Pearl I'm Gonna Miss You

"It's a tragedy for me to see the dream is over,

And I never will forget, the day we met,

Pearl (girl) I'm gonna miss you."

- Milli Vanilli (or whoever actually really sang for them)

(Those using Google Reader to read this don't have the privilege of hearing Milli Vanilli's song)

The day we met the Pearl when we moved to our place in 2007

Same view on our last day. See how our view of the Pearl is disappearing? We called that our hour glass, as we could see our time slipping away

The Pearl Tower here in Shanghai, what can you say about it? It's a tall concrete structure connecting several different sized balls...that at night has lights that remind me of a bad computer screensaver (view from our living room)... But despite those huge shortcomings, there is something about it that attracts everybody to the Shanghai skyline. It has come to be a part of our daily lives as it is what we saw upon first glance out of our apartment windows for the last two years. We could tell the weather by looking at it, very easy to see what the cloud ceilings and visibility was... On sunny days we could also tell the time based on our walls turning pinkish-red as the sun hit certain angles of the Pearl Tower's red panels that reflected on our walls. As part of our departure, we have to dedicate one post to Shanghai's most iconic building...

There is a real rivalry between the cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong. While the two cities fight for financial center supremacy, there is also a rivalry over their nicknames. Shanghai is known as the "Pearl of the Orient" while Hong Kong is known as the "Oriental Pearl." In an effort to secure "Pearl supremacy," Shanghai built the Pearl Tower.

We had been to the top of the other two super-tall buildings in Shanghai, namely the World Finance Center and Jin Mao, but it wasn't until Tim's parents recent visit that we finally made it to the top of the Pearl Tower.

At the base of the tower there are pictures posted of the Lujiazui area from each year since it was opened to development in 1990. Anybody remember Field of Dreams' "If you build it, they will come." This was vision, as the Pearl was the only thing built in 1994...

Only 15 years later, here's a picture of Mom & Dad in front of the same area...

A picture of Shanghai's Lujiazui Financial District as taken from the Marriott Hotel at Tomorrow Square:

So we finally went up to the top...

And who would have thought that in the big lower ball that there is a roller coaster? An actual, real roller coaster! Crazy. Since Mom & Dad didn't want to ride, we used their tickets (included with going to the top) and rode it twice.

And while it is low to reach down to Milli Vanilli for a theme song, it is indeed "a tragedy for (us) to see the dream is over" and we are going to miss the Pearl and our lives here in Shanghai.

We leave for the airport in an hour...