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上海 Day 2

China day in the life Friends NSLI-Y sightseeing 上海， For our second day in 上海, we went to the famous Pearl Tower. Although it wasn't in our original program schedule, our director bought us all tickets to go up in the Pearl Tower to see the beautiful city of 上海 from the sky. The Pearl Tower is the 3rd tallest building in 上海, after the Shanghai Tower and World Finance Center. It stands at 468 meters high and was built in 1994. 

Surprisingly, the line to get into the tower was very short. What took a long time was connecting to the free WiFi, hahaha. After waiting for 30 minutes in line, we finally reached the elevator that took you to the viewing deck. The elevator doors opened to a spectacle view over the massive city of 上海. There were just rows upon rows of apartments, stores, hotels, and skyscrapers. It made you feel so insignificant, just a number upon the 23.03 million or more people in 上海. It kind of answers the questions of why Americans are so focused to determined to gain more and more freedoms. One of the biggest cities in America, New York, only has a population of 8.4 million which is less than half the size of 上海. Therefore, people in America feel more independent than the ones in China. In China, you are always crowded by people, but in America there are many more rural areas and smaller cities, allowing the citizens to feel as if they can make a difference. But standing in the Pearl Tower, overlooking China, made me realize that I am just one of the 7.404.976.783 people in the world. 

We walked down one level of stairs to another overlook spot, but this one was different. Unlike the last, this one was completely covered in glass, even the floor. Sydney, being afraid of heights, was unexpectedly very comfortable while we were up there. After walking around for 30-45 minutes, we all filed into the elevator again and went to the bottom level. On the first floor was a museum about the urbanization of the city. It started out with wax figures representing life before 上海 development. By the end of the museum, there were current pictures of the massive city. 

After we left the Pearl City and ate lunch, we went to the fanciest part of 上海, the French Concession/ Bund. The Bund in the waterfront that has the perfect panoramic view of Pudong, where all the skyscrapers are. The French Concession, which was once owned by the French way back when, has many 5 star hotels and fancy cafes. During the hour and a half we were given, I took pictures with everyone, went to a coffee shop, and inside one of the fancy hotels.