Sunday, May 30, 2010

Reaching Shanghai



Time winds back to 13 May 2010. The plane that I was taking arrived at Shanghai International Airport. Greeting visitors was a standing display-board of Haibao, the mascot of the World Expo 2010 Shanghai China. "Welcome to Shanghai", read the plaque on the mascot's hand.

One of the itineraries of the tour was a ride on the Shanghai Maglev train. As best as I have learnt, the Maglev trains utilise the principles of electro-magnetic levitation to allow the trains to float on a cushion of air, eliminating friction and contributing to the train's fast speeds of more than 400 km/h. It was fast indeed though I would probably not be able to appreciate the full significance of the technology until years to come.

 Maglev Train.

When the tour group reached the Longyang Road Station, we were given an introduction of the geographical characteristics of Shanghai. The city is strategically positioned at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Shanghai is bisected by the Huangpu River, which I learnt is a tributary of the Yangtze River.

On that day, I had some time to visit the pedestrain-only Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road is the main shopping street of Shanghai. There are many buildings with interesting architecture along Nanjing Road.


Nanjing Road


That day, after dinner, the tour bus led us to Wuxi. Admittedly, I was looking forward to take a night of rest at the hotel in Wuxi.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Road_%28Shanghai%29
http://www.smtdc.com/en/index.asphttp://science.howstuffworks.com/maglev-train1.htm

2 comments:

kyh said...

thanks for the post. i've been wanting to visit the expo.. but alas, money is a big factor for me. looks really nice there!

oceanskies79 said...

kyh: I am glad that you find these posts helpful in lending you a glimpse of the World Expo.