The Top of Paul Graham’s List

A short quote from Paul Graham’s to do list in this article The Top of My Todo List:

Don’t ignore your dreams; don’t work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.

Paul continued to be the most amazing writers that I read – he have some genuine thoughts, and guide him and many of his startups. I would highly recommend you to read his blog.

The Awkwardness of Meeting Someone in Person

In one book, Alan De Botton mentioned that reading is better than talking because it allows pause, and deep thoughts, and more well structured thoughts. You cannot fall into deep thoughts when you are at the conversation with your favorite author. Just as echoed in this article: Writing and Speaking, talking is not the best way for intelligent and thoughtful people to exchange ideas. I can imagine I have not too many things to talk about if I meet with Alan de Botton, or Paul Graham one day.

I had a conversation with Yu Ying, the famous doctor in Beijing who write micro-blog – a weibo with 800,000 followers. Her Weibo is interesting, and her talk on TnDao was great. But to when to bar with and chat, it is hard to calm down and really talk. That is the awkwardness to meet someone in person.

World Financial Center

The most interesting in Shanghai is maybe the 52th floor of the World Financial Center in Pudong. I visited the tower today because I had too meetings in the same building. People need to transfer to another elevator at the 52 and 53th floor. If you are someone who likes to climb to tall buildings, you can get to the 52th floor lobby without having to making any appointment with people working there. Below is the photo of the lobby.

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Over the window, you can see the new Shanghai Tower is in good shape already.

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Apple Flagship Store in Shanghai

The second day I am back from Singapore, I had a lunch meeting in Shangri-la, and after the meeting, I went to the Apple Flagship Store in Shanghai.

The store is located near the Grand Brand Mall, just the other side of the Pearl TV Tower. It is at basement of the International Financial Center (IFC) complex, near the LV flagship store.

Here is the entrance – the feeling is just like the glass entrance of the Louvre.

The rotating stairs are the perfect stage for the several hour queuing at Apple Store yesterday, for the first day of Apple iPhone 4 release in China.

From the inside, since Apple’s product is so consistent, and so few types, a visit to that particular store is just a visit to the store itself, which is not very different from the others.

Minimum Fee 120 RMB for Top of SWFC

The top secret I have about this city is how to Get to Top of SWFC Within 100 RMB. Now, I found out that trick does not work.

The 91th floor of Shanghai World Financial Center is no longer the best value bar in Shanghai. Now, they require 120 RMB per person minimum pay for all afternoon tea guests.

Now, the only alternatives left for me are:

Phoenix Tree-Lined Streets in Shanghai

Besides the skyscrapers (not so interesting for the local, but serving as a good opportunity for visitors to take photo as background), the most charming characters of the city of Shanghai is its streets.

The streets in the old French Concession was lined by Phoenix trees, and villas. The villas are typically larger than those in the Silicon Valley, and walled by bricks, and high raised fences above it. There are many buildings along the edge of the streets, and you walk besides the window of the kitchen or leaving room of the residents of the building – a very unique experience only in Shanghai.

In strong contrast with the crowded, and over populated downtown Shanghai, the area at the heart of the downtown is very quiet, and lack of pedestrian. You will enjoy the lonely walk in the cave formed by the Phoenix trees for half an hour to two hours (depending how carefully you design your route) without getting back to the noisy Shanghai.

At night, if you walk along the roads near the West Fuxing Road, especially the Wu Yuan Road 五原路, you will be scared – it is just like walking in a old town with big houses that is completely dark, and there is no street lights in the lanes. That is quite a surprise . In some of the gardens, I often see people feed hens, or grow vegetables in their own place. That is maybe the most luxurious thing we can think of in this world: the house and the land can easily worth several billion RMB. That is also the funny part of this city: the residents in these most expensive, and well designed villa are often among the poorest in the city. They don’t own the house (the government owns it), but they have the rights to live there, and transfer their rights of continuing living there to their children.

The best way to explorer there streets are by walking. The area is very walkable, and surrounded by many metro atations. If it is raining, even better! The sounds on the leaves of the trees are more pleasant than orchestra. At night? It is also good time to visit, since some of the bars started to turn their lights, and open to customers. Unlike the highly restrictive building code in California, the bars, and teh residential areas, and other business facilities are mixed. So you may need to walk for few minutes to find another one.

Comparing to the street of San Francisco, I enjoy walking in Shanghai better, just because of the same reason I love San Francisco – the diversity of the buildings along the streets. They are of so many different styles from different countries. You must have a pen and a sketch book in hand to capture the moments when you encounter a Spanish window, or a French courtyard.

S16 – Hangzhou – Pudong Expressway

During the three day vacation, the family went to Lin’an, the mountain area near Hangzhou. We used the G60 (Shanghai – Hangzhou) expressway on our way there, and used a new expressway S16 (Hangzhou – Pudong) Expressway back. Let me give you a quick overview of the new S16 Hangzhou – Pudong Expressway.

The new expressway 杭浦高速 is basically parallel to the old Shanghai – Hangzhou Expressway 沪杭高速. They both start from Hangzhou at basically the same place (about 5 km away from each other at the intersection of Hangzhou Ring Expressway (G2501), and extend to the Shanghai direction. The G60 (Shanghai – Hangzhou Expressway) is a little bit northward (1 o’clock direction), and the S16 is on the south (2 o’clock direction).

The G60 is very strait forward – it starts from Hangzhou and goes all the way to the Xinzhuang Intersection 上海莘庄立交.

The Hangzhou Pudong Expressway is more complicated. At the very beginning, it is called S16 (according to the numbering system in Zhejiang province). At the same time, it is also called G92 – the Hangzhou Ring Expressway of the National Highway System. It is common that a section of an expressway has more than one numbering system these days. Then, at the intersection of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge (The newly built bridge going cross the Hangzhou Bay, a long one), it is called G15 (The Shenyang to Haikou Expressway). The interesting part about that big intersection is, the east bound, and south bound roads are called G15, and the west bound, and north bound road is called G92.

After that intersection, as I explained, it continued to be called G15 until it gets to a new big intersection near Jinshan. The G15 continued to turn northward and follow the original A5. The S4 will pickup the road of original G15 (Hangzhou – Pudong Expressway) eastward. That S4 will finally end up at the Xinzhuang Interchange, and merge with G60.


在较大的地图中查看G50沪渝高速、G56杭瑞高速、G60沪昆高速、G92杭州湾环线高速、G9211甬舟高速

Back from Jinshan Beach

Shanghai is near sea, but Shanghai never has a good beach. Shanghai is one of the most richest cities with one of the highest travel demand – so people in Shanghai love to hang around in Sanya, and spent huge amount of dollars on air tickets.

Is there a way to build a beach with sand in Shanghai?

People in Jinshan gave it a try.


查看大图

That is a big area of beach, with nice sand. It is said they shipped the sand from somewhere – Dalian? The water is at least clean, and you can identify the color of blue in the water. There are people sailing in the sea.

This is the beach I saw most like beach in Shanghai, although it is still far from real beach.

I didn’t bring a camera. Sorry that I didn’t take photos.

Direction

It is easy to get there by car. Just get to S4. When you intersect with G15, you are almost there. Look at the map above.

It is about 70 km away from where I live. It took about one hour to get there. Bandenger is bigger than Goudaner. Although it is not as easy to manage in downtown Shanghai as Goudaner, it did take care of us better. I didn’t feel tired after the two hour trip. It seems we can go to surrounding areas more often in the future.

100 Century Ave on Top of SWFC

This is the photo of the 100 Century Ave on the 91th floor of Shanghai World Financial Center. I wrote about it few days ago. Here are photos.

It is a very good place to look at the top of Jinmao Tower.

A little bit northwards. I was surprised that I can actually see the sea, and the Chong Ming Island from the tower.

This is inside the cafe – tall roof, but pretty crowded – limited seats are available.

Get to Top of SWFC within 100 RMB

Here, I’d e to share a secret place with budget visitors. This is really the secret locals know.

Top of World Financial Center

The Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC) is now the highest building in Shanghai and China. Standing at 492 meters high, with 101 floors, it attracts huge number of visitors to the top observation deck.

It costs 150 RMB per person to get to the top of it. Expensive, but tourists are not as cost sensitive as in their normal lives. Look at the long lines to get to the top!

My Tip – 100 Century Avenue Bar

As most of the hotels, the Park Hyatt hotel in the building offers nice bar at the top of its building – at 91th floor, named 100 Century Avenue.

It is an expensive Sushi and BBQ restaurant with about 400 RMB minimum fee for normal tables, or 2000 USD minimum for a private room, but, the bar area also offers some nice drink at relatively cheap price.

Drinks

My tip is, just go to that restaurant, and order some drink. The tea ranges from 45-55 RMB, and Baily is about 90 RMB. All the fees are subject to 15% service fee. You can expect to have some nice drink (their tea is not bad) within 60 RMB if you look at the low end of the menu, and if you are lucky, a window seat facing the Jinmao Tower, the Bund, and the magnificent view of Shanghai.

It is not cheap, but at a price of two cup of Starbucks, you enjoy much better time than the crowded top deck with a comfortable seat, and nice drink. It is just half of the price. I feel it is a better option.

The Bar

The Bar itself is not very interesting – the typical bar with shining ceiling, polite servants, and high wine shelf. The most unique thing about the bar is just its heights!

Your next meetup? Look into the sky!

PS. Bonus Tip

Another similar tip is, instead of visiting the observation deck on top of 88th floor of Jinmao Tower, you can visit the bar on 56th floor under the Great Well in Jinmao Tower

P.S. 2 Photos

Photos can be found here.

Tianzifang at Taikang Road

Let me add some photos to the Tianzifang I mentioned the other day.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Tianzifang

Tianzifang is at the lanes of Taikang Road. It developed from local residence area, to a new art zone. The Taikan Road is an area where artist gathers in the downtown Shanghai. Then without people even noticed, the lanes along the Taikan Road developed to a new attraction.

As you can see from the picture above, the narrow lanes were laid out, and people enjoy their dinner. Most of the rooms are galleries, and art shops there. It is a very different feel from either the Xintiandi (it is too modern), or the Moganshan Road (too artistic).

Here is the map of the area.

P.S. The Expo Site

BTW, here is the expo site – from nothing to an area of many buildings.

Taken by Jian Shuo Wang from the Nanpu Bridge

In case you forget what Nanpu Bridge looks like, here is a recent photo:

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Jinji Lake – Rebuild Another West Lake

This post was created one months ago, and only show up today.

For people tired of going to West Lake in Hangzhou or The Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou (I mean, after you visit these two places for more than 10 or 20 times), they may be interested to find out somewhere that si near Shanghai, and offers something new. Wendy and I went to Jinji Lake last Tuesday on our six year wedding anniversary. To my greatest surprise, the Jinji Lake has been turned into a new West Lake type of tourism destination, and a Xintiandi type of clustering of modern chain high-end restaurants, and Around-Century-Park type of high-raising residential areas.

How to Get There

Among all the transportation options, driving seems to be the most practical way to get there (do you want to take public transportation just to have a cup of tea along the lake?) It is about 100 km from Shanghai, and takes 1 and half hour to get there.

You can take Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway 沪宁高速 A11 (wonderful newly completely 4-lane expressway) heading Nanjing direction, and turn to Suzhou City Ring Expressway (East) 苏州绕城(东)heading Zhou Zhuang 周庄. Take the Luzhi/Airport Road 甪直/机场路 Exit, and get to Airport Road (a.k.a S343) heading west for 15 km. Jinji Lake is on your right hand.

If you do want to take public transportation, find a train from Shanghai Railway Station to Suzhou Railway Station (pretty frequent – 30 minutes interval), and take Bus 178 to get there. Google Map also suggests that you can walk from People’s Square to Jinji Lake. It costs 16.5 hours, and 81 km. :-)

The Emerging Center

The Jinji Lake is a natural lake that is a little bit bigger than West Lake of Hangzhou (7.82 sq. km v.s. 5.6 sq. km). Just like the old capital Hangzhou to West Lake, the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) is the source of the development of Jinji Lake. With huge amount of industrial and commercial activities going on in the park, it is taken for granted that the big natural lake within the area become the entertainment and residential center.

Sitting at any corner of the lake, and look around, you will be amazed by the high raising business towers, and residential buildings. They surround the lake like a curtain. Even you are used to the buildings in Lujiazui, you may still be surprised by the numbers of skyscrapers, and the speed people are building it. If this would have happened to the West Lake, people may say it is a disaster. But in Jinji Lake, the concerns seem to be much less, since this lake on the first day, was designed and built to be a modern West lake – the skyscrapers are also part of the characteristic of Jinji Lake, just like mountains and trees do in West Lake’s example.

Li Gong Di 李公堤

Li Gong Causeway (Li Gong Di 李公堤) is another reason to convince me that Jinji Lake is moving toward the direction of West Lake. The 1400 meters long ancient causeway is now renovated to be a modern street with all kinds of restaurants, and bars.

If you have a day to spend, and have been to Hangzhou for so many times, Jin Ji Lake is another option.

Two Things Other Tourist Don’t Do in Shanghai

When I am asked about three most interesting things that other tourists do not do in Shanghai, I typically give the following suggestion.

1. Transit Between Metro Line #1 and Line #2 in Rush Hours

I know you are tired of the routine scenic spots, and try to dive deep into the daily life of people in this city, a metro ride is a must. To be further visually impressed by the energy of this city, you should schedule your metro ride between 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM. You will not only see what we call “People Mountain People Sea”, it is the type of people and the expression on their face, their pace, what they do in the metro cart, and how huge number of people interact with each other. The scene is shocking for myself every time I experience it. Is there anything more significant to see the largest hub of people in a city with 16 million people?

More information: If your hotel is along the Metro Line #1 or Line #2, get on board a train heading to People’s Square at 8:00 PM typically will give you the experience. Follow the signs to the other line, and be very cautious about your step. Don’t ever try to stop in the middle to take video or pictures – it is not only dangerous but also annoying in rush hours. Don’t be discourage when you have to wait for several minutes before the lines moving a little bit. Don’t be scared to see the platform full packed with people and others on the stairs cannot possible move down – it is people’s life everyday.

2. A quiet walk along Wukang Road

After experiencing the excitement and energy (or congestion, or chaos if you want to describe it that way) of this city, I would highly recommend you to spend an afternoon wandering on the Phoenix-tree -covered small roads in Xujiahui. Wukang Road is my favorite. Be impressed by the historical villas along the quiet street with all type of architect styles, and be moved by the details of local residents life. May it be a row of blooming flowers, or hand written characters welcoming post man on their mailbox. Also, enjoy the loneliness of being one of the only few people on the street. It provides a sharp contrast from what you see from almost everywhere in Shanghai. Don’t forget to stand long enough at the government plate before the villas, to know more about the history of the buildings.

More Information: Wukang Road is located in Xuhui District. It starts from Huaihai Road on the south and Huashan Road on the north. The nearest Metro Station is Changshu Road Station of Metro Line #1. You can walk along the Fuxing West Road to get there. Don’t worry to get lose in that area. The whole area is nice and worth some time wandering around.

Thoughts After Seeing Dubai Tower

Anyone here ever visited Dubai? Saw the Dubai Tower?

Image in courtesy of Ammar Abd Rabbo

I saw an article about Dubai on the recent issue of Asia Business Leaders. I was very impressed by the Dubai Tower. It is so tall. When you see things as tall as this big, people may give up the idea of building a even taller building than that.

At least, I lost my interest in the future Shanghai Tower (632m when finished), which is taller than the current Shanghai World Financial Center, but much lower than this tower.

I admit that people sometimes get crazy about building really tall architect, and be very passionate about it, until you see some really really tall things, and ops… why bother doing that?

Drive on Nanpu Bridge for 3000 Times

This is a normal Friday in Shanghai. It is also around 498 days before the Shanghai Expo in 2010.

In the morning, Wendy and I drove along the Nanpu Bridge – how many times have we driven along this bridge? My rough guess is 2800 times. This is based on the following facts:

  • We have moved to Pudong in April, 2004
  • It has been 1700 days since we moved here.
  • Let me assume that I am visiting Puxi 5.5 days a week (some weekends, we still come to Pudong, but at as frequent as once every weekend)
  • That is around 1400 visits to Puxi from my home in Pudong
  • Since I am using Nanpu Bridge to get to Puxi 99% of the time, I am assume that I have run on this bridge for about 2800 times, which is likely to be 3000.

Is it a fair calculation?

The good thing is, recently, the scene on the west side of the Nanpu bridge is getting better and better. High-raising towers are countless (if you still think high-raising buildings are good things), and the Shanghai Expo site spreads behind it.

The China Pavilion has been structrually completed – it is a huge architect, with a big head and four big pole supporting it. I can see it everyday. However, it is not as beautiful was the picture shows yet – still about 1 year to complete.

For the Shanghai Expo, I am not as expected as to the Beijing Olympics. Actually, the Beijing Olympic turned out to be a short memory, and didn’t change China too much. Maybe we just need more time to understand the change.

Beautiful Xujiahui under blue sky in Shanghai.

Yilin Blindman Massage

What is the best of Shanghai? I asked my friends. Besides sightseeing, night life, food and many other things, it is for sure that massage is part of the Shanghai experience. I didn’t talked about this topic before – how I can just mention Xiang Yang Market without talking about massage.

My Favorite: Yilin Blindman Massage

In the last few years, I tried some massage place, and I found Yilin is definitely the best. The gap between them and others are not a little – it is huge. I’d like to recommend them to my readers.

Massage in Shanghai

In Shanghai, when you wander on the street, you may see as many massage shop as real estate brokers, as 24 hour convenient stores. They are some of the key street shop elements in Shanghai.

However, most of the massage place is just for recreational. It means, they have massage girls or boys who give you body massage, or foot massage. Most of the places in Shanghai are serious massage, nothing about erotic services. There are some types of massage that is in that category, but they are not on the street, and I do have no idea about that part.

Why Yilin is Good

Yilin are not only recreational, they are even providing medical help to people with problems with their necks or bones. Most of the massage people are blindman, or are sight challenged. They make a living by providing really good massage.

Here are their addresses:

Xuhui Store: No. 1, Lane 110 Nandan East Road 南丹东路100弄1号 64643786 <-- This is the one I visit most often since this is maybe their oldest one. Pudong Store: Hmm... I don't have their exact address - they are at the Huanlong Road, and the Beiyuan Road and Huantong Road, near the Subway Line #6 Shanghai Children's Medical Center Station. It is not on the street. It is hidden deep in the Yidong Garden. I have created a map for that location.

These are the only two I have been. They have two more locations, but I have never been there:

#521 Xujiahui Road 徐家汇路521号

#1842 Changning Road 长宁路1842号

My favorite guy are employee #4, and #12 in Xujiahui and #12 in Pudong, but it turned out everyone there was almost as good. I am curious about how they did quality control so good.

Price

52 RMB for 60 minutes body massage.

52 RMB for 60 minutes foot massage.

Be prepared that it is very pain when you do massage in this place, because it really helps. They are not fancy places to visit – you will be disappointed to see the narrow and ugly decoration in their rooms, but people came for massage, not for the environment, while many spent too much time on decoration and environment, but offer too bad massage.

Photos of Wujiang Road

Let me just post some photos I took on the Wujiang Road 吴江路 when ICS was busy shooting me with a camera.

Where is Wujiang Road

Wujiang Road is just at the exit of Metro Line #2, Nanjing West Road Station (formerly Shimen Yi Road Station). It is famous for its cheap and nice eatery. Recently, it is renovated to another Xintiandi (which I don’t like at all).

If you want to be there, just take Metro and exit at Exit 3 of Nanjing West Road Station of Metro #2.

Photos

I hope these photos can give you a sense of what downtown Shanghai typically look like during a normal Saturday afternoon.

Below: Building at 171 Taixing Road. It is built in 1925 – the 10 years of golden time for Shanghai.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The detail of the decor on the building.

Below: This stainless steel pole is a typical sign to tell all vehicles that it is a pedestrian only street.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Here are more of it:

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Bike at the plate of a statue.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

This is the statue:

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

I love this one: Bread Papa. Randy brought me the first one and I started to love it ever since.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Here is the Metro Exit. Now people do have more time, money and needs to turn the stair into a piece of art.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

As in any newly built street, the dust bin are classified:

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Old Wujiang Road

In this image, if you see it carefully, on the other side of the road, there are some lower houses with red roof. That is also Wujiang Road, the older section.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The bad news for me (or good news for others) is, they are going to turn that unique lovely place into the unified, internationalized street like this:

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

My Two Cents

If you have a chance, go visit the remaining part of the Wujiang Road and the newly built Wujiang Road. Do the comparison and tell us what do you like.

If you ask me, my short answer is, they are turning a Xiang Yang Market into a Parkson Shopping Center.

Lujiazui is a Construction Site

Lujiazui is the heart of Pudong – or in other official words, the “show window of China’s reform and opening up”. I went to Lujiazui today, only to find out the whole area is turned into another big construction site.

Heading out of the Super Brand Mall, the entrance (once was wonderful place with big garden in the middle of the circle road) was completely chaos. A new big overhead bridge is under construction. When completed, the big circle bridge will connect major buildings in that area, including the metro station, together. However, the problem is, currently, there are construction site everywhere. Besides this kind of small project, big underground tunnel is under way, and some roads are completely blocked and turned into construction site, not to mention the crazy skyscrapers in that area. The history of Lujiazui taught me, when there are many skyscrapers in one area, that only mean one thing, there are many more to come…

I walked around and could not find a taxi (I said, Lujiazui is Full, long time ago), so I kept walking. The bus stations have given ways to the new construction sites, and I could not find it. The major roads long the century avenue is also blocked, so I have to change route to somewhere in the New Financial Street. Finally, I got a taxi around 9:30 PM, and get back home.

On the taxi, I am thinking – if all these buildings, tunnels, over-head bridges, and many other things are to be completed before the Shanghai Expo in 2010, what Shanghai will be look like after that? and will there be any new construction after that?

Hangzhou Bay Bridge – More Photos

After the meeting, we get back from Cixi to Shanghai via the Hangzhou Bay Bridge again. This time, I took the front seat and was able to take more photos of the bridge. I know many of my readers will enjoy the latest update of the bridge.

The weather of today is not very good, and as normal, there is no blue sky, and the visibility today is pretty low. Sorry for the low quality of the photos.

Below: Big bill boards are ready along the road on the South Side of the bridge. I believe the next time I am there, they are all covered by ads – but don’t you think there are too many bill boards there?

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Below: The last change to leave the bridge

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The bridge has another name: Ningbo Section of Shenhai Haiway 深海高速宁波段. The highway cross the whole country, running from the north Shenyang to Haikou in Hainan Island.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The sign reads: Hangzhou Bay Bridge, 35673m in Length

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Below: The clearer view of the Island in the Sea.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The first pole of the suspension structure of the bridge. There are three of them

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The second and the third pole:

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The top structure of the pole:

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The first big intersection after getting tot he north side of the bridge is the Hangpu Highway, the second highway connecting Hangzhou and Pudong, other than the A8 Huhang Expressway. As you can see from the sign, turning the Hangpu Expressway exit, you can get to Yangshan Port, and Pudong Airport, and also A5, A6, A30.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Keep going and you can get to the intersection with the A8 (to be more exact, the highway of the Hangzhou Bridge has been officially named G15).

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Turning right, you get to Shanghai and turning left, you are going to Hangzhou.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

I hope one day I will try the A4 -> Hangpu Expressway -> Hangzhou Bay Bridge route.

The road on the bridge is just like normal expressway in China.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Hangzhou Bay Bridge – Just a Bridge

I am in Cixi, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, to attend a media and advertisement conference of Pudong District. A conference organized by Administration of Industry and Commercial. To be fair, the government doing real business is wonderful, and I enjoy the conversation with them, and they did great job! I have to give my full acknowledgment to them.

OK. Then I get back to my main topic. We used the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, as I promised, I will post picture of the bridge on my site when I visit it personally.

Hangzhou Bay Bridge is ….. hmmm…. Just a Bridge

I had high expectation for this bridge, but my own experience told me, no matter how significant the position of the bridge it, it is still, just a bridge, a longer bridge. I mean, on the bridge, you just feel it is a normal highway, and there is no significant spot of interest there.

Below is the only thing attracted my attention during the 20 minute tour:

It is still under construction. It should be an emergency helicopter parking lot.

Obviously, the opening of the bridge is a very big thing for cities on the south side of the bridge, a much bigger news than it is to Shanghai.

In Cixi, you can see this image everywhere:

On the bill board writes: “Bridge promotes Opening Up, and Reform Makes Stronger Cixi”.

My Impression

A bridge did change the fate of many cities, like Cixi and Ningbo a lot, and it also changes the life of people on the south side of the bridge, as well as on people on the north side. I am very confident that mega projects like this will push the economy of China foreword.

For example, in the area of the Cixi new district. I see many buildings are under construction. Without the bridge, there is no point that we come to this city for a meeting, or they build so many office buildings and hotels.

Hope you like the photos of the bridge. I am sorry that I was not able to show you a bird view of the 30+ km bridge, since I took bus instead of plane anyway. From a bus rider’s experience, it is nothing more interesting than a longer bridge. Really!

Minpu Bridge Under Construction

After many bridges and tunnels, a new bridge over Huangpu River is under construction, without my notice. Today, in order to find a better route from our home to Zizhu Hi-Tech Park, where Microsoft is moving to at the end of this year, Wendy and I drove to the area, and found the huge poles of the bridge is already almost completed.

The East Side of the Poles

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The West Side of the Pole

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The Huangpu River in the middle – this is very different scene from in the Bund section. There is almost nothing on the east bank – Pudong was like this 20 years ago.

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The Minpu Bridge will be a double-layer bridge. As you can see, the bridge is already in the shape of two levels. Since they need to build the bridge, and the arches anyway, to make it double-deck is a good idea.

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Under the two bridge poles in Pudong and Puxi, a ferry line connects the two ferry station, with a ferry every 20 minutes. On the ferry, they also holds 5 cars in it, so I can drive to one side and pass the bridge with my car on the ferry.

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On the Puxi side, the area is mixture of huge bridges, large cargo port, and the Wujing Coal-Electricity Power Station (highly polluted) with its two huge cooling-stations. (Pollution is another topic we discussed before).

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The bridge started construction 2 years ago and will be completed in 2009. It will be the seventh large bridge on the Huangpu River. The other six bridges over Huangpu River are:

  1. Nanpu Bridge
  2. Yangpu Bridge
  3. Lupu Bridge
  4. Fengpu Bridge
  5. Xupu Bridge
  6. Songpu Bridge

The top level of the bridge will be part of A15, an expressway from Pudong Airport to Zhejiang Province, and the lower level will be like Nanpu Bridge or Yangpu Bridge – for local traffic.

I am looking forward to posting more pictures when it opens to traffic.

Hangzhou Bay Bridge to Open

Time flies.

When I heard of the idea to build a bridge crossing the Hangzhou Bay, I was pretty shocked – to build a long bridge and cross the sea seems to be a joke when I first heard about it. I remember it was just few years ago.

Time flies.

The Hangzhou Bay Bridge is going to open to public by the end of April.

About the Bridge

The bridge, starting from Jinshan in Shanghai and ending at Cixi in Ningbo, crosses the Hangzhou Bay, and connect the two important cities in China – a bigger one: Shanghai, and a smaller one: Ningbo. This bridge is 36 km in length (still not as long as the Donghai Bridge, which is 46 km), however, it is still the longest sea-cross bridge in the world. It cut the distance between Shanghai and Ningbo by 120 km, by passing Zhejiang’s capital city, Hangzhou.

Google Earth Image

Look at the Google Earth Image below:

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These images are not updated yet – how can people imagine the speed of huge projects like the bridge to proceed so quickly! However, from the updated tile above, we can barely see a white line, which is the bridge!

Let’s zoom in and you can see the bridge more clearly in the photo below:

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Continue to zoom in and you can see the poles and the bridge. As you can see, it is still under construction when the photo was taken. Now, it is already completed, and ready to be opened next month. For the third time, I want to say, time flies!

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On the land, huge viaducts are being constructed as well. As you can see from this image, the constructor has huge ambition to connect the bridge to all kinds of destination they can.

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Looking Forward to Drive on the Bridge

Just as Donghai Bridge, it is exciting to see on the map, but may not as exciting to drive on it, I expect the driving experience may not as great as it sounds to be. However, it should be like a powerful money line to connect two of the important important economic powers of the Yangtze delta. It is also noteworthy that it makes Shanghai closer to the Beilun Port in Ningbo – a big thing for Shanghai.

With the completion of this bridge, the network of highway of Zhejiang and Shanghai continue to merge. I will put more attention to the high ways in the future.