Dongping National Forest Park is located on Chongming Island lying on the estuary of the Yangtze River and just an hour away from downtown Shanghai, with water crossing by ferry or the spectacular Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge. Chongming Island is the site of the Dongtan Eco-City, an ambitious project designed to create a sustainable future city in harmony with the island’s reputation as a nature lover’s retreat. In this setting of wetlands teeming with migratory birds, luxuriant vegetation, farmlands and pastoral life is the Dongping National Forest Reserve, a man-made forest park offering outdoor recreation like camping and BBQs, rock climbing, water sports, horse riding, fruit picking and other back-to-nature activities for young and old. Occupying 3.5 sq km the park can take several hours to cover, but bicycle rentals, trams rides and refreshment stations provide welcome relief.  Those with time to spare can visit other attractions on Chongming Island like the eco-villa

The China Peasant Painting Village is an art colony located in Jinshan county on the outskirts of Shanghai, about two hours drive from the city centre. Set in verdant environments and modelled on a typical farming community complete with streams and ponds, vegetable patches, orchards, and traditional farming equipment, its main purpose is to showcase peasant paintings by farmers living in the surrounding farmlands and beyond.  Between sowing and harvesting, farmers do have time on their hands. What better past-time for the artistically inclined than to pick up a brush and share the beauty of pastoral life with the urbanites outside. Scenes of daily life, fruit harvesting, festivals, farm animals and other rural subjects are depicted with simplicity of execution and vibrant colours in marked contrast to the ink and wash style of classical Chinese painting. The medium of choice is gouache (or poster colour) on paper though other media like oil and acrylic are gaining ground. At

Located in People’s Square, the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre offers you a peek into the Shanghai of yesterday, today and tomorrow, spread over several floors. On the lobby level there is usually a themed display to draw you in.  The main exhibit located on level 3 is a mammoth scale model of the city giving you a bird’s eye view of the existing structures and those planned or under development. Other attractions showcase the city’s history with photos, drawings and multimedia shows. To top it all there is a presentation of the future Shanghai using 3D simulation for an exhilarating flythrough of the city projected on a 360 degree cyclorama screen around the viewing platform. It is so heady you might want to grab the railings provided.  The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre with its distinctive roof structure.   A feature display in the lobby atrium. The scale model of the city. Closeup view of the Pudong area with its skyscrape