Entire New 13-Story Building Tips Over in Shanghai

This is pretty crazy - picked up from a friends Facebook timeline:

One fatality reported.

Are all those Shanghai skyscrapers really full?

I was just wondering about this - and came upon this story:

Mori Building Sells Five Stories of China’s Tallest Property

April 20, 2011, 10:12 PM EDT

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Mori Building Co., owner of China’s tallest building, said it sold five floors of the property and may offer more in the tower following demand from investors.

Japan’s biggest privately held developer said it sold the 68th to 72nd floors of the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center. The 16,248-square-meter (174,828-square-foot) space was sold at an average price of 82,142 yuan ($12,588) per square meter, according to information from government-run Shanghai Real Estate Trading Center, which tracks property transactions.

So they are selling the floors, but it still doesn't talk about occupancy... I just can't imagine who is in all these building...

A Shanghai Apartment’s Art Deco Splendor Restored

Cool story in the NY Times:

GREAT HOMES AND DESTINATIONS

A Shanghai Apartment’s Art Deco Splendor Restored

By JUSTIN BERGMAN

Published: March 9, 2011

Spencer Dodington, a Texan, had already spent years studying the Art Deco style when he embarked on renovating his 1,420-square-foot apartment in Shanghai’s old French Concession.

Jinke Road Metro Stop, Shanghai

So for some reason that I am sure will remain a mystery, we stayed pretty far outside the center of Shanghai, on the new Metro line number 2. The apartment/condo building was basically in the middle of nowhere - just an endless landscape of mid-rise housing buildings, sprinkled with tech company offices. I think the Chinese planned this pretty carefully to keep the subways full in both directions for most of the day, with people leaving for the jobs from the apartments, and others coming to the various international companies sprinkled in the area (SAP was one office that was visible from the road).

Our metro stop was Jinke Road - and as you can see below in the image from Google, the metro station (upper right hand corner) was still under construction when this image was taken - that is how new everything is in this part of China.

Tokyo

After about two weeks in Shanghai, I flew to Tokyo. I spent 2 nights there and even though there was a decent amount of rain I had a great time and really was taken with the little bit of the city I got to see. I could imagine visiting Tokyo again, especially exploring more of the museums and temples, and trying more restaurants.

I have plenty more to post about China, and Japan, but I will be rolling that out once I get back home. And I have hundreds of photos too. Here is one:

This is the train crew changing shifts at Tokyo station. A glaring difference between Tokyo and Shanghai is the supreme sense of order and formality that the Japanese have compared to the seemingly permanent chaos of Shanghai. Look at the uniform on the "Captain" of the train - white gloves, suit, hat - every detail is precise. I also have some photos and videos I want to post of construction crews from both Shanghai and Japan - in Shanghai we saw lots of people at work in flip-flops and t-shirts. In Japan, everyone is uniformed, with an amazing amount of gear on, and safety is paramount.  Just some jarring juxtapositions between these places.

Jean Georges in Shanghai

3 On The Bund (annoying, small window Flash website) is the address of a building that has been remade as a high end dining, shopping, and gallery space. I saw an Anish Kapoor installation at the Shanghai Gallery of Art (Kapoor seems to follow me wherever I am in the world - this is an artist that gets around), and - yes -  I had lunch at the Jean Georges restaurant (anyone who knows me knows Vongerichten is one of my favorite chefs in the world). I had been eating $2 lunches all week so I figured I could splurge:

This is the cod with snow peas, almonds, almond milk, and chili oil. It was very good. The desert was incredible, and I had a very nice glass of Riesling. The wine by the bottle is outrageously priced - but I got some background on that from the sommelier. More about that in another post.

Happy 4th of July

Sunday July 4th:

Got to the museum just in time to boot the computers. Dropped off some more laundry at the Marriott, then to the Starbucks there to spend my 3 free hours of Wifi working. After took the #2 back to East Nanjing Rd. and found the Foreign Language book shop. Wandered around there in the heat just a bit. Most of the East Nanjing Rd. area, from about People's Park to the Bund (the riverfront area) is sort of like a Times Sq. Lots of hawkers trying to rope you in and sell you fake stuff, lots of tourists, Asian and others. Not my style.

Back near the Marriott, I watched the Germany/Argentina match on the TV in McDonalds. Yes, I have discovered the McDonalds where there is AC and you can get a #1 meal for about $2 and change U.S. Trying to conserve money at this point. Almost 4 PM now and I am back in the museum a little earlier than yesterday, when they were giving me a hard time about getting back in. Getting black outside, probably another heavy rain on the way.

After I closed the exhibit I took the #1 to Huaihai Rd. to try to find some shoes. Good luck! I can't find anything close to my size. I did find articles on some expats forums about guys having to get their shoes hand made here! I was only in one mall, so I decided to try to walk to some more stores, and of course by then it was pouring - just torrential rain. Back to the metro to head home, stopped in the tech park (one stop before the apartment) to get some dinner. Had some sort of strange but good potatoe salad and fried chicken (Chinese style).

At home I watched Code 46 - a futuristic film shot mainly in Shanghai. I liked it - not a great movie, but pretty cool and fun to see some of the locations I have been wandering around in the last couple of weeks. Tim Robbin's character stays in the Grand Hyatt in the Jin Mao Tower:

Day whatever...

I have totally lost track of time. The install really was a lot of work - we were there practically all day every day for almost a week straight. The weather doesn't make things any easier - I am not so good in hot, and if it isn't 100 degrees here, then it is raining. It rained the first seven days in a row I think, then we had a short break. Today I saw some suspicious clouds when headed down to the subway, and when I came back up from the metro it was torrential with thunder and huge lightning bolts, etc.

At the moment I am sitting in the Marriott again (free WiFi) trying to dry off a bit an pondering changing into some of these clean, dry clothes that I had laundered through the hotel :)

This is the Shanghai World Financial Center - we were next door in the Jin Mao Tower for lunch the other day - I want to go up to the observation deck of this building though:

Shanghai World Expo

So it looks like I will be going to Shanghai for a couple of weeks to help some friends with some installations. I'll get to attend the expo, and also be lending a hand with an exhibit at the Shanghai fine art museum. We leave around June 21 - this blog will document my plans and research until we leave, and then hopefully I will document my stay with lots of photos, videos, etc. of my time in Shanghai.