Shanghai July 15 - or later

Went to the Museum of Contemporary Art - different from the Shanghai Art Museum - there was a pretty good show on Italian Art and Design since 1950. The experimental photos by Ugo Mulas were favourites of Mr. Grumpypants. I liked the rocking couch and the heaving felt lampshade! (oh yeah - it was moving).

Mr. Grumpypants and I headed off to the Jade Buddha Temple - a little out of the way, but the subways are fabulous and easy to get around. This temple is fantastic - not one but many Buddhas. The Jade guy is about 4 ft sitting, carved from one piece of white jade. The oddest thing about the temple is the shops that bookend every Buddha in the place. People are kneeling in prayer while 2 feet away someone is buying a Buddha ornament. The entrance is crowded with wounded people in wheelchairs and on crutches hoping for some money from the temple goers. We found a side door to exit and missed them on the way out. Mr. Grumpypants did fortuitously get a recording of the monks chanting and singing - it was beautiful.

We managed to eat some more of those crazy tofu wasabe morsels, along with barbecued duck and green beans (sliced and fried with shredded dried fish and garlic) - all the greens are really bright! love it.

I managed to get up the Pearl Tower (in the Pudong district) yesterday morning...right up to the "space module" at 350 metres. There is an elaborate elevator system to get you up and down - different elevators every time you want to get higher. It is quite the view - Shanghai never stops - even through the haze, all you can see are more buildings.

The real treat about going to the Pudong district is that you have to get across the river. You could take a ferry, but why would you if you could go under the river, in a cable car, with strobe lights, lasers, lava lamp projections and whacky announcements like "Paradise and Hell", "Fossil Variants", or "Massive Magma".