Jin Mao Tower

If you've got a few hours to kill in Shanghai, for a couple of bucks you can ride the express elevator to the 88th floor of the Jin Mao tower (on the right), which was the tallest building in Asia once upon a time. On our way there we tried to get into the other building on the left, which is the Shanghai World Financial center...and discovered that we were the only ones not in tuxedos in the lobby. We made it all the way to the elevator before security decide three Americans in dripping raincoats didn't quite fit the profile of the black tie invite list for the Grand Opening for the second tallest building in the world....and escorted us out. You can't tell by this shot but its way taller than the one on the right.
So we settled for tall, but not epic tall, and went to the top of the Jin Mao. And the view would have been amazing if I had gone one day earlier when the traditional Shanghai smog had lifted. But here's what it looked like from the top with the pollution intact. Check out the steady stream of barges on the river.


And here's a shot looking down the central shaft of the building

A couple of classic signs on this trip too. Check out this one below from a busy six-lane surface street. Only in China can you turn left across three lanes of traffic.

There's a lot of gloom and doom articles that have been written in recent years about the zillions of engineers and scientists graduating from Chinese universities, and the coming competition for the American economy. Now, apparently, they've found a way to accelerate business degrees as well...although for some reason they chose to feature a western looking kid for their kindergarden master's degree