水岚: China Trip No. 6 - 12 September 2009 (Day 2) - Shanghai Science & Technology Museum (上海科技馆), Oriental Art Centre (上海东方艺术中心), Century Boulevard (世纪大道)

It took me less than 2 hours to finish the whole Xing Chang Ancient Town (新场古镇); I still remembered it was around 11:45 a.m. I decided to take my lunch here before my departure. I went into a Fu Jian Snack Shop (福建小吃馆) and ordered myself a bowl of roast duck noodle. The weather is a bit steamy hot; I waited for 45 minutes at the bus station. Since this is a rural area, the bus is not so frequent.

When I reached Long Yang Road station (龙阳路站) I decided to visit Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and Shanghai Oriental Art Centre. These two are located at Pudong area and it is 3 stations away from Long Yang Road station. The other reason is that I would like to attend a concert at the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre since that day is Saturday.

So the first thing when I reached Century Boulevard station was running all I can to the Oriental Art Centre with the hope of getting a chance to watch a concert. Yes, there was a concert that day and it was scheduled to be performed by an Italian Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of a popular Chinese conductor. The ticket I bought is the cheapest but costed me RMB200. But worth it.

The Shanghai Technology and Science Museum located right beside the Century Boul

evard. One can reach there at Century Boulevard Station. This museum takes up to 68,000 sq metres of space and costs around US$183 millions to build up this museum with various theme covering man, nature, science and technology. It is a very huge museum and felt tired walking around because I don’t normally see such colossal building in Malaysia. There is an IMAX centre inside too. An entrance fee to the museum is around RMB60. One of the interesting items I saw in front of the Museum is the Celestial Globe (浑天仪) . I came out from the museum around 4:30p.m. Then I took the subway train heading back to my hostel in order to groom myself for tonight concert.

The Shanghai Oriental Art Centre is one of the many performing art centres in Shanghai. It is located right opposite the Century Boulevard and was designed in a stunning butterfly shaped. It is also home to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The art centre comprises 3 performance theatre (music, opera and theatre) and an exhibition hall. The design of the building is fantastic. It was a wonderful night.

The concert ended at around 10pm, I decided to take a stroll along the Century Boulevard. The night scene is beautiful and is very quite.