During the first part of the week William, Oliver and I went to the Shanghai Sculpture Park with Lisa, Henry and Charlie and Meeta and Ria. It was the first time we had been and the children all loved exploring the giant tree house and building sand castles on the 'beach'.
We quickly realised the purpose built nature of the beach when we dug down and hit the membrane holding the sand in place. The children thought it was great as it meant the water stayed in the moat.
A local school party offered their help too.
Another attraction of the beach for the children was the life sized models which I thought were real people at first.
We also rented a boat and allowed all the children a go at driving until they had made us feel sick from going in circles.
Oliver, William and I went to the Science and Technology museum where we encountered hundreds of school parties with hundreds of iPads who took hundreds of photos of us.
William and Oliver particularly enjoyed the robots who solved Rubik's cubes.
On Sam's first day off we met up with Lisa, Darren, Henry and Charlie and Noor, Mark, Tess, Lotte and Dirk at Big Bamboo. It was just about warm enough to have lunch outside and the children all enjoyed playing together.
For the remainder of the week we decided to book ourselves in to a hotel in the French Concession on the other side of the river in order to explore some of that area and have a bit of a break. Intercontinental have just opened there and were doing 'soft opening' special offers. The hotel was amazing. It used to be the State Guesthouse and has played host to visiting dignitaries including President Nixon and Chairman Mao. It is like a huge villa with very extensive grounds which make it peaceful and yet it is in the middle of one of the busiest parts of Shanghai. The interior is very Art Deco and the new buildings have been sympathetically designed to blend in well.
After arriving and checking in on Friday morning we headed out to an Indian restaurant, Saffron. It has not been open a year yet but has been getting excellent reviews. It was the best Indian meal we have had so far in Shanghai. This then tired us out so we headed back to the hotel to use the lovely pool for the afternoon and to make the most of the club lounge afternoon tea and happy hour and canapés!
Breakfast the next morning was excellent and after filling ourselves we headed to the Jade Buddha Temple to see the 1.9 metre tall Buddha carved from one continuous piece of jade.
We also decided to head to the Shanghai Natural History Museum as Oliver and William are very in to dinosaurs and we were told there were some bones there. As we stepped in to the building we felt as if we were being transported back in time. The dinosaur bones were impressive but the room they were in felt a little like a shed.
The rest of the museum had a 70's feel to it with many of the displays covered in dust and looking very dated.
After looking at the description for each floor we made a beeline for the Ancient Chinese Corpse!
This turned out to be unwrapped mummies! There were photos of its excavation showing many jewels and gold but all that was on display was the body! The boys enjoyed themselves and Sam and I enjoyed the museum as a museum of itself. Our afternoon followed the same pattern as the previous day.
On the Sunday morning we headed home to get ready for the week ahead. Sam is off to Chongching for the week, I am teaching my second full week since having the boys and we are preparing for my mum's first visit to Shanghai! Exciting!
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