Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Day 10 - Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition, Shanghai Museum

Today was the first day on our own. First thing we had to do was transfer to the Yangtze Hotel. I had been in contact with my friend Anne Warr who's been living in Shanghai for the last 3 years. Anne had suggested I visit Peoples Square and the museum surrounding it. It turned out our hotel was right next door to People's Square and Nanjing Road so it was a great location. In the morning dad and I visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition, which was similar to the Beijing equivalent and just as interesting. Many displays, 360 degree audio visual where you floated down the Huangpu River. On the ground floor there was a great model of Shanghai and the river, but going up to the third floor there was an even bigger model taking up nearly the whole floor of Shanghai and surrounding suburbs, truly amazing stuff.

Dad was getting a bit tired so we had some lunch and I suggested he go back to the hotel for a rest while I went to visit the Shanghai Museum, another fantastic Chinese museum which featured many themed rooms, pottery, buddhas, ethnic costumes, furniture etc. plus a special exhibition of American paintings. There was a lot to see and I spent the whole afternoon exploring the many rooms.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/museum.htm

Then went to pick up Dad as we had arranged to meet up with Anne Warr and her partner Tim. Anne had given us instructions on using the train and we managed to successfully find our way to her "lane house" which was situated in the French Quarter. The Lane houses are exactly that, each lane has a gate at the front and the houses are sort of like terrace houses. Anne's place was renovated very tastefully and was four storeys high, very impressive, We also met little Max, the little chinese boy that Anne and Tim are trying to adopt. He was very cute. They decided to take us to a restaurant about 25 minutes walk away. The only problem was it was starting to rain a bit but the walk was very interesting as Anne pointed out some important residences and told us a bit about the history of the area and how expensive the property is now. Anne is now finishing off a book on Shanghai architecture and has a brochure out on walking tours of Shanghai. She also conducts walking tours sometimes. Dinner was quite nice and we decided to catch a taxi back as the rain was getting heavier.

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