1. See Shanghai in Miniature @ Urban Planning Exhibition Hall

If you still haven’t made it to this museum, set aside your next rainy day for a trip. It’s located inside the weird white up-ended spaceship in People’s Park, and is most famous for its amazing scale model of Shanghai that you can walk around on a series of raised platforms. The archive photos of Shanghai through the ages are also worth a look, and we particularly enjoyed steering a ship up the Huangpu on the special simulator.

Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, 100 Renmin Da Dao, near Xizang Lu

2. Indoor Climbing @ Hongkou Stadium

What better way to spend a rainy day than hanging by your fingertips from a rocky outcrop? Ok, so it’s Hongkou Stadium and not the Grand Canyon, but things can get pretty vertiginous up in there. Open since 1998, Hengyi is Shanghai’s longest established indoor climbing facility. It has 500 square meters of climbing space and a variety of routes up the walls.

Hengyi Indoors Rock Climbing Gym, 3/F, Gate 21, Hongkou Football Stadium, 444 Dongjiangwan Lu, near Huayuan Lu

3. See Mao’s Ashtray @ Shanghai Tobacco Museum

This quirky museum in Yangpu offers plenty of “WTF?” moments, including displays of smoking paraphernalia belonging to nicotine-addicted dignitaries like Deng Xiaoping and the Helmsman himself. For history buffs, it provides a nice round-up of China’s tobacco industry, and for everyone else it’s another notch on your ‘bizarre Shanghai experiences’ bedpost.

728 Changyang Lu, near Tongbei Road

4. Go-Karting @ Disc Kart Indoor Karting

If you’re anything like us, the last time you went go-karting was for your cousin’s 10th birthday. Relive those heady childhood days of hard knocks and grazed knees at Disc Kart. With 4,500 square meters of indoor track and a well-stocked bar, it’s either the best or the worst idea you’ve ever had.

809 Zaoyang Lu, near Jinshajiang Lu metro station

5. Get Your Skates on @ Champion Skating Rink

Ice-skating is more commonly associated with winter, but Champion Skating Rink is open all year round. If it’s raining outside, an afternoon on the ice is a good way to escape the humidity.

Champion Skating Rink, 8 Songhu Lu, Youyicheng Shopping Center, near Handan Lu

6. See Some Art @ M50

Everyone knows about M50, the contemporary art complex on Moganshan Lu, but for most of us it’s one of those “do it on a rainy day” things. So now the rainy season is here, it’s time to head over to the creek. As well as plenty of urban grit (graffiti, buildings marked for demolition, etc.) there are galleries, cafés, shops and studios.

M50, 50 Moganshan Lu, near Changhua Lu