This post is from the night before the last post.

Shanghai is really a spectacular city to see at night. All of the buildings light up at night casting a colorful glow into the streets. Earlier yesterday I thought there were actually less touristy non-Asian people in Shanghai - I was wrong. We wandered through ritzy yet crowded shopping centers like Huaihai Rd. also known as the Old French Concession. A lot of the buildings there are built in a Parisian style, giving an odd contrast to the older buildings to the nothern and southern slums. There is always a skyscrapery skyline no matter what part of the city you are in.

We made our way to the Bund at night - which is the area of Shanghai that borders the Huangpu River by the left. By day the river is a murky brownish yellow but by night its a rainbow of colors reflected off of the new Pudong developement on the right side of the Huangpu River. Pudong represents the new coming of Shanghai, the city's hope of shaking off its dark nickname: "The Whore of the Orient" this name was derived during the Opium War, referring to the high prevalence of brothels, opium dens and related activities during the period. Ironically while we were walking down Nanjing Road - another shoppy road - there was one hawker who offered to sell me a "beautiful Chinese girl", at least I think that's what he said. Don't worry, I refused. They normally just offer to sell you a Rolex.

On the left side of the Bund remains the old European style buildings largely built by the Jewish American buisinessman Victor Sassoon, a statue of him stands in the Bund, but to the casual eye he looks a lot like Mao.

On the Right side stand modern buildings such as the Jing Mao Tower (which holds the title of the 5th tallest tower in the world and also claims that its Cloud 9 Bar is the highest bar in the world). But perhaps the most iconic image is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, a building that is truly one of its kind, you'll find pictures on the blog when I'm done with this.

There also seems to be a lot of Shrines to the City Martyrs, a spire that seems like it could come out of an alien planet. Reclining on a stone slab next to the Shrine seems pretty surreal with a seemingly ancient spire being loomed over by the totally futuristic Pearl Tower.

There are so many skycrapers overlooking the bund which seem to have TV screens for their walls - in other words there is a screen spanning the entire side of the building. They use these as billboards for advertisements and from time to time they show birds and Pandas flying around on them. Why? Because they can.