Kylie X 2008 Concert - Shanghai

Here is one of the most fun and interesting things I got to do in China. Kylie Minogue's "Kylie X 2008" concert tour came to Shanghai and I was invited to go by my friend Eric who lives here. In the US, Kylie is not as popular and in China she is even less however her popularity seems to be growing exponentially.

She opened the concert with "Speakerphone," her most popular song off the Kylie X album according to iTunes. Throughout the concert she wore 6 different outfits (as depicted in the pictures) and danced some great choreographed moves. Looking at the photos you will notice that several outfits especially the last one did not always cover well when performing in an outdoor soccer stadium (Hongkou Stadium) in 35 F temperatures. And she mentioned it too.

To the pics - I already mentioned the last six pictures are Kylie's outfits in the order she wore them for the performance. Pic 1 is the advertisement banner outside Hongkou Stadium promoting the concert. Pic 2 is of my friends Eric (on the right) and Paul from the UK (on the left) in our seats before the concert began. A big thanks to Paul for letting us ride with him to/from the concert in his private car...made it much more enjoyable. And a big thanks to Eric for the invitation and connection to the great seats on the floor 9 rows back. It was AWESOME!

Dalian's First Snow

Today Dalian had its first snow...which is actually a little early. Talking to Rachel who has lived here most of her life Dalian gets very little snow. And snow in November is not common. It wasn't a big snow....maybe 1.5 inches....enough to make everything glisten with white. It actually started at 7:30 this morning and ended around 2 pm. Unfortunately my pics were taken after the snow stopped falling. At times the falling snow was quite thick with large flakes.

Pic 1 is Lantian Jie, the street in front of my apartment. Pics 2-4 are the path I take to school.

Shanghai World Financial Center

The Shanghai World Financial Center - tallest building in the world by roof height at 492 meters (1,614 feet). This is the third tallest building in the world if you include others with antennae mounted on the top. If I saw nothing else in Shanghai, this is what I wanted to see. And that we did by visiting all three observatory levels...floors 94, 97, and 100. Floor 100 is the highest observation deck in the world at 474 meters (~1,555 feet). In addition to being the highest deck, floor 100 (AKA the Sky Walk) is also unique in that it has a glass floor depicted in pictures 3 and 4.

Pic 1 is a vertical shot up from the ground. Pic 2 is a night shot of the SWFC and Jin Mao Tower (2nd tallest building in Shanghai). From the ground you cannot see the height difference between the 2 buildings. But when you get in the buildings...WOW...there is a huge difference as the Jin Mao Tower is only 421 meters tall (1,381 feet). Pic 3 is my left foot on the glass floor. Pic 4 looks down at a street below through the glass floor. Finally pic 5 is our Shanghai holiday weekend crew (from left to right...Ron, Jill, ME, Lauren, and Gary).

It was a cloudy rainy day when we were there so pictures of the city were blah. But visit the official observation website at http://www.swfc-observatory.com/en/ for an excellent 360 degree view.