Easter in Shanghai

Easter is a Christian holiday and China is an atheist country which means I have to use a personal day to take off Good Friday. Here is what I did on my own created Easter break. 

On Thursday night I headed to Shanghai to my reserved hotel, Metropolo Jinjiang Hotels Classiq. I have been to the hotel before and it is in a great location and generally a nice hotel. Then I headed to Thursday night mass. 

Friday I slept in as much as I could and headed to the Shanghai Botanical Garden. It is a massive 81 hectares! There are a few green houses and conservatories, two children's play areas (one with bumper cars and a merry-go-round), and of course a lot of flowers and trees. When I visited, many of the flowers weren't in bloom or had just got done blooming but I still had a lot to see. There were a ton of students on field trips that day as well. I think I spent about four hours in this park.   

That night I went to Friday night mass, ate Italian near my church, and went home. 

Saturday morning I woke up at 8:00 am and had to do some school work. After that was finished I headed off to the Shanghai Aquarium and then the Power Station of Art. The aquarium was actually a lot nicer than I was expecting. They also had a lot more fish on display as well. My only problem was seeing shark eggs on exhibit because they looked real (the baby sharks inside were moving!!) and I didn't know how humane it was to keep them in those small boxes. 

In the martial arts exhibit they had the fish next to what their anime character would look like. It was weird. 

The shark eggs in their stages. The shark on the bottom of the picture would get up and swim around, so it was alive. 

They had a large underwater tunnel that patrons could walk through. I got dizzy after a while from looking at the contorted glass and had to hold on to the rail until I got out. Blast you aging! I spent about two hours in the aquarium and the lines weren't too long, but it was a bit crowded. 

My friend feels that she can't go to Chinese zoos or aquariums because she feels that the animals are suffering more in China than they would in other zoos. I visited Shanghai Zoo last year and definitely felt like they were mistreated and at this aquarium I questioned how well the animals were treated. 

The Power Station of Art was my next stop. The building is impressive but directly outside there is a lot of construction going on. The inside of the building was also incomplete. A few of the floors were closed off do to construction but there were art exhibits and it was free. I thought the museum was okay but would recommend the more famous Chinese Art Museum over this one, until the construction is done. Something you should know about China is that this isn't the first time a museum/shop/restaurant has been listed as "open" when really it is only half finished. Read the reviews for these places and know what you are getting into. 

They had digital media played on curtains. You walk through the curtains to get to the next media room. 

Saturday night I went to Easter Vigil mass and we didn't finish until midnight. To my despair, the subways are closed at midnight so I had to didi home. It wasn't too bad but since everyone was going home from that church, there was some traffic. 

My final day on Sunday I went to eat at a French restaurant called Cuivre. The staff speaks English, French, and Chinese and I thought the food was well priced and delicious. Then I went off to Century Park. This is also a large park and could have spent more time there if I didn't have to go back to the train station. It also started to rain on me which was a bummer. 

I wish there were more Easter themed things to do in Shanghai but found that on Smart Shanghai website they were either incorrect or catered more for children. I will be certainly happy to go back to America and get my Easter break and Easter candy that I miss so much. I am coming chocolate rabbits!