Published by Swiss James on 13 Jun 2007 at 11:12 pm
Bridge over the river, 85 68 Kuai
Update 17 July: Apparently it was only 68RMB for the ticket to climb the bridge. I made Craig pay 85 though. Another victory for Yorkshire!
Like most cities, there’s a river running through Shanghai- it separates the East from the West, or less prosaically (check me out!) the old town from the new, the urbanite hipster from the nuclear families, the hot clubs from the good schools. Spanning this river are a few bridges including the longest arch bridge in the world, Lupu Bridge which I climbed up on Sunday.
On either side of the gleaming arch are steps leading up to a viewing platform at the top, 100 metres above the river. Anyone can visit once they fork over the 85RMB (about 7 quid) and go through the metal detector- which went off for every single one of us as they waved us through- you even get a tour guide to make sure you don’t throw any hammers over the edge.
Craig, Emma and Liam- check out those blue skies!
The climb isn’t exactly arduous and there are big railings on either side so you don’t even get vertigo – so the views from the top are definitely worth the trouble, especially on a crystal clear day like we had. The address for the visitors center is 909 Luban Lu, past the camera mall to the bus station on the Puxi side of the water (that little nugget of information would have saved us about an hour of messing around with taxi drivers who just didn’t believe it was possible to climb the thing).
We spent maybe an hour there in total, most of which time was spent gazing across both sides of the city- the beige expanse of Pudong the towers of Puxi that I’m starting to recognise now- Marriot Tomorrow’s Square ball-trapped-in-a-christmas-cracker, the Bank Of China’s golden daisy roof, the twin lipsticks of the XJH Grand Gateway and the two tallest skyscrapers- the Jin Mao and the new financial centre which seems to be just creeping past en route to being the pinnacle of the city.
A grand day out, up there in pure tourist terms with the gardens at Yu Yuan and taking the ferry from the Bund to Pudong and back again, although you can’t spit off the side into the water on the bridge.
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I’d love to get up there although the price might put me off.
Mandy, James will pay for you if you play doctors and nurses with him for 10 minutes.
That reminds me Creegan, I still owe you for the bridge, remind me next time we’re out!
Sorry, I think this one wins prize for most creative blog entry title, you’re quite a talented young man Mr C. I’m currently looking for someone to ghost write my Shanghai memoirs – are you interested?
It is a bit pricey isn’t it Mandy? I thought we’d be looking at more like 30RMB with a free meal at the top. Mind you, there was one woman employed at the box office, one guy to walk us to the elevator and to the steps, three guys sat watching the metal detector, then one fella at the top of the bridge. So you’ve got to pay for all of that labour I suppose.
Dingle- I’ve already filed a lawsuit to sue for the money
WoAi- glad you liked it! For your memoirs I’m toying with the title “Monkey Lee, What He Do?”
I don’t know about Monkey Lee (although my cat is called Tommy Lee). I prefer your reference to the seaside town in County Durham.
By the way Mr C, here’s an idea, how about one of these days we actually have a conversation / discussion that doesn’t involve typing or being online, say, in a pub or something, or is that just to old fashioned for you!
WoAi- but then it’s like the famous phrase “Monkey see, monkey do”- I dunno, I’m wasting my best material here! I’m up for a pub, you seem to move so quickly at the weekend though, “We’re in Windows” 10 mins later “We’re in Bonbon” 10 mins later “We’re in Beijing”. Anyway yes, pub.
It’s not me being quick it’s you not keeping up. I guess it’s hard to move quickly when you have an entourage that includes Dingle and I guess you also have a girl which always slows things down even more. Cut them loose and join the high flyers.
Wow, this is just like the plot from Grease but in reverse.
I take offense at these allegations of slowness, I challenge you to a game of something which involves speed, what’s it to be? ping pong? badminton? soggy biscuit?
Dingle, there was a plot to Grease? How could I have missed it? Maybe I was too busy singing along to Summer Nights to notice the storyline. You’ll have to explain it to me one day.
I wasn’t implying that either you, or females were slow, merely pointed out that it’s harder to move quickly when you have such a large group of highly educated and interesting, yet extremely cool friends such as yourselves (skillfully digs himself out of that hole).
So please, no more ping pong challenges although I may be up for some Wii Tennis!
Wii tennis sounds like a goer- name the date!
How you fixed this weekend? Home or away? Shall I bring my own “racket”? I have to warn you, I’ve been playing tennis since I was a nipper and I know my way around a tennis court!
[...] over the river, 68 Kuai This is the same joke as I made the last time I went If you liked that, you might [...]