The day started in Starbucks for breakfast, or should I say one of the many Starbucks branches in Shanghai. In fact, in a half hour walk, I must have seen about half a dozen, proving indeed that Shanghai is a global city. Walking up Nanjing Road from my hotel, I passed dozens of upscale shops, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and loads more like them. They seemed to have people in them as well - and if you couldn't afford to buy anything in there, there were lots of people in the streets outside, offering to sell you fake bags, Rolexes, Mont Blanc pens, DVDs, in fact almost anything that could be knocked off, was available to buy. Being offered a fake Rolex was vaguely amusing for the first few times, but I must say that by the end of the day, when I was offered one for the hundredth time by a very persistent person, it had become pretty annoying.
The main part of Nanjing Road could pretty much be in any city in the world (Paris springs to mind in parts), making a mockery of the supposed closed economy in China - it was all very familiar. You can get anything in Shanghai that you would expect to get anywhere else, so the Big Macs, expensive coffee, and Adidas trainers were all firmly in evidence. I was also surprised at the number of Westerners that I saw all around the city during the day - more than I recall seeing even in Tokyo, despite the increased remoteness and difficulty of getting into China.
At the end of Nanjing Road, which is basically the main drag through the city, is The Bund (pronounced "bunned") - a wide road and promenade that runs along one bank of the river which cuts through the city. Along this road are some magnificent old buildings, again surprisingly European-looking in nature - reflecting the city's colonial past. 
Shanghai in particular is far more international than I expected it to be, from the number of Westerners that you see, to the very European and colonial nature of much of the architecture, to the wide array of cuisine that you can get hold of in the city (which extends to literally almost anything). Some of the highlights of the Bund include the old custom house, and the HSBC building, the old headquarters of the bank.
Across the river from the Bund is the more modern area of Pudong, with all of the skyscrapers, and the part of the city that gives Shanghai its futuristic reputation in fact. One thing I did find during my stay was that the visibility across the city was very poor indeed, to the extent that this photo, taken across a river that isn't really all that wide, shows some tall buildings hidden in a very murky sky. I wasn't sure if the bad visibility was due to the weather or the pollution at first, but it thankfully did seem to be the weather, as the city waited for winter to start to turn into summer.To get across the river from The Bund to Pudong, one could get the metro, or presumably swimming or boating are also options. I, however, got across the river using the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. This is a small tunnel through which a number of little "pods" run, kind of like small train carriages. As they run through the tunnel, lights and sound effects do their thing, to create what one piece of promotional literature decsribed as a "sensual experience". I think they meant an experience for the senses, rather than anything kinky.
The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel is without a doubt the cheesiest, most brilliantly awful tourist attraction I have ever visited - although to be fair, that was why I went, because my Lonely Planet guide had warned that it was terrible. Basically, different coloured lights flash, and are accompanied by sound effects, and a voice telling you what it is supposed to be. Flashing white lights - shooting stars! Red lights - a volcano! Blue lights - the bottom of the sea! You can imagine the sound effects. This video does a pretty good job of capturing the full horror of the experience. Still, probably better than Madame Tussauds in London!
Across the river in Pudong, I was glad to escape from the horror of the tunnel. This side of the river is where all of the tall buildings are, including the Oriental Pearl TV tower, which is probably the iconic building in Shanghai (the one in the photo here). The Jin Mao Building is also there, the fifth tallest building in the world (before loads more here, and probably hundreds more in Dubai surpass it). This building is special in that the first 50 or so floors are an office building, then a big Hyatt hotel starts on the 53rd floor. So, it seemed rude not to go to the lobby bar for a drink, and get a free view (through the mistyness), out over Shanghai.
The final attraction of the day was the Shanghai Maglev train - the fastest train in the world - which gets to go so fast because it floats on a track made from magnets. This covers the 30km or so from the edge of the city centre to Pudong airport, in about 7 minutes, reaching a top speed of 431km/h (that's about 270mph for all you non-metric people). The train goes along at top speed for only about a minute at most, because it is either accelerating or decelerating for all of the rest of the time. But it is an exhilirating journey (just a shame that it is over so soon), and hopefully Ken Livingstone will soon replace the Piccadilly Line with a train that goes this fast!So, after a busy day, I retired to a restaurant to eat some good food - you can obviously get Chinese food in central Shanghai, but as a Westerner, you actually have to look quite hard for it - nothing to indicate Chinese food ever seems to be translated into Roman letters, so the only food places you can actually read about, tend to be serving international food. But, if you find a decent Chinese restaurant, it is a fun and rewarding experience - made even better if you have Chinese people with you, to take care of the menu reading and ordering! A good day sightseeing - just a shame that I had to start working again the following day!
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