I went to bed around 8:30 last night, and woke up fully refreshed at 4 in the morning. So, I figured I’d make a little walk down to the Bund to try to catch the sunrise over Pudong’s spectacular futuristic skyline. The only problem is, there was no way to access the boardwalk area that would have given me a view of the river and the skyline. There are billboards up everywhere proclaiming the improvements that are coming in time for the world expo that Shanghai is hosting in 2010. One such improvement is a comlete demolition and rebuilding of that waterfront area. Unfortunately, that means that there’s no access to it.

Dad and I spent the next four hours wandering around the old part of the city, including a park filled with seniors exercising, swinging their arms in vigorous calesthenics, and repeatedly slapping circulation into their skinny legs. There was a group of them grooving to pulsing dance music too. Fun.

We returned to the hostel by about 10am, feeling like we’d already had a full day.

One thing that’s new since I was here last is that many more sites seem to be blocked by the Great Firewall of China. Facebook and Twitter are both verboten. Oddly, I can still get on Twitpic.

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