Shanghai'd

About two weeks ago, I 'found' myself on business in Shanghai. It was to be a short trip...only a few days. Despite the time away from home, I was excited to be going to China. Before this trip, the furthest 'East' I'd been was Prague.
After a ~ 12 hour flight, I was in Shanghai. While I've been in my share of large cities, Shanghai was definitely larger than life. It was still a huge construction area...with more skyscrapers on one parcel of land that I've ever seen.

One of the things that I really liked were the roads: they had the normal highways, and beside those were bike lanes, and beside that were the pedestrian walkways. As with any large city, there are areas of poverty, but I never felt 'in danger' in Shanghai. After I arrived, I did go running...I think that I was the only one out running in the city. The smog is really bad, and it didn't bother me at first, but I could notice it after my run was done.
There really was no time for doing many touristy stuff, but one night after dinner with a customer, we did go for a walk downtown and scheduled a 60 min massage ( just a massage ). That massage was the best 13 EUR that I think ever spent. Above the Jin Mao...one of the more famous buildings (that I hope I spelled right).
I has a few hours before my flight in the morning. I tried to take a cab to one of the shopping districts, but with all of the traffic, I spent most of the time in a cab (hence my pic above)...my tourist time in Shanghai was generally confined to the backseat of a cab.

All in all, it was a good trip. Quick and dirty, but I saw enough to know that I'd like to go back with a bit more time to see the city and surroundings. Thankfully, on this trip, we had a local take us around, and we had some great dinners. Nothing too exotic, but I did learn that all chicken included bones.

About a day after landing in Germany, I took off to France for my annual bike tour in the Alps...more on that on the next post.