# Svartmetall Tours CHINA (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai) - 2014 12 25 - 2015 01 11



## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

*Welcome to China!*

My wife and I took a trip to China for Christmas and the New Year to see our relatives (my wife is a native Beijinger). China is an enigma for many. An ancient civilisation with amazing history of innovation, invention and cultural offerings to the world. It is now developing faster than any other nation that has been seen in the history of the world and lifting millions of people out of poverty. Whilst we might not always agree with the methods, the results are impressive. 

During our time in China we visited Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. This photo thread, in much a similar vein to my others, will cover what I see - warts and all. If I find something interesting, I take a photo of it. Whilst my photos are not professional, I hope you all enjoy the "virtual tour" that I hope I can give you all. 


*Day One - Arriving in Beijing 2014 12 25*


Welcome to Beijing! We were picked up from Terminal 2 by my father-in-law after a Hainan Airways flight from Berlin Tegel. We arrived on Christmas day, so Merry Christmas!

Travelling by car from the airport. 







































A wall of buildings! I love travelling on roads through tall buildings like this. 












The second ring road is impressively crowded. 










SOHO Galaxy.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

First view of a Hutong at Nanpaifang. 






Toilet block used by Hutong residents. 





Small park at Jianguomen. 








Entrance to the metro station (Jianguomen) on line 1 and 2, the two oldest lines on the Beijing subway. 





Walking down Jianguomen inner street. 





A disjointed rainbow. 






Trees painted white to stop borers. 






Our rainbow fragment. This is lit up nicely at night. 






Looking down the road (direction of Tiananmen). 










Underpasses are required to cross what is a monumentally large road. 






The whole vista seems very spacious and spread out. 









Entering Dongdan station (lines 1 and 5). 















Arriving at our station where we stayed - Liujiayao. 






More to come of our second day in Beijing.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

*Day Two - Getting to Grips with Beijing*

After my first day I was raring to go. I had to take some photos of the area. We were staying near shazikou (沙子口路）in the south of the city. We were borrowing the apartment from my wife's uncle who uses it only when he stays up in Beijing (he's based in Chongqing). 




Our apartment building had lots of adverts in the stairwell. Mostly for plumbers and handymen. 









Even on the side of the stairs!






Outside our apartment. 







Our entrance. 








Walking off down the road. 










Little courtyard/public square. 









Say hello to the kitty! 








On shazikou itself. 









Nearby shops. 











Had to try to find somewhere to walk. 









Finally, we reached the third ring road and started our walk towards the subway. 












This intersection was hell to cross!






Almost at the station. 








The road was massive, and had few crossing points unfortunately. 








The shops near the metro station. 







We made it to Liujiayao station (刘家窑站）。








Dancers outside the station.










Next up, the trip into the centre.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

So, here we are - at the subway station Liujiayao in the south of Beijing. 











We had to change lines at Dongsi station to line 6. Here are the line 5 platforms. 






And our walk to line 6.









Line 6 has some nice decorations. 








Waiting for our train. 






We then had to change from line 6 to line 8 at Nanluoguxiang station. 









At line 8. 








The subway system is MASSIVE now. Just think, most of this was built since the early 2000's. 






On the train.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

We arrived at Olympic park. 

Here was a left over sign from earlier. 






A view to the fourth ring road. 











The IBM HQ is really impressive. 






First view of the birds nest, one of my favourite stadiums. 








Panorama of the Olympic Park. 









Sculptures litter the park. 












Lots of seating!






First view of the aqua cube!










Olympic Stadium. 






Will continue later.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Onwards around the park! 

Boat standing next in the shadow of the IBM building. 






Peer through the smog and you'll spot one of the most impressive buildings I've seen in a long, long time. 






There are mini birds nests (lights) dotted around the stadium. 






Poor sign has seen better days. 






Looking across to the torch tower. 







Parkland! 






I love the torch building. 








This is a really nice tribute - all athletes have been immortalised on a wall! 






Map of the Olympic Park. 






More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

To continue with the tour of Beijing. 

We cross one of the first roads dividing up Olympic Park. 







And come across this awesome piece of artwork. 






As well as walking up to Xin'ao shopping centre. 






Looking across to the national convention centre. 






The imposing observation tower looms in the distance. 








Horsemen at the shopping centre. 






And some traditional architecture. 






Side by side with unusual sculptures and art pieces. 












That observation tower really is something. It's actually hard to fit in frame. 






Engrish or should I say "Fringrish"? :lol:







Lots more to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

More sculptures in the park. 










More wise information. 






A field of rubbish bins! :lol:






Entrance to Forest Park at the north of the Olympic Park. 






Forest gate park is an amazing space, even in winter! 

Looking back at the Olympic park. 








Our first view of the lake. 






Walkways and running tracks through the park. 






Red twigs - these are quite unique. 






The park is very well presented. 






More to come in the future.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Continuing with forest park. 

First a frozen lake. 






And interesting English...






Looking across the lake is stunning. It's almost like the smog enhances the view one gets. 
















The platform I took the pictures from. 






More frozen waterways. 






Complete with trapped fish!







More views of the general park. 












We head towards the city centre following this little walk. More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Continuing towards the city now. 

We start at my favourite station I saw in Beijing - South gate of Forest Park on line 8 of the subway. 













We exited the station at Nanluoguxiang station. 









And were greeted by this sight. 






And this road. 






But we didn't want to go down the road, we wanted to walk through the shopping street. 







The side streets led to the Hutong. 









But the main street was all about the shopping. 








More side streets. 








And an awesome doorway to a courtyard. 






More to come later.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Continuing down the shopping street. 









Beijing is just RIFE with good food! 






Well, this looks intriguing. 







And the interior was even moreso! 











My wife's shop (well, it's named after her taken English name). 








I loved these hats. I wanted to buy my wife one, but she refused as she said that no one wears things like this in Sweden (unfortunately). 






More to come!


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Continuing past some interesting shops. 







One of the eight mythical creatures from Baidu. The CNM. 







CNM right next to plaques detailing the areas history. 








I miss areas that sell quirky nonsense like this in Stockholm. 







Totoro (Japanese) next to Peter Rabbit (Britain). 







Coming to the end of this street. 








Next set coming soon.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

We finally reach Gulou East St (鼓楼东街). 









There was a MASSIVE queue for this tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Must have been good! I didn't feel like queuing for half the day, though! :lol:






There were some really cool shops in this area. 








Street view. 











Old rubbed shoulders with the new. 







Even the back alleys had some interesting shops. 







The drum tower. 








And bell tower. 







More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Backstreets near the towers. 









This is an interesting duck. 






Entrance to the Hutong. 






Jiugulou Street (旧鼓楼大街). 






Shops along the street. 






Hutong nearby. 








Some graffiti - was surprised to see this!






Continuing down the street. 







Gate welcoming you to the area. 







Time to move on to our next area. 







But that comes in the next set.


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

nice hutong shots. is beijing cold?


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

It was pretty cold then - actually colder than Stockholm in Sweden! However, it was very dry, very sunny (every day) and as such the weather seemed to me to be nicer than it was back home.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Entering the station at Guloudajie. 














Line two. 











We've arrived!


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Walking through the station at Chaoyangmen. 






The station connects up to the building that I really wanted to visit - SOHO Galaxy!















Sunset.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

The interior of the mall is, unfortunately, quite empty. Occupancy rate seems to be quite low...







Looking down the street outside SOHO Galaxy. 







It's a very impressive building from the outside. 









Other buildings lining the second ring road. 









Looking down the second ring road. 











The second ring road is incredibly busy as you can see here...









Again, back to other buildings lining the second ring road. 









More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Next page.


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

Cool, can't wait. I like non-touristy bits. kay:


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## Nightsky (Sep 16, 2002)

Great pics! I also like to show and visit non-touristy places, even as a tourist!


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates as usually :cheers:


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Thank you for all your kind comments, everyone! Glad you're enjoying my amateurish photos.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

We descend into the Tianjin metro to take it back towards the city centre. 

Here is the Tianjin metro at Erwei Lu station. 











We then had to interchange at Yingkou Dao Station from line 1 to line 2.


















The station we arrived at was rather nice (Jinwan'Guangchang). 






We then entered the "older" part of the city that faced the railway station. The architecture in this area was quite pleasing. 









But despite the old feel, skyscrapers still poked through (sorry, this isn't straight). 









The flowers were fake unfortunately. I noticed this was quite common in the north of China to have plastic flowers everywhere so that there would still be flowers in winter. I didn't like this. 








More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Faux old architecture. 











The modern mixes with the faux European buildings quite nicely. 







This almost reminded me of an Oxfordian bridge! 







And now we can actually see Tianjin station now that the smog has lifted somewhat. Still a nice brown haze, though. 







Looking down the waterfront. 













The traditional mixes with the new underneath the bridge here. We see a guy in a tiny boat fishing!







This mixing of old and new shows in the architecture too. 









More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Continuing along the Tianjin riverfront. 









Freaky traffic lights again. Not sure how good these are for the colourblind. 







Walkway. 







A little monument greeted us on our tour. 








But we quickly left it behind. 









The city is clearly big, but it felt completely deserted everywhere except in cars...









There were also some "planning fails" along the way. This bridge went over the top of the waterfront, but you could not get under it. Even my wife, who is only 158cm in height could not get under this without ducking right down (I actually have a photo of her under there, but I won't show you guys that). :lol:






We go up onto that bridge, and as you can see it's mostly for cars. 








Gigantic road junctions really were the order of the day in this part of Tianjin... Perhaps this is why there was no one walking.








The side streets did look nice though. 









This is their idea of "pedestrian amenity" though. It was awful to walk around. This was a 6 lane road. This is where we were expected to walk. 







More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Almost done with Tianjin, thank goodness! Need to move onto somewhere else! :lol:

We continue down the oddly deserted street. 









And encounter another odd traffic light. 







And some more large intersections. 







With some very appealing low rise architecture. 







Finally we take a side street towards the main shopping area. 







But before we get there, we still have to negotiate more killer road junctions. 







And we've arrived! The pedestrianised street of Tianjin!










A brief panorama absorbing the architecture. 










As you see, there are people here, finally I found where people in Tianjin go!























Another panorama. 
















I saw these Japanese-styled girls and my wife wanted a picture from the front. 






So I had to walk quickly to the front of them. :lol:













More to come.


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

Great pictures! It it so strange to see so much deserted places with skyscrapers and then suddenly you walk yourself into a bubble of activity. It feels surreal.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

^^ It is rather bizarre isn't it? Tianjin I felt was the most "artificial" city out of the three big cities I visited (Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin). It was nice enough, but it felt very contrived compared to Beijing or Shanghai, which appeared to have far more of an organic feel in some way. I can't really put my finger on it.


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## luhai (Jun 27, 2010)

joshsam said:


> Great pictures! It it so strange to see so much deserted places with skyscrapers and then suddenly you walk yourself into a bubble of activity. It feels surreal.


Cause the new district aren't really designed to walk about and in general be active. I see this in my hometown too. In the the older area, people just hang out more often. In the new districts, people just work and go home, at most stop at the closest convenience store; and when they do want to go out, they go to the older parts of the city.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

luhai said:


> Cause the new district aren't really designed to walk about and in general be active. I see this in my hometown too. In the the older area, people just hang out more often. In the new districts, people just work and go home, at most stop at the closest convenience store; and when they do want to go out, they go to the older parts of the city.


This wasn't necessarily in the new part, though. This was a couple of streets from the old city centre of Tianjin. We never left to the newer parts of the city and generally hung around the old centre.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Continuing down the street with yet more shopping! 















Quite a few skyscrapers under construction in the centre of Tianjin.









The Nanjing road of Tianjin I believe. 






Panorama of Nanjing road from the overbridge. 















Walking down towards one of the big sights of the centre - the Cathedral!









More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

So we continue inside the Cathedral! 
















Back outside now. 







Buildings in the dark. 









Time to head back to Tianjin railway station. We take the subway. 












Next up - Tianjin railway station.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

A little tour of Tianjin station now. 


First, coming up from the metro.























Departures level. 










Time to head back to Beijing!







Next day in Beijing coming up.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Next up.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

We return to Beijing.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

I was sick on this day so I didn't go around too much.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

So this is a much shorter tour.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Next page.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Continuing with skyscrapers galore. 








Plus a little video clip of the skyscrapers. 









More skyscrapers. 









Entrance to the metro. 







Elevated third ring road. 













Very pedestrian unfriendly crossings. You actually have to stand in the road to cross it easily. I did not enjoy crossing these intersections!!!







More to come.


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## BrudnaMery (Aug 25, 2015)

Really envy you that you live in China and have the opportunity to witness how the country from moment to moment grows, it becomes more beautiful and richer :cheers:

So thanks Svartmetall,and waiting for your next upload from Shanghai


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

Klausenburg said:


> I don't want to discuss politics, but how aware are the people there about what happens outside PRC ? And how do they see the issues regarding "freedom" ? BTW, how "free" is Beijing ? (Please give a 1st hand answer if possible, I do know what media says, but I want to see how do ordinary people see things)...


we know all of these as clearly as you.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Once again great, very nice updates :cheers:


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Thank you very much, everyone. I hope you continue to enjoy them. Just one correction, though. I don't live in China, but my relatives do. 

Anyway, Shanghai is coming soon. This was my last day in Beijing before going to Shanghai for a bit.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Walking away from the third ring road towards Jintai Lu.







Awful, awful pedestrian environment (AGAIN). Massive road, barely anywhere to walk...









Super luxury. 







Rear of the CCTV building. 







The rest of the road isn't so flashy. 







But these apartments are very, very impressive. 









More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Now we get to see some less flashy areas in this section of Beijing. First off - a relic of the Olympics (the tower on the right) and a flashy cool tower on the left! 







And an advert about how they'll bulldoze the area to improve it. 







The area at present. 









And modern buildings encroaching. 











More of the area as it is now. 









See, pavements are ideal places to park. 







More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Just in case we got lost. 











Back to the wide roads. 










Medical clinic. 







And back to the ring road. 









Guess where we're off to next. 







More to come.


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## materialista (Aug 29, 2015)

I have a question to you Svart , As the Chinese used to call those little single vehicles seen on the penultimate photo?
it's probably a popular source of transportation in China?


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

They were often used in Beijing, but I don't remember seeing as many in Shanghai.


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## VECTROTALENZIS (Jul 10, 2010)

Svartmetall said:


> You should have a visit to the massage place.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

^^ Perhaps, though I think the wife would have objected.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

At this point I went a bit subway crazy. Beijing had just opened up a load of new lines so I set about exploring them! 

So here I am at Hujialou station.












Line 6. 









Line 6 at Jintailu. 







Changing to Line 14 - the new line!





More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Interior of a line 15 train. 






I took line 14 all the way up to Wangjing whereby I changed to line 15. 












Line 15 at Wangjing. 









Line 15 train. 







I then had to interchange from line 15 to line 8 at Olympic Green station. 










Line 15 platforms at Olympic Green. 







And Line 8 platforms at Olympic Green. 






I took Line 8 from Olympic Green to Guloudajie station. 









The transfer between Line 8 and line 2 at Guloudajie station.










I then arrived at Qianmen station. 







And it was time to take a quick walk through Tiananmen square to get to line 1. 













More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Time to continue touring through Tiananmen Square. 







Zhengyang Gate.
















Looking all the way back to Zhengyangmen Turret. 







View to the Great Hall of the People. 







And down the Square. 







The Great Hall of the People. 







Monument to the workers. 







The Mausoleum of Mao. Mmmm, zombie dictator. 












Monument to the People's Hero. 









National Museum of China.


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## Nightsky (Sep 16, 2002)

Beijing looks more like "real China" then Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Yet it is also very modern! Seems you were very lucky with blue skies.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

I was lucky on this day, but other days were awful!


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## toshijmx (May 31, 2011)

This is truly fascinating.


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## paul62 (Jan 27, 2012)

Looks like a very interesting part of the world.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Thank you both! Yes, it is quite an interesting part of the world. Good and bad, it's exciting no matter what.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Monument again. 







And the square. 







Looking towards the Forbidden City. 














Map of Tiananmen. 






There is an underpass at Tiananmen that leads out of the square, and also to the station for metro line 1. 











Speaking of Metro line 1 - here we are at Tiananmen East Station. 










More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Time to explore Wangfujing again! 







Exiting the metro through the mall. 







On the shopping street. 









Gigantic book store. 



















Wangfujing panorama. Quite busy as you see!


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Continuing down the street. 










Shiny indeed!















Interesting looking side streets. Not so nice for crossing the road! 










We're at the Cathedral at Wangfujing. 












More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

As you walk up the street things don't quite look as polished. 











There are still a few Hutong in the centre thankfully. 











Hotels time. 











Here we are, a major intersection now - Dongsi xi da jie. 







It really is a massive, massive intersection. 







The next set is the last from Beijing (for now). We are then off to the location everyone has been asking me for photos of. Shanghai!!!


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Continuing down Dongsi xi da jie towards Dongsi station. 







Erm... Interesting architecture. 









Bridge over the rather enormous road. 







Road, not many provisions for people to cross...









To the north of the road there are shopping areas. 



















Back onto the main road. 









Here we are - at the station! 







Time to head back to our apartment from Dongsi station. 











And our station. This is the end of our Beijing photos for a while - here we go with SHANGHAI!!!!


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

So, throughout this thread, a number of you have been waiting for pictures of Shanghai. Well, I can tell you that this time is now.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

*Shanghai Day 1 - 2015 01 03*

We departed Beijing South Station towards Shanghai on the G1 (fastest) service between Beijing and Shanghai. 









Farmland around Beijing. 











The air was really bad on this day...









But once we hit Shandong things cleared up considerably. 







And the scenery got very nice indeed. 










There was evidence of China's rise everywhere I looked. 


















Yeah, Sweden can only dream of speeds like this...












Entering into Nanjing. 











More scenery. Notice how clear the air is here compared to up near Beijing.







More endless construction. 









Shanghai seemed to go on, and on, and on, and on...















But finally, we arrived into Hongqiao HSR Station. 











More to come.


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## andyvia (Oct 21, 2011)

Nice photos. Looking forward to the Shanghai part.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Thank you! I hope you'll be pleased with my photos - they're fairly amateur, but Shanghai was incredibly photogenic, which helped.


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## andyvia (Oct 21, 2011)

^^I think your photos are terrific. I like your angles too.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Here we are then, the bit many of you have been waiting for - the entrance into Hongqiao station and the start of our Shanghai trip. 









Checking our tickets as we leave the train. 








Time to try and catch the notoriously crowded Line 2 of the Shanghai metro. 







Well, it's definitely crowded! 







Arriving at one of the busiest stations on the entire Shanghai metro network. 







This network has grown out of nothing and has exploded fairly recently. Until 1993, Shanghai didn't even HAVE a metro system. Now look at it. 







Time to find our way out of the station, though. 









We found the correct exit and headed towards our hotel, with me snapping on the way of course. 









Welcome to our hotel - it had this artwork to greet us. 







More to come very soon.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Looking out of our hotel room. 








Interesting air conditioning!







We headed to Lujiazui. Line 2 at Nanjing East road. 










At a mall at Lujiazui. 













Outside the mall. 









The mall. 







More to come.


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## andyvia (Oct 21, 2011)

^^I can recognise everywhere in your photos so far. I used to transit frequently between Shanghai and Hangzhou via HSR and thus been to Hongqiao many times. I really think the Hongqiao railway station is too far away and is fairly inconvenient. I prefer the Shanghai railway station although it is old. 

I just noticed that buddha last week. That shopping mall nearby is an investment of a Thai Chinese, so they imported that thing from Thailand. But it made me feel a bit uncomfortable for some reason.


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

Very urban. Great stuff!


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## Nightsky (Sep 16, 2002)

Interesting, look forward to more from Shanghai, the world's largest city (counting city proper)!


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Once again wonderful, very nice updates :cheers:


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

At Lujiazui at night. Very hard to get good photos without a tripod... 















Time to hop onto the metro again and head across the river. 







Out we get and stop at a mall briefly at the end of Nanjing Road (East). 








Inside the mall. 









Next up - the bund at night.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Finally getting round to doing some more photos. Following our brief detour to Nanjing road, we headed back to the Bund at night to snap some night shots. 





















Flower wall! (Yes, they're real). 






More to come.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Next page.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Next.


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