked him for the gesture! There was a nice dancefloor where we busted a few moves before calling it a night.

Today we're heading off to Hangzhou (West Lake) and I'm not quite sure of the internet coverage there so don't worry if there's no update before Monday, I promise I'll tell you all about it as soon as I get my internet back :)