Shay's Field Trip

As part of Shay's unit of inquiry this term, Grade 2 went on a field trip to the famous Dong Fang Ming Zhu or Oriental Pearl Tower, probably Shanghai's most recognisable building.  This is the wonderful thing about living here - the children experiencing all this and, as I hadn't been before I took the opportunity of being a parent helper for the day.  We went as far as the second "pearl" or level and the kids looked at natural and man-made features of Shanghai.  Unfortunately the view wasn't that great due to Shanghai's famous smog but we saw the Jin Mao Tower and the World Financial Centre or "Bottle Opener" as it is known here which is now China's tallest building and Huang Pu

river and loads of other buildings and the new shipping terminal.  Later we went to the museum to look at how Shanghai has changed over time.  The kids whizzed through so I might go back and have a proper look.

As the Pearl Tower is an area where there are lots of Chinese tourists from various other provinces and judging by the stares, provinces which probably don't have international schools, the kids were the stared at and photographed and poked and prodded.  It actually was a bit unnerving at times but luckily the kids were too busy looking at the view to notice.