China Environmental Law

Many of you in an idle moment have no doubt pondered what the offspring of a liaison between Lhasa and Shanghai would look like.  Speculate no more.  I have found their love child and she is living on Hongqiao Road in Shanghai.  With the coloring and facial features of her Tibetan father, she inherits the slender verticality of her mother. 

It is at night, however, when her mother’s features really dominate; the two yellow lines running up the center are neon tubes that cycle through the entire color spectrum and the temple at the top is lit up like a used car lot.

This building, from what I hear, was originally undertaken by the Tibet government as a place for their officials to hang in Shanghai (the blue medallion near the top of the building still says Tibet Building I think).  They ran out of money before construction was finished and the building basically sat incomplete and vacant for several years.  It was then purchased by Courtyard by Marriott, and it recently opened as their 800^th property.  The opening ceremony fittingly featured a Tibetan theme, complete with white silk prayer shawls.

All of this proves, once again, that there really is no need to leave Shanghai to experience all the sights and sounds of China!