Super Brand Mall

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The Super Brand Mall is definitely bigger than any mall I've ever been to! Now for those of you who know me well, I'm not really much of a shopper, so that doesn't say a lot, but, it is 10 stories high and even has an ice skating rink on the 8th floor! The Chinese call it Zhengda Guangchang.
After almost 2 hrs traveling time - a taxi to the metro station nearest our apt, then 3 different metro lines, and a walk across a huge street - with everything we needed for the weekend in our backpacks, we arrived at the mall! This was our first "solo" travel other than by taxi, so we were glad we made it successfully! The Shanghai Metro System is very clearly marked and I had an English metro map which helped tremendously!
We arrived at lunchtime and decided to try the Blue Frog. We sat on the outdoor terrace and had a wonderful Western lunch. Funny, as we looked around us, almost all of the patrons were foreigners, it was almost easy to pretend we were having lunch back in the states! From where we sat, we could see the Oriental Pearl Tower.
Our next stop was Toys R Us, the reason we chose to come to this mall! Leah just celebrated her birthday and we were on a search for some Littlest Pet Shop toys. I had posted a message on the Shanghai Expat forums and some kind person told us that Toys R Us has the best selection in town! (That saved a lot of shopping!!!) Toys R Us was not as large as those in the states, but satisfied Leah's desires. The pets cost about the same as they would have at home. We then visited Tom's World, a big arcade chain here in Shanghai. I played my favorite, Skeeball, and we tried some others. Funny, at home there is always a big row of Skeeball - here there were only 4 games! It seemed like shooting baskets was the biggest draw, and the chance games were quite busy.
When we finished there, we were ready for Leah's other request - Cold Stone Creamery ice Cream - which was in the basement. Yummy as always!
Then the search for the bookstore began. We couldn't find the one I had seen written about online, but found another one that had an English section, not very large really, but, they had the book Leah has been wanting! Cats of the Clans (Cat Warrior series by Erin Hunt).
We were all tired (to say the least!), so with our list completed, we headed to our hotel!

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Photos

Leah and Jim
lunch at the Blue Frog

Leah with Chinese Geoffrey
Toys R Us

Leah and new pets
Cold Stone Creamery

Ice Skating Rink
on 8th floor

McDonald's sighting
Jim says they have the best coffee in China

Egyptology in China???
This was a surprise! I think it was on the 8th floor by the movie theatre and a restaurant that had Egyptian themed decor!

The backpackers
A whole new way of travel for us!