Our penultimate day in China and Alex and Thomas have been out and about to bring us this report:

Alex
We visited a Middle School and watched the assembly
After breakfast we visited a Kindergarten, it was a great play with the pupils
Following the kindergarten visit we took a taxi to Hong Kong shopping mall I got some presents
In Volleyball it was an exciting game
Athletics we were going to go athletics it was too late so we came straight back to the hotel
Old Shanghai town we did some shopping and had a meal and came back to the hotel

Champagne moment of the day: Volleyball - it was an exciting game between Finland and Slovakia

Thomas

Today we went to the middle school for the assembly then we went to the kindergarten and played some games then we went to the volleyball to watch the finals and that was excellent.

Champagne moment of the day: watching the volleyball finals.

Tuesday in Shanghai
Alex Treloar tells us the score:

Gymnastics we went to Gymnastics
Swimming we went to Swimming
We went on a boat trip it was exciting
Champagne moment of the day: I enjoyed boat it was interesting

Thomas Humble shares his rumbles:

We went to the gymnastics and it was great
Following this we went to the swimming finals and that was great as well
Then we went on the boat trip and it was nice and relaxing and the boat was posh.

Champagne moment of the day: The boat trip

Our evening trip took us very hurriedly to Shanghai's Bund. The reason for our rush was that we could not find taxis for all the group and by the time we did everyone ended up having to run so that we didn't miss our boat trip. It certainly helped to raise our heart rates and our steps on the pedometers. Thomas' pedometer started the evening at 1,000 steps and finished at over 8,000 - great work out for everyone!
We had a boat trip up and down the Huangpu River taking in the fantastic sights and bright lights - a sight to behold. I think most people's favourite landmark was the Pearl Tower and we are going up here tomorrow evening - great. See if you can find out what the Bund is and which historic buildings it actually houses?
We finished our evening with a walk along the Bund and then up Nanging Road - China's most famous shopping street. Here Mr Dawson and Mr Thompson managed to buy some designer t shirts at Chinese prices, which made them both very happy!
Pearl Tower from Haungpu River

Following the medal ceremonies at the gymnastics event we headed straight to the Shanghai Pudong Natatorium where swimming finals were happening. The stadium was packed out for these finals. This meant we did not have seats very close to the action but still had an exciting afternoon. Sadly for us only one British swimmer had made it through to these final stages and was placed 6th in her final. Although we had no one in particular to cheer for we joined in with everyone else and made plenty of noise in support of swimmers from all the other countries.

Fantastic full day at the 2007 Special Olympics Summer Games. The morning saw us visiting the Shanghai International Gymnastics Centre for the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Finals & Awards. We saw some very exciting competitions in all Olympic disciplines. There was a great battle between the Russian gymnast and the Great Britain gymnast, Lee Davidson.
We were very fortunate to be sitting beside the Great Britain team who joined with us in cheering Lee on to his overall silver medal. It was a very close competition but Lee just wasn't quite good enough to beat the Russian gymnast, Valeriy Yagafarov. Lee also took second place in the following disciplines behind Valeriy Yagafarov - Floor, Horizontal Bar, Parallel Bars, Pommell, Rings and Vault. A fantastic achievement all round. Before leaving the stadium for the swimming we were able to witness some of the medal ceremonies as well.
Lee on his way to Silver for GBR

Mr Thompson in action?

Continue reading "Tuesday Morning in Shanghai" »

We have received a message from Ms Copper who says: We all enjoyed our visit to Luwan Special School yesterday.

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Hot off the press from Alex:

Visit to Luan Special school – enjoyed joining in games with other pupils. I liked the really warm welcome and the lunch was ok. Enjoyed the little work shops that had been set up especially the painting workshop
Free time
Champagne moment of the day: I enjoyed playing ping pong with pupils

...and Thomas:

Visit to Luan Special school – I liked it because it was a nice little quiet school. School dinner was just all right, not great
Free time
Champagne moment of the day: I enjoyed playing games with the pupils.

Continue reading "Monday in Shanghai" »

Alex reporting:
Tai-chi – went for a run and did some exercise with Mr Dawson
Athletics – the stadium was fantastic, the racing was exciting, would like to have stayed and watched some more events. Did not spend long enough here.
Old village – was interesting and worthwhile. Boat trip was good but disappointed that we were only on the boat for such a short time.
Champagne moment of the day: Doing tai-chi at 6:45

Thomas reporting:
Athletics – I enjoyed the athletics and wish we could have stayed longer because it was really good.
Old village – was all right. Bought a few presents.

Champagne moment of the day: Going to see the athletics

Continue reading "Sunday in Shanghai" »