The Lupu bridge walk

Fortunately we have done a pretty good job of sightseeing in Shanghai because the weather now is getting hot and making sightseeing more difficult. With that in mind we decided to take on our next adventure in the early morning, this way hoping to miss most of the crowd and the hot weather as well. 

Ever since we left Sydney for the last I had wished we had taken the time to take the climb across the Sydner Harbour Bridge, well it might not be Sydney but Shanghai harbor is not a bad second choice.  So after hearing about the possibility of getting  a birds eye view of the Shanghai waterfront area, I could not pass up the opportunity to climb the Lupu Bridge. It is the largest “arch bridge” in the world.  Actually in building the bridge, they had to build huge pillars in the middle of the river as until the arch is completed, it cannot support its own weight.  Then of course once the bridge is finished, the pillars are removed and the bridge settled 300mm to its final resting location.  Although the bridge is not located right downtown, there is a good view of the sprawling city from the top of the bridge.

Our adventure actually started before we got to the bridge.  As I scouted out our route, I noticed that an underground stop was located right next to the bridge entrance, so off went.  Once we neared the bridge we had only one more change to make from line 8 to line 13.  As we exited line 8 we searched for signs to line 13 but could not find any so we proceeded to the ticket booth to ask for help.  Fortunately there was a very helpful young woman there that spoke English and she informed us that line 13 was closed, and subsequently we found out that line 13 was constructed for the Shanghai expo in 2010 and had since been closed.  No problem we were close so we decided to set out on foot.  After exiting the subway station the route was easy; we were going to a bridge so just head for the water.  Well most of you have never been in Shanghai but you will come to discover that you can be less than 100 yards from the river and not be able to see it.  So we headed to an open area to see if we could get a better view and after 10 minutes we were no closer to finding the river so we decided to check the map and lo and behold we were travelling in the exact opposite direction and we were still quite a ways from the bridge.  So not wanting to use all our energy walking (before the strenuous climb), we took a cab and we were glad we did as it still took us 15 minutes to get there.  When we finally arrived we approached the ticket booth to find a note in Chinese taped to the door, our hearts sunk, after all we had been through we really wanted to enjoy the climb.  Fortunately the security guard saw how perplexed we were and lead us to the “real” ticket booth and after purchasing our tickets we were on our way to the top of the bridge.

 The climb is actually very safe as they have built stairs all the way up and over the bridge arch.  So our journey began by taking the elevator up 15 floors to the HEIGHT OF THE ROAD!!.  From there it was a mere 347 steps to the top of the arch and onto the viewing platform. The climb was not as strenuous as we had anticipated and we reached the top in about 15 minutes.  There we were surprised by the fact that there were only 3 other people there, now this is really rare for Shanghai.  We met a guy from Germany and enjoyed talking about our mutual experiences in Shanghai.  The views from the top were great and although it was hazy (which it always is), we enjoyed the sights of downtown Shanghai and the expo center.  The visit was great and should be a stop on your sightseeing visit to Shanghai as long as you are not afraid of heights.

It seems that every outing Shanghai is still an ADVENTURE!  But I guess that is what we came for!