This morning we went to the Shanghai Cultural Museum which was quite an amazing place. There were four floors of exhibits and we only had around 1.5 hours which was nowhere near enough. The ancient coin area was fascinating and I have included a photo of a Genghis Khan coin! There was a calligraphy area and an amazing furniture section which I have posted a few photos of. After that we drove to the Bund which is the old colonial area of Shanghai (not quite accurate, but you'll have to look it up yourself if you are interested). This is a lovely area and has some wonderful early 20th century architecture as well as having a wonderful outlook across to the new area on the east side of the river. Took heaps of photos again of course! After that we went to lunch at a floating restaurant which was a seafood restaurant except that we didn't get seafood! In fact, what we did get was a little bit ordinary and there were the usual complaints about not enough spice! Anyway we made do, and then drove to the Jin Mao tower building which is the one with the rather ornate meringue type top in the photos. Yes, you guessed it I went up to the top (dad remained with his feet firmly planted on the ground)! What an experience. The lift took us to the 88th floor at a rate of 9.1 m/s. It was amazing, and the views from the top were, well... scary! I hate heights! Incredibly, the Grand Hyatt hotel occupies the 53rd to 87th floors and we looked down the middle of the tower to the reception desk approximately 150 metres below!! See the photos, it really was nuts! Not only that but they also had a Kiwi ice-cream parlour up there selling Wanaka brand ice-cream which was really yummy and billed as the highest ice-cream shop in the world. We also got a free pearl for going there. Nice gimmick. More on that another time.

After that, we drove to the maglev station and boarded the maglev train for a trip to the airport and back. What an experience. Definitely one of the most amazing I have ever had! 431km/h!!! Awesome! On the way we passed the train going the other way at around 360km/h and it is just like somebody hit you! Incredible! There is a challenge out to anyone who can get a photo of the other train but reaction times are just not quick enough. I got it on video coming back. The speed makes the vehicles travelling at normal freeway speed look like they are standing still!

We returned to the hotel after that and after a little respite had dinner and then retired to our room and were asleep before 10pm!

What a day!