Exploring Shanghai

First full day in Shanghai. I woke up at 7:30am as if time zones were not a problem! For comparison, the night before...

Only 93 on aqicn, but still smoggy. I donned a mask. I think I'm pretty sensitive to air pollution; even a lot of westerners I meet don't care as much.

I was switching hotels. Managed to figure out how the subway worked. One guy directed me to the entrance, just pointing, not expecting even a nod of thanks as if it was too much effort... The ticket machine rejected my bills and, when I got them split into coins, rejected some of the coins too! But eventually I got it to accept 3 RMB. The woman breaking my five smiled, amused, when I thanked her with "xièxiè". She's not the only one to do this. Perhaps my accent is really bad.

There's an x-ray scanner at every subway station. Every bag goes through the scanner. They're pretty serious about this.

Here we go, out of the subway:

The Oriental Pearl Tower is right here actually:

That upper walkway is really beautiful to look down from. It's also busy, and no one likes using the stairs in this city.

I dropped my bags at the super-fancy hotel and went to a shopping mall with ten floors...
I don't even know what's going on some of the time.
Darth Vader meets Battlestar Galactica? OK, here is Chinese fashion in a nutshell:

Everybody has little ears or eyes or yellow blob beings on all their stuff. I mean, I kind of already knew that, but it's really true...

Onto the subway, across the river, to the Bund I go. A little distracted first by some nice little shops
and what does this guy think he is doing (I saw 2 people do this today!)
What if he lit it and just forgot??

This other guy came up to me and said he wanted to practice his English. He knew a lot about Canada so I thought he was legit. We had some tea & edamame (which he said was invented by the Chinese) and when we left he had "conveniently" forgotten his wallet. Sigh. So I bought an old man a snack while he asked me about my travels. He must have been a polyglot though. Very good at several languages.

The Bund itself is somewhat policed
and busy
but has a fantastic view

A little bit of sibling rivalry

Am I in New York? No, because this is the Bund Bull... haha. No really. Same artist.

I wandered. I found a street which was closed to cars. Full of bicycles and especially little mopeds instead. No wonder there's so much pollution with all those single stroke engines...
Also, it keeps a lot of people employed I guess...

This dog-walker had some unruly dogs that got tangled up. She simply lifted one of the smaller ones by the leash over the others. It didn't seem to mind. I think this is a frequent occurrence.

I love the streets here. This is a much less wealthy neighbourhood by now. Still really lively.

Some shops sell very specific things. There was a lace shop. Here's a button shop.

This is such a fun place to photograph. Colours everywhere... pollution too...

OK, I'm entering a more clearly touristy area.
With more crazy shops.

Lots of little food places.

There's some kind of drink that looks like it has dry ice in it. Pretty weird.

Some crazy white guy is playing an electric violin with a nice amp and his parents are filming it and they're walking around like this. Why? I don't know. Bit of a crowd though.

It's pretty.
BTW, I found a cat.
Also a flying creature.

OK, heading back now. Here is what the subway is like. It's so crowded. There are wide pathways and they're always filled...

Good night, Shanghai.