Shanghai Part 2: Pudong and Dumplings stuffed with the Ovary and Digestive Glands of a Crab...

Tuesday: I should mention that the weather was not so good; it was a bit grey and murky, the temperature was round about 14 Degrees C, not as cold and wet as back in Britain; but still, it could have been better! Talking to R's brother, in the summer it far gets too hot and humid in the city, so if you're thinking of a trip the ideal time would probably be in the spring/autumn. Who knows you may even get some sun ;-) Anyway, today we took the kids into Pudong, up the second highest tower in the world, the Financial Center or the "Bottle Opener" as it is affectionately known. Going up the lifts your ears pop about 10 times due to the change in altitude. At the top of the tower there is a glass bridge which forms the top of the tower, quite scary, but Abby seemed to take it all in her fearless stride. Oscar was less impressed ;-) he fell asleep while I was taking photos from the top of the tower, bless! Then back to the hotel for another swim ;-)




Wednesday: Went (back) to Pudong, as that is where all the major touristy things are. went to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum , which was massive and full of lots of kid experiments and learn/play areas for Abby to enjoy, like a robot arm that drew a picture of Abs. We then had a walk around the nearby Century Park (Shiji Gongyuan), Shanghai's biggest park. Unfortunately/fortunately Abby fell asleep before we found the arcade rides ;-) We then got some vegetable and *ground bone* baby food from the nearby supermarket for Oscar as he was running out. We then had a bit of a nightmare as the taxis don't seem to like going out of their district in the rush hour, so we had to take a two stage taxi ride.

R's brother took me for an expedition to get some cut price DVDs (DVDs are 50p a shot over there, I picked up about 10 of the latest films for about £4!!!! Highly recommended, not sure about the legality of it all...;-) had a quick meal in a pizza place (R's brother was totally bored of Chinese food after 6 months there so kept trying to find us western food restaurants, grrrr! It's actually a good idea for Abby because she prefers plain food, but I just don't think the Chinese do good western /Italian food; I think they should stick to what they're good at, and we should stick to eating it ;-) We then went to the Yu Garden & Bazaar (Chinese Tea area), but lost the in laws and R's brother. Even though we asked to go to the same place the taxis dropped us off in different areas and we had no way of knowing where each other were...what did we do before mobile phones?



We then found an *interesting* eatery (see left photo), I was all up for trying it but no one else seemed interested, for shame ;-) anyway we decided to try KFC so Abby could have some chips, but she fell asleep before we could order, KFC did do delicious crab claws in breadcrumbs as a side order, so not all bad. After that it was back to the hotel to meet up with the in-laws, who were a bit worried. A bit of a drama but no harm done; we were all safe and sound. R's brother had scared us all a bit with tales of unlicensed taxis taking people down back streets to do impromptu kidney removals for lucrative transplants, but I'm not sure how much truth there is in this, probably just an urban legend?! In the evening we decided to try the the Japanese restaurant that was attached to the hotel via a secret passage, and ordered Sushi (gorgeous, but why is there never enough of it? I swear I could eat 100 sushi pieces and still not have enough ;-)) and lovely big Ramen noodles with roasted eel. Funnily enough this turned out to be the best restaurant we found on the trip, and it was right next to us.