For the first 5 days while in Shanghai I was staying at my friend Nate’s place, whom I met while I was studying at BNU the first time I was in China. The first night in Shanghai Nate took me out for a beer so we could catch up on what both of us had been doing since I left China. Nate actually never left China (other then to visit home during the holidays) so he’s been here for almost 8 years and is currently working at a market research company.
The following day I met up with my friend YanYan whom I met the first time I was in Shanghai back in 2007. It’s kinda funny how we met, I had just finished dinner and needed to find an Internet cafe to update my blog and check email. I noticed her walking on the street towards me and decided to ask her if she knew where one was. YanYan was not only nice enough tell me where an Internet cafe was, she also walked me there incase I didn’t understand her directions. Not even 10 minutes after sitting at my computer she came back and asked for my QQ number so we could keep in touch (QQ is a very popular chat app used in China developed by Tencent, one of China’s largest software companies).
We spent some time on the bund walking around looking at the old buildings on the Puxi side and the new buildings on the Pudong side. To my surprise we had also ended up at one of the Apple stores that I had always wanted to visit ever since I had seen it during one of the WWDC keynotes (Apple always starts their keynotes showing Apple stores around the world). Unlike most Apple stores where the entrance is at the same level as the store, this one must be entered by walking down a spiral staircase which is covered by a large cylinder with the Apple logo hanging from the top.
One of the Apple stores in Shanghai
Shanghai Tower
View from Puxi
My friend YanYan whom I met the first time I was in Shanghai
Pearl Tower
Snoopy display near Pearl Tower, not sure why this was here..
