Benford Does Stuff

Continuing the grand adventure in Shanghai, Benny and I went on to see many unique places.

For a foreigner like myself, even a trip to the grocery store is a bit of an adenture. Many aspects were familar, including a checkout process very similar to that back home. However, there were a few standout suprisies:

• Driekd Kiwi fruits:just like the fuzzy, internally green fruits that we know and love, but dehydrated, buch like beef jerky. It was quite delicious, but was the first time I had encountered it. Please tell me I am not alone here.

• All of the Candy is the same: Blue and white gummy sharks? Check. Gummy coke bottles? Check. Gummy worms? Check. Mike and also Ike?  CHeck.

Bannanas, being harvested eallier in their development lifecycle, were generally smaller and available in bunches of up to 20.

We also visited several other malls around the area. KFC and McDonals have been very prominent so far, being probably the most common restaurants I have seens o far in China. Once KFC that we went to was so packed that we could not get a seat, so we have to leave. Imagine any KFC state-side being in that high of demand.

We also toured though a region called The Bund. It is acombinaiton of green belt and tourist point of interest. It overlooks the river that goes though the middle of Shanghai, dividing the older section of town from the newer section of town. The old section has a variety of architectural styles, ranging back hundeds of years, while the new section is actively devoted to becoming aworld financial center. Several prominent skyscraper towers, including the Eastern Pearl and the Shanghai World Financial Center tower dominate the city skyline. There is a path going along the river so that you may see the skyone in contrast to the old style buildings. The attraction is very popular, so the etnire street is quite crowded. One ship on the river had a giant video monitor built into  its sides, making for great advertising as it caught my attention immediately.

Later that day we had the opportunity to scale th Shanghai WOld Financial Center tower. At 471 meters, it is the tallest structure in all of China. We had to take stairs down to the basement, and waitied for awhile in line. THe first elevator took us from th e- 2 floorto the 94th floor. Escalators carried us from floor 94 to 97, and a final elevator took us to floor 100, the skybridge. There was a gap between floors 97 to 100 in the middle. You could look down from floor 100, straight though the floor to see floor 97 below. The view from this point was fantastic. THe sun had just set and the city lights were quite active. The effect was magnified since all floors and ceiling in this room were highly reflective. I must post some pictures later when I get the chance.