Yesterday we made a trip to our factory in Suzhou. This required taking a car trip across Shanghai. The factory is on the near side of Suzhou in a large industrial park so we did not make it into the center of Suzhou.

We took the Middle Ring road across the north side of Shanghai and passed through miles and miles of residential areas. Above is an example of some of the residential high rises that we passed. You can just imagine the number of people who live in just one of these buildings. Shanghai has a population of over 25 million and many of them live in high rise buildings.

This building is near our factory in Suzhou. The Integrated Free Trade Zone Tower has 23 floors and is 99 meters tall. The architecture of this building is very unique with one cube that is offset from the others.

Here is another interesting building that we passed as we headed back to our hotel. I am not sure the purpose of the building, but it looks really cool with the arche connecting the two buildings.

I don’t think anyone would miss the function of this building. This is one of three IKEAs in Shanghai. My colleagues said that IKEA is very popular in Shanghai, just as it is in many other countries around the world. I am sure that IKEA’s solutions for living in small places are put to good use in the many apartments across Shanghai.

This picture is not very crisp for several reasons. One, we were moving quickly along the freeway and I was trying to get the shot between buildings and second, the air was not very clear.

However, in this picture you can see the three tallest skyscrapers in the Pudong downtown area. From this distance you can really see the relative height of the buildings. See my post A Tall Trio for more about these three skyscrapers.

Now to finish packing and head to the airport. It will be good to be back home for more than one day 🙂

Steven