Thana Gu

It’s approximately 6pm on a Tuesday afternoon in the crazy city of Shanghai. The city that houses the tallest structure in Asia, the Shanghai Tower. This shot was taken right before the rain came. Glad it didn’t pour right away.

man wearing black and gray HPFJ suit standing on crosswalk closeup pho o

Busy streets of Shanghai at 7pm on a regular October night. Situated near the touristy “Nanjing East Road” walking street, here lies the old residential buildings scattered with street food, “hole in the wall’s” and small grocery vendors.

low angle photography grey concrete high-rise building

The Shanghai Tower is a 632 meter (2,073 ft) tall building situated in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai. There are countless photos of the “4 towers” (Shanghai Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center, Jin Mao Tower, and the Oriental Pearl Tower) arising in the web, showing their architectural beauty with the starry backdrop of a city. However, one cannot truly grasp the grandness of these giants until they have stood right beneath them – to see the solid grids and lines of what used to be yesterday’s fiction.

aerial view photography of star ground building

vehicle park on parking lot near gray highway aerial photography

Have you every wondered where your newly purchased car are stored and what it looked like from above?

Taken at the harbor somewhere in Whangarei, New Zealand.

low-angle photography of Petronas twin tower

A different angle to the famous Petronas Twin Tower in KL, Malaysia.

In China, one may find numerous “old town” that in reality are refurbished and no longer really “old” or “authentic”. Most of these attraction sites usually charge you a ticket to get in, and are either populated with small store fronts selling “local” produce which are either not local or could be bought online for probably less. However, this one, located 50km away from the city does preserve most of its “old town” flavors. After countless curves up and down the hills, we arrived there and had lunch at one of their local eateries. This shot came shortly after, when the rain seized.

Centered as one of the fastest growing, most populous cities in the world, one can often find contrast between the bloom neo-age of technology and tall glass bulidings, and old abandoned gems. This was one of them, sitting in the middle of what used to host the World Expo back in 2010.