Shanghai: is this still China?

Today we didn't start as early as planned: at 10 am Tokyo time (i.e. 9 am in Shanghai) the sale for tickets to the Ghibli Museum started. Made an extra reminder! What a drama: the server was completely overloaded but after 45 minutes of struggling, Stef fulfilled his wife's little dream and successfully snagged two tickets. YAY! Yes, I'm excited like a child - but I just love Ghibli films and for those wondering what that is: look it up on Google and thank me later.

Afterwards, we happily head to the Shanghai Museum. It's really worth a visit. Surprisingly, the admission is free! Can you believe that in China? Depending on your interest, you can visit exhibitions on Chinese calligraphy, porcelain art, sculptures, bronze art, and much more. It's truly impressive! Since the objects are only lightly illuminated (some are over 3000 years old), I can't provide much information about them. It's best to see them with your own eyes.

Now we want to see Shanghai from above and go to the observation deck in the Shanghai Tower. It's not cheap, but how often are we on the second tallest building in the world? There are also some interesting information about the architecture and the 9 other tallest buildings in the world. We take the Mitsubishi elevator and go up at 55 km/h (!). Since it's a bit foggy, we can't see too far, but it's just impressive to be so high up. However, we can see the river and the Bund on the opposite side of the river.

On the way to the Shanghai Tower, we notice how many huge shopping malls there are. They don't house obscure Chinese brands, but rather the major designer brands of the West. It's incredible how strong the consumer desire and purchasing power must be to make it worthwhile to open so many Omega stores or Max Maras in Shanghai!

Then a mid-day snack: freshly made dumplings in a typical unattractive Chinese atmosphere. But delicious! The clever lady at the counter of course only shows us the menu with the expensive crab meat dumplings, but I have a good excuse (and a corresponding sentence prepared in Chinese) and we promptly get the pork dumplings.

In the afternoon and evening, we stroll along and around the Bund: very beautiful, how it's illuminated in the evening hours! The Art Deco-style buildings are a sight to behold after some of the architectural horrors from the communist era.