We started our day at Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s former residence. We really didn’t learn much more about him than what we already knew. He is seen as the father of the Chinese republic… there’s some history missing, so we’re not quite sure if he really was buddies with the Communists or not.
We enjoyed some Dim Sum then off to the subway. Sure the Tokyo subway was crowded, but this was even more so. Shanghai is making improvements due to Expo 2010 but it was busy. There was enough English that we could find our way to the stop for the airport which is where we could ride the Maglev (the magnetic train, it floats on rails powered by magnetic energy, pic 1). It goes out to the airport, about 23 miles away, in 8 mins. That’s because the train’s top speed is about 260 mph (pic 2). It was a very smooth ride until halfway through we passed the training going the other way – I jumped out of my skin.
Because it was clearer today we wanted to visit the observation decks of the Jinmao Tower, one of the tallest buildings (88 floors) in the world. Oops, we were running out of Chinese money so only Tom could visit the top, but he took great pictures. The Jinmao Tower (pics 3 & 4) is very cool looking; it combines the classic 13-tier pagoda design w/ modern steel & glass. The Grand Hyatt Shanghai (pic 5) takes up the 53rd to 87th floors.
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