As Seen by TV

The Shanghai Stock Exchange (the square donut shaped building in the center above, from a strange photo I took back in 2009), is the 5th largest stock market in the world.

While photographing an executive training group from the Recanati Business School, I got the chance to see the insides of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.  And although I had been warned not to expect too much, I was still quite disappointed.  I have been to the NY Stock Exchange, which is pandemonium… masses of people running around and yelling, so I expected something somewhat like that.  This was very much the opposite… as you can see in the images, it is just several people sitting behind computers!

It’s a shame that it’s been raining all day, as I’ve wanted to go explore the festivities planned for today.  The firework spectacle takes place in just over an hour, so I’m sure I’ll have a glimpse of that.
As for yesterday, I certainly heard a ton of explosions, and assumed they were fireworks… but I couldn’t see/find the damn things.   I ended up going to Pudong, taking metro line 2 to Dongchang Road and walking back to the Lujiazui station (I live nearby the Line 1 South Shanxi station, you can check out a subway map here).  The clouds were absolutely sensational… the colored lights from buildings literally saturated the sky, and once again impeccable timing, as it started raining just when I was wrapping up.

The first two images are panoramas, the vertical consisting of 8 images, and the [messed up] 360-degree horizontal of 13 (the building with the antenna just off-center is the stock exchange).
Also check out the differences in clouds between a 1.6sec and 30sec exposure.  You can even notice a blue radiance on the top right, from the blue lights that decorate the front/back of the Shanghai World Financial Center… not to mention the amazing glow from the apartment buildings to the left.

I have more images (I took about 140, which is more than double the standard Tim Shoot), but these are the only ones I cleaned up, more will be added later.  Have a good night/day wherever you may be and Happy 60th Birthday PRC!!
[also happy birthday to my Italian brother Salvo, have a good one yo!]

Dope video from the crazy parade in Beijing by Dan Chung: