Pearl Tower - Shanghai

Pearl Tower

Height 468Metres

Built - Finished in 1994

Whilst the Shanghai Tower is taller and has a higher observation deck, people flock to the Pearl Tower for its glass floor. It was great, although you could feel the movement of the tower when the wind blew up. The kids loved lying on the floor and getting photos. I even braved it. With such clear skies it provided great views, much better than last time I was there. You could see the sea from the observation deck.

The highest observation deck is at 350 metres. The middle observation level, which is the level that has the glass floor is at 263meters.  On the way down the students tried the Virtual Reality Roller Coaster. It was a roller coaster inside the Pearl Tower and you wore VR googles. The students loved it, as did the big kids that went on it (teachers). At 70RMB it was a bit on the expensive side but from all reports it was worth it.

 

Air China Hmmm

We arrived at the airport on the morning after a passenger attempted to storm the cock pit of a Malaysian Air flight expected there still to be security and delays everywhere, but no. We checked in pretty quick, got our boarding passes and headed for customs. In customs Shane and one of the girls got bomb tested, but all good. Although the lady gave me a funny look – I was shoved in the bottom of Shane’s bag. She then tried to help and escorted around the line waiting to go through the security scan. Just as we were, Shane’s phone rang and one of the girls passports hadn’t scanned properly so we had to get escorted back to Check In – Grrr. Soon were we through customs and those pesky departure cards weren’t collected we had to place them in a container – Double Grrr. 

Air China staff were good and let us on first. This though was about the only good thing about the staff on this day. After that you were lucky to get a smile out of them.The plane looked quite tired considering it was under 5 years old. We were soon in the air and on our way to Shanghai. As soon as the seatbelt signs went out the teachers re-arranged themselves. Shane got a bulk head seat – as if he needs the extra legroom. Milana thought this was good though as she could then sit with a friend.

The first meal was pretty ordinary and then to make it worse the second meal didn’t come out for about another 9 hours, just before landing. The kids were starving at this point. The second meal was a little better. The movies, average. There were a few older English movies but nothing that really jumped out at me. Of course IFE isn’t as big of a deal nowadays with personal devices that you can use. Shane used his time to right reports!

One thing that annoyed me about the flight was how cold it was. Yes I know the temperature has to be low but it was really really cold. Some of the teachers had gloves on!

All in all if I had to choose between China Eastern and Air China I would choose China Eastern! Just.

Shanghai Here I Come

Not long now until I head off to China. I am pretty excited; it has been pretty boring here at the moment. My last trip was camping at Easter. Big changes since I last mentioned China, the education department have knocked back schools taking two teachers so Leigh got the flick. 

Whilst I went 2 years ago, I’m sure lots has changed. In fact, I am hoping that we go up the new Shanghai tower. It’s the second biggest building in the world and has the highest observation deck. Shane’s looking forward to going on the Maglev train and actually going 431kmph. Last time we missed the last one and had to settle for 300kmph, Shane wasn’t happy. There are a few teachers in the same boat so they will be making sure they make that 431 train. 

I think there will be a lot of meals at Yangs Dumpling house which is just near our accommodation in Peoples Square. The kids seem to like breakfasts the most as they have a few more familiar things for them to have. 

Another difference this time is that airline. We are flying Air China, which has caused a bit of unrest amongst the travellers because you can only take 1 suitcase. Thank god Milana is there otherwise I might get tossed in the bin as Shane purchased a lot of junk last time. 

Well I can’t wait.