The pearl and the underground museum

In Shanghai you cannot fail to notice the orient pearl tower - it's the one that looks a wee bit like sky city only bigger, taller, rounder, more of everything.  Most people visit so they can ascend to the heights and see the city from above - in fact, on the day we visited it seemed like most of Shanghai was queued up waiting for the lifts.

We, on the other hand, were heading below ground.  For a fraction of the price of the view, you can buy tickets to the Shanghai history museum, a wonderland of models and old school museum displays, some with lights, others with automation, all with beguiling captions and explanations.

At first, the greatest thrill was to walk directly to our goal, compared with the thousands (I really think it was more than hundreds, but hard to tell as the queue circled around and around the building) waiting for their ride to the sky.  But once we were downstairs in the relative calm of the museum, the real fun began.

We started in the transport history room (see bus below), and then made our way towards the history of farming.  There was a strict route to follow, which made seeing everything remarkably easy.  Extra value was to be had from watching almost every Chinese visitor ignore the ropes, barriers, and signs, inviting people NOT to touch, enter, climb onto, etc the various exhibits.  Geoff and I, obviously, were models of good behaviour...

I did not know how much fun was to be had on a farm, but clearly the Ming Dynasty farmers knew how to have a really good time...

This child was having a lot of fun observing its mother enjoying her hard work - either that or the child is enjoying an early form of time out.

This shadow wall came before more urban scenes, as evidenced by Geoff, sitting alongside some typical old buildings on a typical old street (we learned so much...)

One of the quirkier spaces involved a (currently underutilised) green screen.  Undaunted, Geoff got stuck in and, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we bring you Geoff observing the early Shanghai stock market... So realistic - it's like we're right there with him...

This is possibly not the most representative selection of pictures - I have not served the museum well.  It was a great way to spend a morning and we did learn a few things along the way.  Recommended.