Our spaceship landed today in the form of The Oriental Pearl TV Tower. What an inexplicable building! We went up to the top “ball” and the viewing area at 264 metres to look out at the weird and wonderful skyline of Shanghai. There seems to be massive competition between the buildings to create the most unusual shapes and heights – i guess it comes as close as possible to an architects playground, where the sense of fun and the optical illusion is everything.

We also went to see The Childrens Palace – i had assumed this would be some plastic, playground monstrousity purpose built to bring on parental migraine! I merely proved that i still haven’t gotten China! It was a arts, crafts and general betterment “school”….teaching children from aged 2 logical thinking, musical instruments, Chinese opera and caligraphy. I was truely impressed by how disciplined the kids were – certainly if compared to mine where a 30 sec ad break in SpongeBob can lead to melt down!
Must admit i was a little uncomfortable visiting the school as it felt a little like intrusion. Saying that, 2 students aged about 12 year spontaneously gave us a musical recital on the piano and a local stringed thingie.

We lunched in the biggest shopping centre in Asia (everything here is biggest, highest, fastest etc.)….felt immediately at home here 🙂 Ciaran tried to buy some shoes, but they only stocked up to size 8!

We headed to the Shanghai Museum and looked at priceless porcelain, furniture, traditional costumes, jade and ancient sculpture. All very impressive and beautifully displayed – but as usual, 2 hours in and feet were sore, legs hanging off and the ability to retain info had reached crisis point!

After dinner we walked along the Bund and looked at the lit up night sky – sadly ever to be associated with Tom Cruise and MI3. I think everyone in Shanghai was there – it certainly felt like 24 million people.

We have a day to ourselves tomorrow before heading to the airport at 4pm to fly to Sydney – we are thinking to the Jade Buddist Temple.

I have had a wonderful time in China, but must admit to looking forward, just a little, to being somewhere i can read signs, menus etc. I’ve also been really suprised by how much general attention Adam and Cora have received. We are asked for photos constantly and feel a bit like a tourist attraction ourselves!!!!