Discovering Pudong

This morning I went shopping to see what around the hotel and found a sports store. I knew I shouldn't have gone in since I usually lack self control when shopping without a specific goal in mind. I was curious to see if prices would be any different. The really high-end/brand name stuff was actually more expensive with the Asics Nimbus for example about 50% more than what I paid for them in Canada. The shopping trip still resulted in a new cold weather running outfit (the entire thing for under $50! unbelievable). It's not a brand name I know but the material feels like quality and it will allow me to remember China on those long cold runs and hopefully make them go by faster :)
Once I came back to the hotel, I thought that running a bit around would be a perfect way to quickly discover and explore the neighbourhood. The weather wasn't great being mostly muggy and wet but it wasn't hell either. I wanted to make it to an area that the map describes as Century Park. My biggest failure was probably to try to memorise the map and Chinese street names and not bring the map with me (I felt it would encumber me). This failure wasn't so bad, since while I may have not seen Century Park today, there is always tomorrow and the weather may be better for pictures!
I also got to run in "Regency Park" which is as far as I can figure out a gated community for the fortunate Chinese families that can afford McMansions. More on my thoughts about this and pictures of the mansions in my other blog: BuzzingInShanghai. Here are some pictures from the more park-like features:
After getting out of the Regency Park, I figured I could still try to find Century Park. I didn't end up finding it, however I found the construction site for the World 2010 expo!
I started running back and while I wasn't focussing on speed specifically, I did pretty well overall. Shanghai has water absolutely everywhere so it makes for a really runner friendly city so far (at least the part I am in). The sidewalks are also wide and fairly quiet.
Once I got back, I turned to the snack I had gotten earlier while shopping. I was hoping that one of these two would turn out to be Coconut buns since they are my favorites.
Turns out that, while both pretty delicious, neither of them were Coconut. The long one was some kind of cream stuffing and the rounder one was stuffed with red beans. I have to figure out what the chinese symbol for Coconut is if I want to be able to identify them easily :)

Not bad for a unplanned run. 14.3km in 1h17.