Appooppanthaadi -46

Today was the day I had to collect my passport from the visa centre in Shanghai. I am in China on a business visa. For Indians, China issues business visa for 30 days with a validity period of 90 days. We can enter China within 90 days from the date of issue of visa and stay here for 30 days. Before the expiry of 30 days, if we wish to continue, we can get our visa extended for another 3 months with 2 entries. Our company's registered office is in shanghai and hence I went to the visa centre in Shanghai.

Last week I deposited the passport there with a request to extend the visa. It is so simple. We just have to carry our passport along with the filled up application and some documents to proove our office address. I just walked into the second floor hall, pressed a button on the machine at the entrance. It gave the queue number. I waited in the chair there. within 15 minutes, my turn has come. The visa official, checked the documents, collected my passport and then issued a receipt. All this process ended in less than 5 minutes. There was no teeming crowd anywhere and there was no queue and in turn no queue jumping.

Babus do their job as they are expected to do. Everything was seen like a well greased engine. I was out of the visa center in one hour. from there I headed to the Century Park. Centry park is a vast beautiful park in the middle of the city. It is a natural jungle in the middle of the concrete jungle. There is a big lake in the middle. An escape from the concrete jungle to the cool breeze and chirping sounds is simply relaxing. If you are Shanghia, you shall not miss Century Park. 



While collecting back the passport with extended visa, it took just 10 minutes. There was a queue on the first floor         (there is no ground floor in China) to pay the fee. I paid 252 yuans and then stood on another queue to collect the passport. All was over in just 10 minutes.

In the morning, I traveled from Suzhou Industrial Park to Shanghai by train. Shoshou Industrial Park is a well designed Industrial Area around 100 KM away from Shanghai.There are so many well organised Industrial Parks in China that propel the country to prosperity. 

Inside a first class coach of the train

One interesting thing we have to notice here is that, in front of most of the manufacturing units, national flags fly. One, the Chinese flag and the other, of their bete noir USA's. Suzhou has a cute little railway station and so many bullet trains have halt here. The train chugged on to the platform at 1035hrs and it did started off sharp at its scheduled departure time 1037hrs.  Exactly after 20 minutes, the train was at Shanghai railway station. The train has been running at 300KMPH. There was no time to take even a short nap.

Though visa extension was the reason, the main purpose of visitng Shanghai was always to go around the city. This time my destination was Shanghai Science and technology Museum. Immediately after collecting the passport, I walked down to the Museum. Took ticket at 60 yuans. Shanghai
Science and Technology Museum is a well maintained Technology exhibition centre. It is not a museum but a Science centre. We have equally interesting science centres in our cities. I could visit them in Chennai and Portblair. Though it is heard that Bangalore's science and technology Centre is excellent, I could not vist yet. Still, there is a big difference. Most of the proto-types that are on dislay in our science centres will be dis-functional, thanks to the civic sense we show in the public places.

The Brain wave game, the magic room, the mirror house and the picture drawing robot were really interesting. For the first time in my life, I experienced an earth quake. It was really frightening. No wonder, when the earth shakes for a few seconds, we are badly exposed of our weeknesses. We look so silly and helpless. But, as our Rathisbhai from Andaman says, earth quake never kills anyone, it is our own buildings and structures do.

The 4D film show, the skeloton of dinosaurs, the space craft experience and so many items are there to explore. A full day needs to spared to complete the visit to this Tech centre. I wish I had my kid with me. This is one of the best places in Shanghai to enjoy and learn. 

Click the link here and have a photo tour: (remember to see the captions at the bottom of the photos) :
 https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/ShanghaiScienceTechnologyMuseum?authkey=Gv1sRgCM7do7zsv7T3xgE&feat=email