GE Corporate Visit and the Oriental Pearl Tower

Yesterday (Friday, May 25) we began the day with a lecture at ECNU on Foreign Direct Investment in China, then we visited a GE facility in western Shanghai and spoke with an American ex pat executive who manages GE's water purification and filtration division in the Pacific Rim. GE's facility in Shanghai is very new (less than five years) and works predominantly in research and development, employing some of the most elite PhD's in southern China.





After GE, we stopped at the Oriental Pearl Tower on the Huangpu River in downtown Shanghai. It is an extremely unique building that dominates the Shanghai skyline. According to the informational brochure provided to us: "The Oriental Pearl Tower is 468 meters high, the highest TV tower in Asia and the third highest in the world. [It] consists of three main whole-scape sightseeing floors. . . . The Space Module is at the height of 350 meters; the highest revolving restaurant in Asia is at 267 meters; the main sightseeing floor is at 263 meters; you can also go outside at 259 meters and 90 meters."

Although yesterday was particularly hazy, humid and polluted, the view from the observation tower really showed how dirty the air in China is from the largely unregulated rapid industrialization. The visibility was so bad that you could barely see more than a row of buildings across the river. It a fitting display, boats carrying gigantic screens playing commercials trudged up and down the river while being passed by an endless stream of coal-carrying barges.

The most unique feature of the Shanghai skyline: the Oriental Pearl Tower


Beijing Olympics celebration on public grounds at the base of Oriental Pearl Tower


Polluted skyline of Shanghai (Pushi side of Huangpu River) as seen from the Oriental Pearl Tower


View of street below from 263 meter observation deck at Oriental Pearl Tower


Polluted Pushi skyline across the Huangpu River


Adjacent skyscrapers from the Oriental Pearl Tower observation deck


A nautical, giant-screen television billboard


Coal barges travel upriver.


After the Oriental Pearl Tower we walked around the Bund (Riverwalk district with restaurants and vendors) and ate at a Spanish restaurant called Mundo Latino. When in Shanghai, do as the Cubans do, I guess. The food was great and we ate on a second-story open-air terrace. After dinner, I successfully communicated the name of our university to our cab driver - pretty pumped about that. I got to sit in the front passenger seat and fear for my life the whole way home while the cab driver appeared totally relaxed.