Taking a circular look at Shanghai from hundreds of this TV tower is sobering. Looking at New York from is something as well, but the shape of Manhattan contains the view. Shanghai is New York for the full High rise apartment buildings and offices are

feet up in a skyscraper island 360º view. everywhere.

Our guide told us that fifteen years ago, there were only 20 highrises over 20 stories in Shanghai; today there are over 3,300 and the number increases practically by the hour.

Our next stop was the Jade Buddha Temple. There is a temptation to feel "same old, same old" when you travel in countries and see church after church, or pagoda after pagoda. But each has its own beauty and all are collections of the wealth and culture of the society, at least at the time of construction. Buddhism is a hard religion for me to comprehend but it clearly has the hearts of a large number of Chinese people. This Temple is still used by monks, and is centered around two jade Buddhas brought from Burma a hundred years ago. The statues were protected from the destructive Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution by the monks pasting pictures of Mao on the walls surrounding the statues. Defacing a picture of Mao was punishable by death, which the Red Guards would have to do to get to the jade buddhas, so they survived.

We had the afternoon to ourselves and so CC went shopping. And we walked and walked and walked. This is a good way to see any city regardless of where you are. In the evening we had the guide come back and take us to the Bund and to Nanjing street, both of which were ablaze in lights. We shot night pictures of the river skyline and of Shanghai's Broadway.

Tomorrow we're spending the day flying to Viet Nam, so there may or may not be a report.