The Bund or Waitan is a waterfront area in central Shanghai. The area centers on a section of Zhongshan Road (East No.1 Zhongshan Road) within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The area along the river faces the modern skyscrapers of Lujiazui in the Pudong District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent areas. It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai. Building heights are restricted in the area. The Bund houses 52 buildings of various architectural styles, generally Eclecticist, but with some buildings displaying predominantly Romanesque Revival, Gothic Revival, Renaissance Revival, Baroque Revival, Neo-Classical or Beaux-Arts styles, and a number in Art Deco style (Shanghai has one of the richest collections of Art Deco architecture in the world). read more…
Quantum class is an upcoming class of cruise ships from Royal Caribbean International. On February 11, 2011, Royal Caribbean announced that they had ordered the first of a new class of ships from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg scheduled to be delivered by Fall 2014. At the time, the project was code-named “Project Sunshine”. The Quantum-class ships will surpass the earlier Freedom-class ships by over 14,000 GT, becoming the second largest class of passenger ships behind Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis class ships on a gross tonnage basis. The first three ships of this class, Quantum of the Seas, delivered in November 2014, Anthem of the Seas, expected to be delivered in November 2014, and Ovation of the Seas, expected to be delivered in Fall 2016. Quantum of the Seas will spend its inaugural 2014-2015 season sailing from Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey, before repositioning to China in May 2015. Beginning late June 2015, the ship will sail three- to eight-night itineraries year-round from Shanghai to Japan and Korea. Anthem of the Seas will spend its inaugural 2015 season sailing from Southampton, Hampshire, before repositioning to Cape Liberty in November 2015. As of April 2014, no ports or itineraries have been announced for Ovation of the Seas. read more…
The Shanghai World Financial Center is a supertall skyscraper located in the Pudong district of Shanghai in China. It was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and developed by the Mori Building Company, with Leslie E. Robertson Associates as its structural engineer and China State Construction Engineering Corp and Shanghai Construction (Group) General Co. as its main contractor. It is a mixed-use skyscraper, consisting of offices, hotels, conference rooms, observation decks, and ground-floor shopping malls. Park Hyatt Shanghai is the tower’s hotel component, comprising 174 rooms and suites. Occupying the 79th to the 93rd floors, surpassing the Grand Hyatt Shanghai on the 53rd to 87th floors of the neighboring Jin Mao Tower. It is the second-highest hotel in the world after The Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong, which occupies floors 102 to 118 of the International Commerce Centre. The building has a floor area of about 380,000 m² (4,107,500 sq ft). The construction costs reached USD $ 1.20 billion. read more…
The Creative Cities Network is a project under the patronage of UNESCO. With the aim of celebrating and maintaining cultural diversity, the alliance formed by member cities share their experiences in promoting the local heritage, as well as discuss plans on how to cope with the influx of globalization. The Creative Cities Network aims to find and enrich a member city’s cultural identity in the midst of a growing trend towards internationalism. read more…
The Michelin Challenge Bibendum is a major annual sustainable mobility event, sponsored by the French tire company Michelin. In 1998, executives at Michelin made the decision to host an event that would showcase technological research into “clean vehicles” and allow them to be assessed in real operating conditions. read more…