Sunday on the Bund

I decided to see the Bund by daylight. Incidentally if you say The Bund to a non-English speaking Chinese person, they might not recognise it; in Chinese it's called Waitan (外滩). Things look foreshortened in this telephoto shot. The Pearl Tower is actually on the other side of the Huangpu, in Pudong (East of the Pu).

Here are the buildings again, looking drab without flood lighting.

You can actually travel under the Huangpu, using the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. It's supposed to be rather tacky so I didn't take it up. You can see a photo here of the light effects.

The skyscrapers on the opposite bank.

This camera operator on a dolly was being pulled past while I was there. I wondered if he was making a long tracking sequence for a documentary or something like that. It's interesting that digital camera technology is now so good that a digital SLR can take high resolution videos, recording to solid state storage.

The blade like building towering over the others is the Shanghai World Financial Centre and in front of it is the Jin Mao Tower with its tiered design inspired by pagodas. SWFC was the second tallest building in the world when topped out but since has been moved down a couple of places in the list.

The Peace Hotel has seen a bit of history.


I finished off the afternoon with an iced mocha at a Jamaica Blue cafe. In China, coffee and premium ice cream were the two things I paid world prices for. Otherwise food and drinks were a third or half the price at home.


Then I went back to rest my poor aching feet.