Fun-packed weekend!

My debit card has just arrived but I can't collect it until Monday, so this weekend has seen the spending of my last 600 RMB! The last few days have seen me doing lotsof chinese lessons from my books, so I was dead keen to get some prctice in.

Shanghai is so hot and humid these days, and I'd heard that some of the malls featured certain countermeasures. So, Saturday morning saw me...


I went with Toshiba to Super Brand Mall (the best mall in Shanghai, very spacious, very tacky-classy art deco, lots of marble etc., but with a great overall feel) to their Ice Rink on floor 8! Great fun, although amazing 5 year olds put us boh to shame! My attempts at action photos didn't come out so well.


Wondered Pudong (the Eastern section of Shanghai across the river, it's a lot like Canary Wharf, the new business area in Shanghai) and saw Jin Mao tower (but both baulked at the 70 RMB price tag to actually go up it!)


It's twice as tall as Canary Wharf tower. The one they're building behind it is going to be even taller (tho not as nice, and still not as tall as one in Taiwan, but they don't like to talk about that here!)

Now as it happens, August 1st was my Professor's daughter's birthday, but because it was midweek she didn't celebrate, and her dad had left the day before to go home for a few weeks. She sounded pretty down so I suggested we organise a party for the weekend, which she really liked the sound of. So, at 5 I headed back, met up with a few students, and headed over to Partyworld, Shanghai's best KTV, for some choiral action!


Sung and ate (buffet!) clear through to 8 for 77 RMB (£5!!) a head. Then, headed to another part of Shanghai that I hadn't yet seen, Xin Tan Di - one of the biggest tourist spots, with daughter and one of her friends to explore. They have a giant chess set there! We tried to play but there was a steel willed Chinese kid there who kept replacing anything we moved!

A black knight! Also an evil child watching from stage right!

Two queens! No pink shirt jokes here tho please, I've heard them all before.

Today I went to dragonboats again, then went back to Super Brand Mall to investigate their cinema - and see Transformers! Very cheesy, not really my favourite but generally popular.