Day 14, May 21 - Shanghai

This morning we got up at 5:30 to fly to Shanghai.  The name means “ upon the sea”.  Until the 19th century it was a fishing village and market town.

Shanghai is located on the eastern coast of China where the Yangtze River  flows into the East China Sea. The city proper has a population of more than 24 million.  It is the worlds busiest container port.

Because of its location the city flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world and became the primary financial hub of the Asia Pacific region in the 1930s. The British and other European architectural influence can be seen in  the area along the river  called “ the bund”.  Here is what their financial centre looked like back  then.

This is their financial centre  now.

The slightly curved tall building on the right was built to resemble bamboo.  The tall needle like structure on the left  with the colourful knob is a communications tower.  You can see that now the Chinese architects have their own sense of design.  Here is their version of the Chrysler Building in New York……doubled of course.

 We are staying at the Shanghai Sheraton and saw them preparing for a wedding.  Red is the predominant colour as it will bring good luck to the bride and groom.