Bright lights, big city

Shanghai has a population of over eighteen million people (according to Wikipedia). It’s a densely-populated, active, flashing, noisy place. It’s difficult to convey its use of—and apparent devotion to—colored lights.

This is Nanjing Lu, the main shopping street, on a Wednesday evening:


And here is a picture of the Pudong, a commercial area to the east of the Huangpu river, which has the weirdly-shaped and colorful Oriental Pearl TV Tower:


Our first morning in Shanghai, Debbie and I, who were sharing a hotel room, woke up at 6:00 am. The reason: there was a marching band competition going on immediately outside our hotel: