A Bridge with a View

Let's take a break here for something more timely.

Allow me to transport you to Shanghai on an, almost warm, spring Wednesday afternoon of this week. I have to admit we haven't been terribly active since getting back from our trip last week - when you have nothing pressing to do, it can be very tricky to motivate yourself to do anything at all (though Flo has taken the opportunity to become an expert in downloading classic French comedy) but here we were, after a few days of miserable weather, awaking to sunshine and blue sky. We've long said that we need to make a list of all the things we want to see and do in Shanghai before we leave (if ever we do at the rate we're going, but anyway...) and having never actually written said list we can never remember what those things are. Fortunately, en route back from the airport we went over the Lupu Bridge, jogging our memories that there is viewing platform up top which overlooks the World Expo site as it unfolds below and in a flash of inspiration our day's agenda was complete.

The bike ride over there took us through down newly constructed roads and through neighbourhoods buzzing with Expo-related building activity. The development that has been going on throughout the city over the past couple of years has reached a crescendo with just over a month to go til D-Day though thankfully most of the serious construction has finished and it's now more the finishing touches that are being made. Every building and fence has been given a new coat of paint (only what is visible from the road mind, wouldn't want to waste any paint - example, the neighbours wall in our lane), roads dug up, pavements replaced, new roads built and new Metro lines opening what seems like every week. The sheer manpower involved has been incredible.

We reached the base of the bridge and found the entrance hidden in a building site, bought our 35 RMB tickets, took the elevator up 13 floors before walking the staircase up the arch to the highest point where you can see both sides of the river really well and even across to the Jin Mao, SWFC and Pear Tower in the distance - not bad for Shanghai visibility! Closer up we had a good view across the Expo site with the British fuzzy ball looking teeny tiny compared to all the other pavilions, some of which look like they're might be quite good fun.

After we'd exhausted the view we ticked off our imaginary list and headed down, stopping onthe staircase to marvel at the orange-clad workers sitting casually on the edge of the bridge fixing lightbulbs, and wondering what would happen were they to accidentally drop a screwdriver onto a fast moving car far below. Luckily they seemed to be keeping firm hold of all their tools so our question was left unanswered and the motorists remained safe and blissfully unaware of the dangers lurking above.