March 2007 Archives

When I have a look at my site stats, one of the usual top searches in looking for a map of Shanghai's roads or a good map of Shanghai's metro stations. For my mind, there's a number of so-so metro and city maps in English. Realistically, Shanghai's expats would really benefit from an English version of the Google China's Ditu (map) service or an equivalent here in Shanghai.

A screenshot of Google China's Map (Ditu) service.

Online map systems can really help when orienting new visitors or new friends in Shanghai to help communicate the location of a tourist attraction, museum, restaurant or meeting-point. One of the mapping systems I've used a lot for this is the Smartshanghai Interactive Map, but it has its limitations, namely it can't toggle between English and Chinese, which makes asking taxi drivers or people for help even more difficult.

Don't fret. The ExploreShanghai online mapping website can provide the solution. It is a new and FREE map service that meets both Chinese and English requirements, which also provides some cool pointers to access the city. Created by web boffin Matt Mayer, the site offers two great maps for English-speakers in Shanghai, ExploreShanghai City and ExploreShanghai Metro.

Screenshot of the ExploreShanghai City online mapping service..

The ExploreShanghai City map has a lot of interactive and search functions. The most handy in my opinion is the ability for users to mark locations and enter data in a similar manner to what Google Earth maps can do.

Both of the SmartShanghai and ExploreShanghai maps both have the ability to bookmark a location and access it via a hyperlink. I've found this very handy if you're hosting an event or a party somewhere.

Both the SmartShanghai and ExploreShanghai city maps can be accused of having a downtown-centric view of Shanghai, and don't really address Hongqiao, or Pudong at all. There's not a lot of information outside the inner-ring road either, so just be warned if you want to use these mapping services outside this general area. I'm sure these will be areas that are improved upon in the future.

Screenshot of the ExploreShanghai Metro Map.

I don't believe I've seen a Shanghai metro map that looks anything the ExploreShanghai Metro site. The beauty of this map is that is also contains the information that you need to plan your journey, which includes the first and last times of each metro line at the stations you choose, and the time and cost of the journey. Usually this requires consulting your metro timetable or reading the information at the metro station.

These are cool, handy tools. Go and check them out.

A normal Great Firewall connection error.

Quite a lot has been written recently on how to get around the increased restrictions on internet access from China. Yes it sucks, but there's a million or so ways around it. A lot of them use proxies. Unfortunately many are dependent on third-parties, and in particular, unknown third parties. In my mind, if you use open IP lists to gain unencrypted internet access, you're just asking for trouble.

One of the best ways to ensure unrestricted, and anonymous internet access is through the use of virtual private networks. There are a number of commercial solutions that are easy to install on PC, Mac or Unix and really don't cost all that much money. Nonetheless, they do cost money and often have secure web traffic quota restrictions which if you use the web a lot, could cause you some problems.

However if you're like me and want to save a few RMB and already host your own web-site on a Unix-based server you may want to set-up your own secure proxy server through the use of SSH tunnelling. Sounds difficult? Well, it isn't. Thanks to matt-man for hooking me up with this system.

The Concept
What we are going to do is to create a private proxy on your Unix webserver that you can use to access the internet. Access to the private proxy will only be allowed if you have login privileges to the webserver. To access the webserver, you will use an SSH connections to ensure traffic between your computer and your proxy server is encrypted (thus unobservable). The last step will allow you to get past the firewall.

Requirements.

1. A Unix-based webserver outside the firewall (work, China, etc) that allows SSH connections.
2. Knowledge and familiarity with FTP, SSH and basic Unix navigation commands (cd, pwd, find, mv).
3. A little Unix compilation knowledge.
4. The ability to read all of these instructions first and then follow them (very important).

Explanation of the Unix Lines here

Before we start, I'm just going to qualify that in the below examples of Unix line, DO NOT include the following components as part of the commands. These just signify where you should be issuing the commands from (like on the Unix server, or your own computer). I hope this explanatory. The $ sign signifies the command prompt.

webserver:~ user$

mycomputer:~ me$

Free Tools
elhttp - The extra light HTTP proxy server that runs on Unix systems (in this case, your webserver).
SSHKeychain - A key manager for Mac OSX that can also forward local ports (on your computer) over a SSH connection (to your webserver).

From what I've read, you could also give the more robust privoxy a shot instead of elhttp. I can only vouch that elhttp works under this situation.

I'm writing this assuming you use OSX for your home computer system (like me), but don't fret if you've got a PC because you can use many of the other SSH managers (that may have to be paid for) available for PC or Linux. If you don't want to spend the bucks or are a purist, you can use command line SSH programs like PC's PuTTY or OSX's good ol' Terminal instead. I'll cover how to do this in the below notes section.

Installing elhttp on your webserver

• Download the tgz archive of the latest elhttp version (I used elhttp-0.22.tgz). Let's call this file elhttp.tar.gz for this example.
• FTP the elhttp.tar.gz file to your desired folder or subdomain on your webserver (FTP). I prefer to use a subdomain that has its own unique user just for added security. This user must have SSH access enabled, or this whole thing won't work.
• SSH to your webserver and navigate to the folder or subdomain where you placed the elhttp.tgz archive.
• Untar and decompress the elhttp.tgz using the following command structure.

webserver:~ user$ tar -xvzf elhttp.tar.gz

• This will produce a folder named elhttp. If this name differs from yours, you can rename the folder using the mv unix command.
• Navigate into the new elhttp folder using the cd unix command.

webserver:~ user$ cd elhttp

• Read the README text file in this folder on how to 'install' elhttp. For the bulk of you, you shall choose the linux option like below.

webserver:~ user$ ./make linux

Configuration of elhttp on your webserver
We will now configure the elhttp proxy server. The commands that we will call will ensure that any proxy traffic will only be accepted from our own webserver (referred to this case as 127.0.0.1 or localhost). Also, we will specify that any traffic accepted for this proxy must come through the 4222 port (ssh connection port). We will also specify a network mask (in our case the classic subnet mask 255.255.255.0), a logfile (proxy_log.txt) and what type of connection methods we will allow (2, any connection method allowed like http or https for example).

webserver:~ user$ ./elhttp 4222 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.0 proxy_log.txt 2

Here's the syntax for the elhttp command.

elhttp [proxy port] [authorized ip] [network mask] [logfile] [CONNECT method flag]

A full explanation of the syntax of the command can be found here.

Ok, we've now setup our extra light http server! Now what we have to do is connect to it from our own computer. And how will we do this? By SSH of course!

Install and configure SSHKeychain to connecting to elhttp proxy server.
SSH stands for Secure Shell. You can read up on SSH at Wikipedia after you've connected to your elhttp installation, but for now let's get started with the installation and configuration of SSHKeychain, which will manage your SSH connection to your elhttp proxy server.

• Download the SSHKeychain binary from the developer's website. Install the program as directed.
• Start SSHKeychain
• Open Preferences/Display. Choose to display SSHKeychain in the Status Bar and Dock.


• Open the Preferences/Tunnels tab. Create a new tunnel by pressing the + button.


• General -> give your tunnel a name. Select the other options as desired (I leave these off as a default).
• SSH -> Enter details for your webserver. Hostname = my.domain.com, Port = 22, Username = myusername.


• Local Ports -> Local Port = 4222, Remote Host = localhost, Remote Port = 4222


• Remote Ports -> Leave blank.
• Save the settings.

The key steps here are the local port forwarding to our remote server that hosts the elhttp installation. Here we are pushing traffic from our computer through our computer's 4222 port. This will then access our webhost elhttp system by using localhost (i.e. 127.0.0.1) and the port elhttp allows to access the internet 4222.

Create a SSH tunnel to elhttp using SSHKeychain.
This is really easy. Earlier, you configured SSHKeychain to be present on both the Menu Bar and the Dock. Go to the menu bar icon for SSHKeychain (a set of keys), select it and the Tunnels submenu.

Select your Tunnel configuration. Wait a few moments while SSHKeychain contacts your webhost and it responds with a password challenge. Enter the password for the webserver account you are using to access your webserver. If the connection is allowed, you will notice that the Tunnel configuration in the menu bar listing will now have a tick.

Guess what? You're tunnel is connected, and now you can use elhttp to browse the internet. All you need to do is tell your web browser to use this connection.

Setting up your web applications to use your proxy server.
This is the easiest step left to do. What you need to do here is to ensure that your web applications that you want to use your elhttp server can find the right path to access the server.

Essentially, all you have to do is point your http and https proxies to the SSHKeychain program. To do this, put the following proxy options into either your Firefox browser or your OSX System Preferences/Network/Proxies settings. Have a look at the below image and fill in as indicated.

In this situation, localhost (127.0.0.1:4222) refers your web browser to connect to the internet via the 4222 port on your own computer.

Save and apply your proxy settings!

Notes about this whole setup.

The elhttp proxy that has been built here creates a tunnel through a network firewall. It does not anonymise your IP address at all. In this way you can accept cookies, leave a trail through the internet, and also access a lot of websites that may not usually allow the use of free proxy services that also anonymise your identity.

Your webserver is a highly dependent factor in this whole escapade. Again, this can only work if you have SSH access to your webserver. If you don't, you can't use this method, but maybe someone with SSH access to another server can set this up for you if you ask very very nicely. I can also imagine that your webhost may not allow the functioning of elhttp for various reasons, in particular some hacker's penchant for using elhttp's capabilities. For people with their own hosting providers,I can assure you this works on Dreamhost's virtual machine/shared servers and also other Apache-variants. They give you a lot of bandwidth to use, so I don't think they care too much about what you use this for. Very rarely, elhttp loses its configuration settings due to Dreamhost's tinkering. To fix this, just SSH to your account and reconfigure the proxy using the elhttp command used earlier. No worries otherwise.

SSHKeychain's main aim is to manage security keys, and thus will start managing Apple's default key manager, Keychain. Essentially what you will find is recurring requests to use your Apple User accounts authorisation password to access your stored passwords. I don't find this annoying, but you might. You can alter this relationship by reading more on the SSHKeychain online help.

I have also added SSHKeychain to my start up items, and if you wish, you can automatically create your SSH tunnel when SSHKeychain starts up.

Using an SSH tunnel to drive your web connections through can be a pain as it can slow your access. At least from Shanghai, I don't see any major slow-downs, unless I am accessing sites within China of course. So it is a good idea to be able to switch between normal network connection proxies and your elhttp connection in such situations. Do do this efficiently and quickly, I like to use the SwitchProxy Firefox extension plugin to allow changing of my proxy settings just that little bit easier. You should be using Firefox of course! Otherwise on Mac OSX, I would create new Network Locations to make proxy switching easier for Safari or other browsers. For non-Firefox using PC people, I'm sure there's an easy solution to your problem.

By the way, if SSHKeychain isn't on, and the tunnel isn't active, you can't use the 127.0.0.1:4222 proxy configuration to connect to the internet.

You can also port other traffic through your SSH tunnel including email, torrent downloads, video and audio streaming for example. However, that is up to you to configure if you want it. Commercial VPN solutions cover all these different type of connections and provide a cheap, complete solutions for unrestricted internet access.

Command Line Tunnelling

This is perhaps the most simple way on the command line to set up your SSH tunnel to your elhttp webserver.

mycomputer:~ me$ ssh -N -p 22 useraccount@my.domain.com -L 4222/localhost/4222

The above Endgadget link breaks down this ssh command as follows.

• ssh - the actual SSH command
• -N tells SSH we don't want to execute a remote command. Not terribly necessary, but makes it safer.
• user@my.domain.com = account and SSH host on the my.domain.com server.
• -L 4222/localhost/4222 This one creates the tunnel. It tells SSH to forward traffic from port 4222 on the local machine (your computer) to port 4222 on the remote machine (the elhttp proxy server you created).

When you create this connection, you will be challenged for the password for the user account you specified. Please note that the command line prompt will not change after this step as the connection is active. You can then configure your internet browser to utilise the connection as mentioned earlier. When you want to close the tunnel, hit Control+C. The elhttp proxy will then refuse connections.

Ok! If you read this carefully, and followed the directions you should now be able to reach sites like shown in these screenshots.

Pretty cool isn't it?

I wrote this article for an expat magazine that is widely distributed here in the top-tier Chinese cities. The idea was to chat about what is going on in the Chinese internet blogosphere. We ran with this topic, but this didn't get past the publisher's Government censor despite what I would would honestly describe as a cut-and-paste treatment of outsider's reactions and viewpoint to internet filtering here in China. So, rather than let it go to waste, here it is in its full, unabbreviated form. Let's see what happens from here.

Every expat living in China realises that there have been some roadblocks placed on China's internet access. Regardless of your viewpoint on censorship, measures like this usually offend the idealistic notion of a free and liberal internet. What annoys many bloggers to no end is seemingly arbitrary, blanketing restrictions placed on the free blogging sites that many of us like to browse and publish with.

Since September 2002, the number of blogs in China has risen 30 fold to reach 34 million in September 2006. After the recent China National Congress, there were intimations that control over internet use and publishing were going to be tightened. And true to their words, China-based bloggers using free services like Xanga, Blogspot and Livejournal found themselves in limbo following further strengthening of the Great Firewall of China over the last month. Technology focused Blogspot blogger Matthew Roberts had this to say on his discovery that his site was inaccessible in China.

Looking through my postings I’m not sure I’ve ever talked about China to be honest. So its probably not been caused by any actions on my part. It may have something to do with the comments? or perhaps items I’ve linked to or been linked from? not sure. It would be interesting to know what triggered so many, for lack of a better term, ‘politically bland’ sites getting blocked.

Qingdao blogger and satirist Mersault vented his dismay at these new restrictions, particularly after his recent site transfer to Blogspot.

I only have two options. The first is to use a Chinese blogging platform which would severely restrict anything I could write; the second is to buy my own domain which I'm also unwilling to do while I'm in China.

Well done China and the Chinese people. Writing was the only joy I had left in my life while I am stuck in your awful country; and now you've taken that away from me too. I gave up my original journalism job because Chinese regulations meant I could only write the empty crap that the government insisted upon, and now these pathetic rules have drained any determination I once had to write a weblog.

Others have taken more measured approaches to their musings. The Weifeng Radish's self-described apolitical blog has been inaccessible from mainland China since February 2006 due to his choice of the Wordpress publishing system. He often taps into his situation to write about why the internet is filtered here and how to get around some restrictions.

Here is an example of his exploration on why the useful Wikipedia site is blocked in China.

It is not clear at all that Wikipedia has been entirely blocked for that reason. China gains nothing from the negative press it attracts due to blocking Wikipedia, and if it was only because of 6/4 and similar issues they could simply block those articles and other Wikipedia articles that reference those articles and not have to deal with so much negative press. I don’t think the Chinese government is afraid of kangaroos. No, there are probably a number of other reasons in addition to this one as to why Wikipedia is entirely blocked. Personally, I think it has a lot to do with a fear of citizens experiencing free speech on the part of the Communist Party.

China-based Blogspot users are understandably not that happy about the newly imposed restrictions on their blogging sites. Self-described scoundrel and Blogspot user Chinabounder recently touched on the topic of blogging in China, and let loose a searing opinion about the recent Blogspot ban.

Blogspot, for example, was becoming something too free and truthful. Chinese people – horrors – were beginning to express themselves and – worse! – read the opinions of others, opinions that did not ‘stand where the Party stands’ (those are the words of Luo Gan, one of China’s most powerful men, on the nature of truth). The site is now blocked in China, many blogs far better than mine inaccessible to those lacking the tech skills to get round the great firewall. But so skilled is the government at the lies attendant on a skilful fucking that should you ask them about this they will tell you, ‘We do not censor the internet’ – and will tell it cool and calm, not a blink nor twitch. For they are the most practiced of liars.

This from Blogspotter, Aussie in the Orient.

They should rename Blogspot as Blockspot- yes once again the Chinese government in all it's wisdom has blocked blogspot again. Why? Just in case we point out that their dictatorial control of the internet is against the fundamental human rights of free speech - oh, wait, they just demonstrated that themselves by blocking it in the first place.

Technology portal Wired.com recently asked Xiao Qiang, founder of China Digital Times regarding the outlook for Livejournal users affected by the latest round of restrictions.

"For whatever reason (if) you've been blocked, it's almost impossible to get open again," says Xiao. "It could be one of the blogs in Livejournal has the content they want to block. They are very bluntly over-blocking sites."

In the last few years,internet users have seen greater controls put in place on access in China. Increased vigilance of registering at internet cafes is one such example, as is the mandate that China-based bloggers register their names with the Orwellian-invoking Ministry of Information Industry. Sometimes you can wonder if such expansion of the controls are actually needed for the average web user in China.

Chinese blogger Wangjianshuo wrote of his friend's experience with China's internet police in his English langauge blog.

This didn't happen to me yet, but it happens to my friend. He has a small blog, and wrote some article about finance. It may mentioned the name someone in power. The Uncle Police (the way children typically call policeman) called, and asked him to delete the post. They do have great technology to track who wrote what, via which telephone line, and on which computer. Then they have the power to map the post with a real person, and get his/her telephone number.

Such measure placed on Chinese nationals don't apply to the majority of expatriates. We're more than quite happy and able to utilise free, foreign-hosted blogging services or for the more adventurous, dive into the rabbit hole of building and hosting your own sites. The most bloggers like ourselves have to worry about is that our choice of platform will be the next to be put on the restricted list. Perhaps looking at the greener side of the fence, the average user in China saw this as less troublesome path to self-expression which in turn led to these restrictions? Considering that in 2005, only 10% of Chinese bloggers have complied with the registration edict, you may have some ammunition for your arguement.

Regardless of the reasons why, all is not lost for those people affected by these bans. There are numerous ways to circumvent a situation like this. Users of foreign-hosted virtual private networks or encrypted proxies do not have access problems but may trade-off unfettered access with slower internet speeds. For the average Joe or Joeline, perhaps the simplest option for average Blogspot user is to access their blog tools via the pkblogs gateway. There's also a myriad of other tools that will enable you to go where you want to go, but it is all user-beware when you choose to use of these services.

There are quite a number of sites that are dedicated to this conundrum that goes by the monicker of the Great Firewall of China. Perhaps the niftiest tool to see what is filtered out is the aptly named Great Fire Wall of China website, which can let you know if your blog or website suffers from restricted access in China. Of course, you cannot access this from the mainland without using virtual private networks or utilising anonymous proxies to browse this site. At least this example might serve as a counter conjecture that there is no internet access restrictions in China.

IMG_1917.jpg, originally uploaded by mjnewhook.
Us on the top of Victoria Peak

I'm continuing my with my nostalgic, Flickr blogging morning theme. Here's my friend Matt & his girlfriend Shirley in HK.

This entry was posted with flickr

Heavenly Dog, originally uploaded by dledge.
Lena hanging out on a white chair in front of a bright window...

This is our friend Josh & Amy's cute dog, Lena. Dan got a great capture of Lena a few weeks back.

Lena pees when she gets excited. She gets excited a lot.

This entry was posted with flickr

Mad Scientist, originally uploaded by Shanghai Sky.
Labella Cafe, Shanghai

Ben took this photograph at La Bella Cafe last night. La Bella hired French guitarist Etienne to play various French & Gypsy jazz tunes. If you're sick of my mug, Ben's photography is worth checking out.

This entry was posted with flickr

It has been a long, long time in-between posts on this little visitor advice topic of mine. The new update is partly due to the upcoming overseas guest/tourist season that seems to start towards the end of March each year. The other reason is although I've been cooking this idea for a long long time now, and it got pretty much out of control in terms of content. I'm going to write the day-trip version soon too. So here it is. An evening trip to Pudong!!

Pudong invokes a particular kind of reaction in those of us who live in Puxi. The Boonies, The Sticks, Shanghai Suburbia, or Land of the Expat Villa and Long Lunches. Suffice it to say, Pudong is generally looked down by Puxi-dwellers as NYC residents would look down on New Jersey or Queens. With this rivalry in mind, my circle of friends often refer to Pudong as 'Pu Jersey'. Otherwise, we affectionately refer to it as 'The 'Dong'.

Pudong also has some pretty cool things. I'll admit that I believe Pudong is far more sedate than what you would find across the Huangpu, but there's some good quality evening options around the Pudong area. As Pudong is a massive district. I will justl focus on writing about three main areas that I've spent a little time in and around. Jinqiao, Pudong Nan Lu, and Lujiazui.

Jinqiao
Out of all of these three areas, I've spent the least in the Jinqiao area. It is a decent trip from downtown Puxi, but should you find yourself out in Jinqiao, there's two main areas to hit for an evening out. These are Zendai Thumb Plaza (Du Mu Zhi) and the Jinqiao Green Sports & Leisure Center. To me, The Thumb Plaza complex mirrors the expat village area centred around the Hongmei Road area in Shanghai's Honqiao district. The usual expat chains are to be found here. I usually can't go past Moon River Diner for a meal, but also there's a number of good Indian restaurants in this complex. For a number of cold beers, hit the Korean Wah Bar for some frosty ales. Not far away from Thumb Plaza is the Green Sports & Leisure Centre. This place has a number of expat oriented shops, including The Pines Supermarket, Decathlon, Jinqiao Megafit (best gym I've seen in Shanghai), and a clustering of restaurants and bars. The Blue Frog is always my first choice here for a beer, there's a number of other options available that will suit your tastes. As for hitting the clubs, well, IMHO its time to look elsewhere.

Pudong Nan Lu & Zhangyang Lu
This area It is only a short metro or taxi ride away from Puxi and other areas of Pudong and boasts an almost unlimited choice of shopping and eating options. In fact, most of them are located in two massive shopping centres, The Next Age Department Store (also known as BaBaiBan shopping centre) & Pudong Times Square. For eating, I'd recommend the Shanghai Uncle Restaurant (Haishang Ashu Fandian) for some really tasty Shanghainese. The ribs are tasty, as is the Mandarine Fish. Another option for entertainment I can recommend is located on the 10th floor of BaBaiBan. There's an amusement arcade, and you'll also find a pool hall and bowling alley and cinema there keep the night moving along. There's also a number of kosher KTV joints, including one in the amusement hall, around the Pudong Nan Lu area, so you won't be missing any entertainment options.

Lujiazui
Lujiazui is undoubtedly the biggest evening centre in Pudong. The concentration of tourist attractions, restaurants, shopping and accommodation in this area isn't found anywhere else in Pudong. And, what's better, it is only a stone's throw from Puxi!

The Superbrand Mall (Zheng da guangchang 正大广场) is the biggest drawcard for shopping and (surprisingly) dining in Lujiazui. There is a wide selection of dining options in this mall. I've eaten at a few places in here, and really you just need to pick a cuisine & then make your choice of place. But my recommendation? Go to Pizza Hut! What? Ok, don't go for a fantastic meal, but for the AMAZING view. The Pizza Hut overlooks the Huangpu River and The Bund, and costs about RMB100-200 less than most of the other top-shelf restaurants (like South Beauty) that share its vantage point. I don't think there's a better view, but pity about the pizza. But there's many other options to choose from here. Towards the top of the Superbrand Mall, there is an indoor ice rink and a cinema that shows English-language films. You can purchase tickets at the cinema, or at the base of the Superbrand Mall underneath the escalators near the main entrance. Oh yeah, and heaps of shopping (including Toys 'R Us & Chaterhouse Bookstore if you want a taste of home).

World-wide, Shanghai has the reputation of possessing some of the most futuristic cityscapes in the world. And yeah, the bulk of them are based in Pudong, with the largest share being located in the area known as Lujiazui across from The Bund area in Shanghai. Watching this area from dusk to mid-evening is one of the ultimate urban experiences I have discovered. The area is so large, and so diverse, that there are three main ways to enjoy Shanghai's transformation at night.

My favourite way to experience Shanghai at night has to be visiting the Cloud9 bar at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, located in the JinMao Tower. I'd recommend reserving a table from 1 hour before sunset to really enjoy the change of city from drab & polluted to a light wonderland. Ask for a table facing The Bund or The Pearl Oriental Tower to ensure a good view. The only problem with this is price. The Cloud9 bar has a minimum charge from around RMB120 per person in the evening, which is almost 2 cocktails. Bring your wallet, or even better, a guest in the hotel. Avoid rainy and foggy days for this experience, you won't see anything.

The second way to appreciate what Pudong has to offer in the evening is to hit the Riverside Promenade (Binjiang Da Dao). You live in Shanghai and haven't heard of it? Well, that's the proper name for the embankment opposite The Bund (Waitan). This area is a stone's throw away from SuperBrand Mall and features a boardwalk promenade with various bars, cafes and restaurants. Just pick one with a great view and watch the old Shanghai put on her best face as the night lights come on. This is also an awesome place to experience how much ship and boat traffic the Huangpu River carries each day. It just doesn't stop.

The last and my close-second favourite way to enjoy the evening sights of Pudong is to jump across the Huangpu River to watch the evening light show from the banks of The Bund. Yeah, technically this isn't in Pudong, but escaping back to Puxi is a great way to wind down your evening in Pudong ;) . Strolling along the Waitan can be harrowsome after a long day, as large crowds and aggressive hawkers and beggars can get on your goat. Might I suggest that an even better way to enjoy the scenery is to grab a few drinks from the great vantage points of Bar Rouge or The Glamour Bar. If your budget allows, dining at M on The Bund is one of the more luxurious ways to while away the evening.

Keep an eye out for Part 4 - A Day in Pudong.

Previously on scRambler...
What to do with a visitor in Shanghai? Part 1 - The Usual.
What to do with a visitor in Shanghai? Part 2 - X marks the spot.

CNN Asia pokes fun at China & Chinese people once again. But the Jiang Zemin part is ironic, isn't it?