Today we got up early, left Hangzhou at 6:30 to drive back to Shanghai for our meeting.  We anticipated traffic and were not disappointed, but overall it was not awful.  Here's today's story.

First, here's the inside of the lobby of the east wing of the Shangri-La hotel in Hangzhou, where we stayed.  It's a beautiful place, nicely decorated and quite classic.  The hotel is about 100 years old and was recently upgraded.


Another red-looking dawn sun over West Lake.


Here I am in front of the main lobby to the hotel.


The sun rising over one of the bridges on the lake.


Bicycles are a popular form of transportation, cargo-hauling and advertising.


Along the 200km highway route it is well marked, here's how the signs look.






As we approached the city we saw this enormous ferris wheel - yes, it's larger than those buildings - it's behind them.


Huge!


Shanghai is huge as well, enormously built up with skyscrapers.  We were told that the old city, on the west bank of the Yangtze River has been built up a lot, but the east bank was nothing but farmland until 10 years ago.  It's now a vibrant, hugely populated city in its own right.


I'm presuming this is a sign indicating traffic delays ahead.


Foreign businesses abound in Shanghai.


There's a huge stadium in the city which holds 80,000 people.  Here's a couple views of that.  We were told it's used primarily for soccer.




"Charm Shanghai is splendid daily."  A circus?  We think so.


Along the river there's a huge shipyard with enormous cranes.


One of the many bridges over the river.


We checked in early and it's a fantastic hotel - I have a private butler to take care of my needs.  Some views from various areas around the hotel.








Along the drive in the Pudong New Development area, there's this enormous sundial.


Some other large distinctive buildings.




The room is magnificent.






We went for dinner with some folks from the office, this is a few of them outside the restaurant which featured traditional Shanghai food.  We ate some interesting items including jellyfish, sweet tofu in various forms that tasted like chicken or beef, more whole fish, stewed cucumber, and fatty barbecue pork (reputedly Mao's favorite dish!).  After that it was home for a quick website update and some sleep.


Tomorrow we're taking the day to see some of the city sights, and probably to work on some reports.  Bye for now!