MY TRAVELS IN CHINA: SHANGHAI DAY 4 

Dr. Arnold Plotnick of Manhattan Cat Specialists, loves to travel and loves cats.  So off he went… East… way way East… to China.  Over the course of the next few weeks, we will share the cultural and kitty cat highlights of Dr. Plotnick’s trip.

Our last full day in Shanghai begins in Pudong, the neighborhood across the Huangpu River, where all the fancy skyscrapers are.  We decided that we weren’t going to spend lots of money going to the observation decks of all these gargantuan skyscrapers.  I live in NYC; I’d been to the World Trade Center observation deck a few times in the past, and the Empire State Building, and I’ve been in the CN tower in Toronto.

They all start to feel the same after a while.  But I certainly do like staring up at them from below.  The three biggies are the Oriental Pearl Tower, a huge space-age monstrosity.

There’s also the Shanghai World Financial Center, which  looks like a giant bottle-opener.  It has the world’s highest observation deck, on the 100^th floor.

You can see, right next to it, a nicer-looking (in my opinion) building, the Jin Mao Tower.  Apparently, the Cloud Nine Bar on the 87^thfloor is a very cool place to have a drink and enjoy the view, but it was 9:00 a.m.; perhaps a little early to have a drink.  (Or perhaps not).

Across the street from these impressive buildings was a lovely little park, where you can look up in the  sky all around you and feel really, well, puny.

Everyone around me was staring up at the buildings. In fact, some of the people were staring for hours, not moving.

I tried talking to a family visiting Shanghai, but they seemed kinda stiff.

After the skyscrapers, I suggested we go back to the French Concession, by way of  Jing’An Park.

The other day, we went to the Jing’An temple across the street from the park, but  didn’t spend much time in the park itself, and the park is really supposed to be lovely, and  you can see, it certainly is.

It’s another one of those parks where the locals like to just relax and be locals, like these two guys playing checkers.

We moseyed through Jing’An  Park, and then hit the French Concession, once again enjoying the shops and stores

and architecture.

As we continued walking, I saw a sign for a place called the K Wah Center, and I remembered that Mark had printed out, from the internet, a listing for a wildly popular restaurant called Spicy Joint, and I recalled the address being the K Wah Center.  After a little searching, I found it.  It was worth it; the food was cheap, and delicious. Even though I’m not a big fan  of spicy duck head

and mustard beef throat.

After lunch, as we left the French Concession, I encountered a very sweet tomcat at a fruit shop.

Alas, this was to be the last cat of the trip.

Our last park of the trip was Fuxing Park. It’s a beautiful park, designed in the French style, with a center lake, fountains, covered pavilions, and flower beds.

Early morning, the park fills with dancers,

card players,

mahjong enthusiasts, and tai chi practitioners.  There’s also a very cool, tall granite statue of Marx and Engels

We casually wandered back to the  hotel, by way of the big pedestrian shopping street, East Nanjing Road.

We did some last minute shopping, bringing back boxes of snacks and a few final souvenirs from our trip.

For our last dinner, we hit Xintiandi again, the beautiful plaza filled with lovely upscale restaurants and bars.

Tired of Chinese food by now, we opted for Fountain, an American-style restaurant.

All I wanted at this point was a sandwich and fries.  Ahhh…comfort food at last.

And thus ends my fabulous trip to China.  Thank you to everyone who was kind enough to read my blog.  I wish I could have shown you as many photos of  cats as I did on my Istanbul trip, but alas, China wasn’t teeming with cats the way Istanbul (and Greece, which I visited two years before that) was.  Not sure where my next adventure will be, but you can bet I’ll have my camera handy, eager to snap pics of kitties who cross my path.

THE END (until the next trip, perhaps Scandinavia?)

Previous Posts
Beijing – Day 1, Day 2 Part 1, Day 2 Part 2, Day 3, Day 4 Part 1, Day 4 Part 2, Day 5, Day 6
Shanghai – Day 1 part 1, Day 1 part 2, Day 2, Day 3 part 1, day 3 part 2, day 4