Higher and higher
(Mum, Jane and I at the Shanghai World Financial Centre: Shanghai, China)
Ta da! Our first family shot from China! We took advantage of a clear morning to head up the World Financial Centre for a fantastic view. Once we’d made it up to the observation deck on floor number one hundred, there was a Guinness World Records certificate pinned on the wall proclaiming that we were now standing on the world’s highest observation deck. Our first day was rather extreme as we went up the tower the morning after taking the Maglev train from Pudong airport, it reached a mind blowing 431 kph (268 mph) and the journey into Shanghai took a mere fifteen minutes.
My mum has that strange expression on her face because she’s suffering from vertigo; she has shuffled along a metal area in the floor to avoid the transparent glass areas that show the distant ground below. Previous to this image being taken, she was carefully sidestepping and looking up to evade the glass floor – she was trying very hard to have fun at this point, but she was mightily relieved to reach the safety of the lift. You can see the Pearl TV tower looking rather puny between us through the window – we are looking out towards the West, over the edge of Pudong, the HuangPu River and the Bund. More news soon…
Glad to hear the travellers have arrived safely and in the nick of time as all UK flights are grounded at the moment. Fortunately, only due to a cloud of volcanic dust from Iceland presently drifting across the UK. Looking forward to more of your adventures.
You’re a wimp Archer.
[...] Just for a fun fact, on this date last year, I was going to pick up my mum and aunt from Shanghai’s Pudong airport. Somehow I recalled today’s date as important and must have subconsciously recorded it from last year. It was to be one of the most stressful but rewarding ‘holidays’ yet. How things change in a year. [...]