Shanghai - Chicago meets Las Vegas meets Vienna meets China meets the Third World

After our five days in Beijing, we flew three hours to Shanghai to spend three additional days.  Shanghai has 18 million "official" residents although most estimates put the population closer to 25 million.  It is the most western of all the Chinese cities.  Between the two World Wars, China allowed several western nations into Shanghai to spur development.  Because of this, parts of the city has the most beautiful western style architecture from the 1920s (the Vienna part).  But across the river is the new Shanghai of numerous skyscrapers with the most amazing display of neon lights (the Chicago meets Las Vegas part).  Many more people spoke English in Shanghai and you saw all the famous western stores and brands.  But when you get off the main streets, you are back to China.
We also got our real taste (literally) of China pollution in Shanghai.  It was suppose to be sunny with blue skies, but all we saw was a thick overhang of pollution.  The sun was a faint orange spot in the sky.  Check out the photos below:

The old western side along the Bund

Typically China on the side streets

A couple of the staged photos from our company dinners

The lights of Shanghai

The Modern Side

The Buddhist Temple 

inside the Buddhist Temple

beautiful art in the Buddhist Temple

The pollution of Shanghai - this was a "sunny day"