Shanghai holds itself distinctively apart from the rest of its Chinese peers. The exuberant, dynamic city has a young, hip and energetic attitude that saves it from the atmosphere of stodgy industrialism and one-track expansion which plagues its sister metropolises. The city is too busy looking out the windshield to glance out its rearview mirror, nor does it appear to suffer for it, as attested by its futuristic skyline and explosion of color, playgroundsand amusements for its ever-expanding middle class which is also cut out of an altogether different cloth than the average Chinese.
Enter Aquaria 21, yet another ambitious and innovative playground that merges an insatiable appetite for new experiences with engineering and resource-management genius. This is a water-themed amusement park that Shanghai proudly adds to its already expansive repertoire. The entrance to the aquarium is fashioned in the likeness of an aircraft and (somewhat incongruently) a lost temple of the Incas. Inside, its massive glass tanks house a variety of local and imported marine life such as colorful crabs, starfish, sea horses, tuna, rays and even sharks all of which inhabit a careful recreation of the undersea habitats for the public’s viewing pleasure. One of the park’s main highlights is the touch pool where children are allowed to submerge themselves alongside the undersea creatures and observe them up close and personally. The species of marine life are so varied as to encompass aquatic life native to the Amazon River as well as Antarctica.
This modern indoor aquarium offers beginners and veterans of diving alike the chance to explore the wonders of the ocean floor. The park provides diving equipment and instruction for amateurs. So strap on your flippers and explore the shoals of fish swimming obliviously among buried treasure beside a ship wreck; the cool streams and cascades of a dense rainforest; the bright coral gardens secreted within the deepest blue of the ocean. Fearlessly hobnob in the territory of sharks and sea snakes – discover a whole new world in the realm of mermaids!
This is one of the numerous must-see sites of Shanghai, easily accessed by travelers staying at the heart of the city. The traveler picking out Shanghai executive apartments must be advised that a Shanghai Serviced Residence is an alternative which is rapidly gaining vogue, especially in the case of extended trips. Somerset Xu Hui is a luxury serviced residence which is located not only within the city’s commercial district but also in convenient proximity to the city’s transit links, which makes accessibility to any part of the city a very easy exercise.
