The rivalry between Beijing and Shanghai runs pretty deep; it’s like Tom and Jerry, Ali vs. Frazier, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. Beijing is the political and cultural capital of China, while Shanghai leads on finance and fashion. Beijing has smog, Shanghai is smug. And so on.

There’s no doubt which side we here at beijingkids fall on – the clue is in the name. However to live in China and not experience one of its great cities would be taking civic loyalty a step too far. So Andrew Killeen and his family set off for the town once known as “Little Suzhou,” to see what it has to offer.

Our first taste of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum (SSTM) proved to be rather problematic, as we were unconvinced that the best way to save rare and endangered species was by killing and stuffing them. So we headed on to the Robotics exhibition in the hope of less controversial edification.

The robots on display were certainly smart. Two specialized in Rubik’s cubes: after solving the puzzle, they placed it on a turntable which you could rotate to get hold of the puzzle and mix it up before returning it to the robot, so you knew they weren’t cheating. Unfortunately one of the cubes had a missing face, so the robot stuck with the impossible puzzle would pick it up, contemplate it from every angle and then put it down again with what I couldn’t help imagining to be an expression of existential despair.

Getting “hands on” is what SSTM is all about, and there’s plenty of exciting things you can do with the robots: competing with them at archery, posing while they sketch your portrait, or watching them perform ballet. Unfortunately though we couldn’t get anywhere near them, due to the crowds. If you want to get the best out of the Museum, I would strongly recommend getting there early in the morning, preferably on a school day.

So we headed out to find something interactive which we might be able to interact with. Reasoning that the higher we went, the fewer people there would be, we made our way to the top floor, and the Human Body Exhibit. Here there were sporting activities which kids could take part in, such as a penalty shootout against a virtual goalkeeper.

The queues were shorter as we’d hoped, but the frustration continued, as kids pushed in, grabbed, snatched, and generally failed to observe any rules of courtesy or fairness. In many cases parents not only stood by and watched, but actively encouraged their children to jump the line, and our despairing cries of “ 排队 !” were in vain.

Eventually though the boys got their turn, and Noah managed to beat the virtual goalie, though he abandoned the cycling simulator as being “a bit rubbish.” By now we were all tired and hungry, and returned to the ground floor. We made our way to the exit via the Geology display, but the boys had had enough education, and pretended they were in an underground goblin-ridden dungeon instead of learning about plate tectonics and coal mining.

There’s much to enjoy at SSTM (we saw less than half of the exhibits), and if you’re visiting Shanghai with kids it should definitely be on your itinerary. However you should allow plenty of time, and go equipped with supplies of water, assertiveness, and sharp elbows.

Photos: Andrew Killeen

The rivalry between Beijing and Shanghai runs pretty deep; it’s like Tom and Jerry, Ali vs. Frazier, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. Beijing is the political and cultural capital of China, while Shanghai leads on finance and fashion. Beijing has smog, Shanghai is smug. And so on.

There’s no doubt which side we here at beijingkids fall on – the clue is in the name. However to live in China and not experience one of its great cities would be taking civic loyalty a step too far. So Andrew Killeen and his family set off for the town once known as “Little Suzhou,” to see what it has to offer.

Our first stop was the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. This is easy enough to find, as it has its own subway station, conveniently named after it. From there though, if you choose the wrong exit, you have to navigate through an underground market where you will run the gauntlet of eager salespeople offering you shoes, silk dresses and fake soccer jerseys.

The Museum itself is a vast, shiny construction, looking a little like a flying saucer. It boasts five floors of displays for a mere RMB 60 per adult / RMB 30 per child (kids under 1.4m get in free), and you should allow at least a couple of hours if you want to see all it has to offer. It’s so big I’ve had to stretch this account over two blog posts, but as a major draw for children it’s also very crowded, unpleasantly so in places. Of which more later.

Controversially preferring the red panda to its giant cousin

My boys, being nature lovers, headed straight for Animals World, where we encountered displays of charismatic megafauna from all continents. They were delighted, pointing out the snow leopard and the red panda, but I was a little disturbed. Some, like the hippo and crocodile, looked like plastic models, but most of the mammals appeared to be – stuffed?

Another area featured a mocked-up rain forest, and stone caverns with giant robot bugs and snakes of dubious educational value. Perhaps most poignant was the stuffed pangolin. This beautiful and desperately rare creature was posed in a plastic ball, staring at us with glass eyes.

“Giant bugs!” But I don’t see the educational value – “I said GIANT. ROBOT. BUGS.”

“I’m finding this a bit depressing,” Noah said, as we surveyed a cabinet which educated us about conservation by means of dead stuffed examples of the most endangered species.

I agreed, but Joseph said “I love it here!”

Then Noah explained to him how taxidermy worked. He nearly walked out of the Museum in disgust.

“Come on,” I said, “let’s skip the Spiders.” (The display was so packed we couldn’t get into anyway.) “Let’s go and see the Robots! Surely there can’t be any ethical issues there.”

Spiderman has also been hunted down and stuffed for the Shanghai Science Museum

Just goes to show how wrong you can be…

Photos: Andrew Killeen