One of the things I like about Hong Kong is that on Hong Kong Island you can walk from one shopping mall or skyscraper to the other using elevated walkways. Very convenient, you don’t need to cross streets and because they are covered you don’t even need an umbrella when it rains.
Shanghai is now going to copy this in Pudong, the financial and business district where most of the skyscrapers are located. There will be a ring-shaped elevated walkway linking most of the skyscrapers in Lujiazui (the CBD area around the Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao and IFC) and the metro stations. The plan is apparently already several years old, but only now it was approved.
The construction of the project will start in June already, but when the project will be finished was not reported so far. The first phase of the project will be a link between the Super Brand Mall on the Huangpu River and the almost finished International Financial Center.
I think it’s a great idea, because so far it has always been a hassle to walk around in the area. And I am sure it will be good for all the bars, restaurants and retail outlets if the tens of thousands of people living and working in the skyscrapers have easier access to them.
(Source: Shanghai Daily)
Thanks Marc for sharing this update with us. In fact this is something my dad and I always complain about whenever we walked from the Lujiazui Metro station to Jinmao tower; it’s so inconvenient!
They should have something like this earlier. Be better if they have flat belts like those in the airports so we don’t even need to walk 🙂
The belts would be even better, but the problem is that many people would stand still in the middle of it, blocking the way for other pedestrians (like on escalators in China). I also thought about wind protection (plastic windows?), because it can be very windy at times between the skyscrapers.