#1: Shanghai Century Park, Museum of Science, Jinmao Tower

After an uneventful and Ambien-laden flight to Shanghai, I arrived at Pudong Airport more than a bit physically tired and quite a bit psychologically wired. "Three weeks off--Hooray!" kept scrolling across my mind like a stock ticker. As Darren was already there, we headed over to a sketchy (and none too cheap) bar called 'Red Lips' across from the Pudong Sofitel where I was staying. We drank quite a bit of Bacardi Raspberri (or something like that), and then stumbled back to the Sofitel for some much-needed booze-snooze.

The next day we walked over to the largest park in Shanghai, Century Park in Pudong, which was a beautifully landscaped (if rather vacant) space.

Entrance to Century Park

It said no climbing, but hey, what a shot!

I also saw more than a few hilarious signs in the park (as with all places in China....why don't they hire me to proofread?). Partake of the hilarity, beware the riprap:

Lest you slip into the riprap, this sign provides a warning. I believe the stickperson's feet are transmitting radio waves.

(More pictures below the fold!)

Here's a few more fun pictures of us traipsing around Century Park:

Darren getting friendly with a topiary moose.

My hotel (Sofitel) as seen from Century Park. Its the one with the UFO on top.

Across from Century Park is the brand new and uber-impressive Shanghai Science and Technology Museum which blew away just about every science museum I'd ever been to in the States (although I have yet to go to the Creation Museum, so perhaps I should reserve jusgement. Heh.) The museum itself is a huge avalance of curved glass with a geodesic sphere in the center (which has a sphere in the center of THAT sphere). It had an IMAX theater and a slew of exhibits from neuroscience to the rainforest.

From the inside of the dome.

One weird and quite fascinating thing we got to witness was the birth of an exhibit in the museum. We walked through a room "in progress" which in the States would have been closed or cordoned off, but here we were able to see an enormous mural in the process of being painted by 5 painters at once. There were also loads of taxidermied animals in various states of assembly, and some still in boxes, that were set out to be arranged in the exhibit.

More funny signs were seen in the museum:

Recognize this guy?

After spending a bit more time playing in the hands-on portion of the museum (sweet!) we headed back to the Sofitel to put on non-sweat-soaked clothes (yeah, humid and in the 90s) for dinner. And not just ANY dinner. No no. I made reservations at Canton which is on top of the Jinmao Tower (right), currently the 5th tallest building in the world and the tallest building in China. There's four restaurants up there, along with a swanky bar on an even higher floor (87th), called Cloud Nine. The lower floors have a Hyatt hotel and a lot of offices.

Canton, as you might guess, is a cantonese-style chinese resturant. This style of cooking comes from the southern region around Guangzhou and isn't spicy like Szcheuan cooking, but rather relies on lots of savory dishes, seafood, and unique flavor pairings. For example, we had Ginger Tamarind Duck with Mango Sauce, which really was just heavenly.

After dinner we headed up to Cloud Nine and enjoyed a couple cocktails (there was a minimum spending limit just to get on the elevator to the bar) and the gorgeous view from high above Shanghai.

Then, the taxi ride home to Pudong on the other side of the river to rest up for another full day. Stay tuned for more.