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Chinese culture and gardens were on the program for today. Not everything went according to plan, but the main idea was still there.
Yesterday we have been searching for the M&M's museum but unfortunately we didn't find it. Then when we were walking in the city center at night we saw that it is in a shopping mall on the main street. So today we decided to go there and check it out. It was a little bit disappointing because it wasn't really a museum. It was just a who story M&M's store with many different colors of their candies and different other M&M's souvenirs like mugs, cups, clothes and so on. It was super expensive so we didn't buy anything there. It was funny to see what they had, but way too expensive to buy something.
The next stop was planned to be the Museum of Science and Technology, but unfortunately that was closed when we arrived there. It's open every day but Monday. It was quite far away from the city center so we went there by metro. Luckily near this metro station was a huge shopping center with souvenirs, only souvenirs. So we spend some time over there before going the Century Park a few blocks further. It was a bit of a strange park because it looks very European, not like any other Chinese park I've seen so far. It was like going back to Europe and meeting many Chinese people in a park. The park itself wasn't very interesting after all so we decided to go back to the city center and visit the Shanghai Museum.
The Shanghai Museum has free entrance (good for students) and is about the history of Shanghai, for example the development of their characters, pottery and ceramics, cutting jade, currency and so on. It was interesting, but about an hour was enough for me. Meanwhile it was already time for dinner and the museum was about a half hour stroll away from the 'European District'.
The 'European District' is not actually called like that, but I don't know the real name. It just looks like that and there several French, Italian, Greek and other European restaurants. In my opinion it looked a bit like Paris. When we were there it started to rain so we went into a shopping mall for dinner. Ironically we ended up in a Chinese restaurant and ate dumplings and noodles, but it was very good.
Because it was still raining we wanted to go to the movies, but the two cinemas that we found in this district were very expensive. It costs about 100 Yuan (13 euros), which is very expensive in China. Back in the city center we checked the price too, but it was more or less the same. So we took a hot chocolate and went through some shopping centers hunting for a bar or café to have a drink. Again we didn't succeed, it seems impossible to find something to have a drink in Shanghai and in China in general. Not even in the narrow streets of Shanghai (those streets where you'd rather not go alone at night).
Eventually on the main square were two terraces, the only places we could find to drink a beer. Luckily they had huge umbrellas there so it was possible to sit outside, more or less dry. One beer was enough for the day and we went back to the hotel. Another day had passed quickly. Tomorrow is the meeting with the Finnish companies, let's see how that will be.
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