Shanghai From Our Balcony

We have a pretty good 120-degree view of Shanghai from the balcony of our apartment.  Thought I'd show you our view, point out a few landmarks, and show what's around our building.

Stepping outside onto our balcony which is on the 28th floor, but
really the 25th floor.  There is not a floor 4, 14, or 24.  4's are bad here.

Our balcony.  Note the green tiles.  Has
an uglier green ever been produced?

The exterior of one of our buildings.  There are
four of them in the complex making us fairly well
represented in the top 5 ugliest buildings in
Shanghai.  The other side of the building displays
more of the hideous green in all it's glory.

The next three pictures show our 120-degree view.  Interestingly, the
Iranian consulate and US consulate are virtually neighbors with one to
the left and one to the right of those two buildings which appear to have
green rings at the top in the center right of the picture.

Our building is on the north side of the Former French Concession and
this picture looks to the south.  The Former French Concession is largely
void of massive skyscrapers and contains foliage.  There's a very different
feel to the streets of the Former French Concession than the rest of Shanghai.

Way off to the east of us, on a low "mist" day, we can see the three
large towers of the Pudong side of the river.  The tallest complete building
which is affectionately referred to as "The Bottle Opener" is the Shanghai
World Financial Center (1,614ft).  The Jin Mao Tower (1,380ft) is shorter
and just to the left.  And the Shanghai Tower (2,073ft) is under construction
just to the right of it.  At it's completion, it will be the 2nd tallest building
in the world and the tallest in China.  However, I read somewhere that it
will relatively quickly fall to somewhere around 16th in the world with
completion of buildings already under construction. 

This large concrete structure which includes both white pyramid peaks and
everything in between is the Shanghai Library.  It is the 2nd largest in China.
I think it's safe to assume it's one of the largest in the world.  Thing is huge!

So I thought that road where the headlights are in the crevice of
buildings was the Lupu Bridge.  After consulting a map, it's just
the end of an elevated road.  But on the plus side, that oddly shaped
glass and concrete building is one of my favorite in Shanghai.

I call these the lipstick buildings.  I don't know what they are,
but they are a good point of reference when navigating the city.

To what's around our building.  There's a
school immediately to the northeast of us.  The
schoolyard with the courts and track is pretty
common.  Also common, the track being
chopped off by nearby development.

That non-descript apartment complex houses the Propaganda Museum.
It's the most interesting museum we've visited to-date.  Stay tuned
for a future post on it ... unless the government catches wind of it.

This is basically our backyard.  We assume it's housing for government
officials, either Chinese or from the area consulates.  There are people
on their knees with buckets doing something to that lawn all of the
time.  Not at the instant I snapped this picture, but nearly all of the time.

I also know nothing about this house, but that looks
like a pool that has sharks swimming in it to me.
It is possible I have seen too many Bond movies.

This is the three court tennis facility that neighbors us.  I
think what Yao Ming did for basketball in this country, Li Na
is doing for tennis.  There are 30-40 kids taking tennis lessons
here every day after school and some of these twerps can rip'em.

Here's your WTH (heck ... gotta keep it PG) moment
of the 10 minutes I was out there taking pictures.
That's an ambulance behind the white car with
siren and flashers blaring.  Nobody moves for
ambulances here, including that white car.