A Visit to the 88 Story Hyatt in Shanghai
Today I walked a lot and made my way — but how could I forget the rest of last night! Our episode didn’t end there. Lucille suggested we go to the top 88th floor of the Hyatt in Pudong! Which only opened in April and is now the highest building in China!! We took a taxi there (after approval from Franko, who incidentally didn’t require approval to go out all night drinking and karyok-ing and being attended upon by 2 or 3 young Chinese women, with his Chinese mafia friend, whose wife and children and nanny were all shot last year in Wien and subsequently killed).
So we took a taxi through the new tunnel to Pudong and were hoping that the water pressure wouldn’t burst the tunnel, and also that the elevators would be in good working order at the hotel! Once we got out of the taxi (from a 10 p.m. traffic jam) we couldn’t fathom how space aged it seemed. It felt like we were in Gotham CIty! The Hyatt building was unbelievable, chrome, silver, protruding upwards and stark against the jet black night sky. The jutting sheet steel edges are so tech, it looks out of a sci-fi scenario. The way it was strategically lit to emphasize the utter height was out of control.
Even the entrance and the lobby area were awesome. We had to take three elevators to get up to the Cloud 9 bar on the top level. Surprisingly, the elevator didn’t feel so fast as it was, and our fear was only imagined. (I later saw a news report and elevators can’t go over 35 MPH or riders will get sick. That’s one of the problems faced when building a higher sky scraper, for example twice as high, or a “mile high”.
It was a great unique contrast as the actual Hyatt part begins on floor 34 (or 37?) and is totally like a beautiful new modern museum on each floor. The porcelain and artwork against a light gold carpet and wall shadow boxes create an awesome effect in such an ultra neo modern concrete and steel megalith. The feeling really softens and luxuriates the atmosphere.
Cloud 9 Bar was an interesting mixture of Westerners and rich Chinese or Hong Kongese. The view was splendid, looking down over Pudong Oriental Pearl Tower, which changed color of lighting gradually from green to blue to purple, and then went out at 11 p.m. Drinks were also stratoscopic. (I had two Cloud 9’s: Champagne with a raspberry syrup and frozen raspberries) to match the surroundings and the service was not good. When I didn’t leave a tip, she asked, “Is everything okay?” Normally (which this is not) the Chinese hesitate or refuse to accept tips.
Saturday 11 September, 1999
