
First, the pollution in Shanghai is just as bad as you think it is. This was our our first view of The Bund, just for reference.

Amazing topiary.

Enhanced amazing topiary!

It isn’t as bad as all that on some days. This temple was just by our hotel.

What we tend to do, is go around looking at things on less good days, and then rush around on the better days and take as many photos as possible.

And, whenever possible, add fake reflections, which are somehow more popular than reality.

We hear a lot about Chinese pollution, but Shanghai is the quietest city I’ve ever been, due to the amount of electric vehicles on the roads. These scooters are all electric, and silent, and as you can see are used a lot as delivery vehicles. They don’t hesitate to ride on the pavements, so it’s best not to veer from walking in a straight line. The council also wash the roads every day, with a big truck which sounds a siren to warn you to get out of the way. There are no trucks in the city during the day, apart from the road washer truck.

There are a lot of modern buildings which have that Chinese look.

This is lovely district, and the Chinese are colourful and friendly. See the woman wearing double leopard?


A famous site, but rather faded. I have seen photos where the bridge is bright red.

A photo from inside an artwork. Shanghai is a really interesting and vibrant city, apart from the pollution.

They have a Disney type ride under the river. You can see the old buildings, built by the British in the 19th century I think, on the far side.

Of course, we had to go up the tower. Very long queue for the lifts!


You can see what it was like in the distance, even on this lovely sunny day.


This looks like a rural area, but it’s just in front of the pic above.

The city has a lot of artworks, and a lot of trees and greenery. Metro is really good, clean, frequent, and cheap. It’s really easy to get around.

We have hundreds more photos to process, but if I leave it any longer I won’t remember enough to write a blog post!
We really enjoyed our week in Shanghai. I was surprised at how modern, green and beautiful it is. I will do a blog post soon on Tokyo, interesting to compare two cities so close together but very different.