Around the World in 12 Days – Shanghai

This day of my business trip around the world ended with one of the most spectacular view on this planet. As described in my last post, we flew into Taiwan the day before. Suffering from jet lag due to 9h physical time difference to the US west coast, I had a short night, hitting the sheets around 10pm, then being wide awake at 3am in the middle of the night. I don’t fight jet lag, so I got up and started working on emails and doing calls. At 9am I was in our Hsinchu Office for management meetings and an employee town hall. A quick but great lunch with our Taiwanese hosts, then a driver took us back to Taipei airport were we took a brand new China Southern A350 for the 1h 15min flight to Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport. I was on the ground in Taiwan for less than 24 hours. I didn’t even get as much as a glimpse of Taipei city or the Taipei 101 tower.  Landing around 6pm we cleared immigration and found our driver who took us to the hotel in Pudong where we arrived around 8pm. Despite being dead tired after a super long day, I couldn’t let this opportunity slip away. Getting around Shanghai by taxi is cheap and easy. So I through my stuff in the room, changed into shorts and T-Shirt, grabbed the cam, and ten minutes later took a cab to drop me at the Pearl Tower for some quick nightly sightseeing around one of the world’s most spectacular skylines. See yourself after the jump….

Arriving at the Pearl Tower there was a huge crowd at the base that was giving big roars. I read in the paper on the plane that the current German soccer champion FC Bayern Munich was on a promotion tour to Shanghai. And here they were, with all their stars, at the base of the Pearl Tower, having a rally with their Chinese fanbase. Franck Ribery and Robert Lewandowski are easily recognizable.

Last time I was in Shanghai was 2010. Actually, I got stranded in Shanghai when the icelandic volcano eruption shut down all air traffic in Europe and the US for more than 10 days. Back then the World Financial Center (the tower with the “handle”) was barely completed.

Next stop was the riverfront with splendid views across the Huangpo towards the Shanghai Bund with its colonial buildings but also many new modern structures that have been built in the last years. Then I took the little train that runs through the Bund Sightseeing tunnel underneath the river to the other side.

On the other side at the Bund, I was treated with one of the most famous skyline views on this planet. This is what I wanted to see, even if only for a few minutes. But enjoy yourself!

The view of new Shanghai Tower, with 632 meters the highest building in China and the second highest in the world is super spectacular, with the LED show on its surface including fireworks at the top. Absolutely amazing! The yellow lit second building from the right is the Shangri La hotel, where I spent my 10 days of volcano enforced exile in Shanghai back in 2010.

Form the Bund it was back to the Hotel in another taxi, where I collapsed in my bad around 11pm after a 19h work-, travel- and sightseeing day. Life is not too bad 😉 !

Camera was again the trusted Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 14-150mm F4-5.6 travel zoom. the last photo was shot with the 12mm F/2 prime wide angle lens. I didn’t carry a tripod, all shots were taken hand held of with the camera rested on railings.

Tomorrow the next stop on my round the world business trip will be Seoul, Korea. Stay tuned!

Marcus

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