I once heard some moms talking about an indoor play area called "Pigeon". I could have misheard the name. But anyone know anything about this? Where is it?

Thanks!

Yes, this is the address, they have a monthly membership around 500rmb and your childrens can play the time they want in there. But they don't have service in english (a couple of signs can help you to comunicate in case you don't have any help in chinese)

Room 101, 1078 Gubei Lu, tel: 32230351

They ticked me off so I'm not going back there. Three times I went there they told me conflicting information.

Pigeon is more Japanese environment than English but still it's a good place for kids to play around. Kidtown is another good place for kids, and more English environment. Other good places indoor "play" area are the local museums...

yyfam, you can also try to join the Australian Women's Group. They have a gathering once a week inside a nice play area within a community. You don't have to be Australian to join the group. 200/annual membership then 30 per morning or 60 per monring w/o the membership.

Wow, thanks every mama for all those information! Prompt replies, too. Thnak you!!!

I called Pigeonland and the price is pretty steep - 40RMB for the first 30 mins, and then 10RMB for every 10 mins thereafter. Where's Kidtown? pretty clean?

We joined Pigeon as we live 3 minutes away from it, and this was before Kidtown opened...now we have memberships at both places but frequent Kidtown all the time instead...Kidtown's location is on Hongmei Lu, it's on their website www.kidtown.com.cn. We find Kidtown to be very clean, and they advertise as a sanitary place fo kids...

Comparing the two, my only complaint is more about the Kidtown clients (not the place, I like the place a lot). I've noticed that a fair number of the kids at KidTown are cursed with the absentee-parent types. Dumping kids off entirely, or sending the ayi, or just sitting off to the side reading/gossiping while their children proceed to tear the place apart or harass other kids.

PigeonLand seems to attract parents who are more involved with their children during the visit. As a consequence, it tends to stay cleaner, less destroyed, than KidTown.

Again, not a knock against KidTown, more against the clients who frequent each one (hint, hint).

But, then again...I'm a guy...what do I know.....

mommy&kids wrote:I called Pigeonland and the price is pretty steep - 40RMB for the first 30 mins, and then 10RMB for every 10 mins thereafter.

I went to the website of kidtown. Same price. I agree the price is pretty steep.

Robtcb wrote:Comparing the two, my only complaint is more about the Kidtown clients (not the place, I like the place a lot). I've noticed that a fair number of the kids at KidTown are cursed with the absentee-parent types.

PigeonLand seems to attract parents who are more involved with their children during the visit. As a consequence, it tends to stay cleaner, less destroyed, than KidTown.

One poster mentioned that the environment of Pigeonland is more Japanese. I wonder if this nature has somehting to do with Robtcb's comparison of clients of the two places. I notice that Japanese moms I have seen are always with their kids. My building has lots of Japanese families, I've seldom seen Japanese kids with their ayis.

Thanks IAMNOTYAO for the info. I took my kids to Kidtown today and they enjoyed it. I can see what Robtcb meant about the absentee-parents, there were a handful of ayis as well as Japanese moms hanging out over there. Most of the time, the kids were kinda wild running around, but when the activity time started, most moms & ayis would join in. I just felt bad for the ayis who work there, they were constantly picking up toys and trying to tidy up the place. Overall Kidtown is a pretty decent place for the kids to spend a few hours there w/ free play and organized activities throughout the day. Price is still steep unless you purchase a membership.

[off topic post deleted- keep your babble in Open Chat or be banned...opps too late]

bewithdss wrote:yeah, pigeon is a kind of painful connection for a family marmar's character and FaFa's Character. You know many shanghai taxi drivers hand salary to wife, normal shanghaimen and chinese men from other province, there is the difference.

???

I want to second Robtcb's comment. My son got "bullied" in Kidtown!

Some Japanese speaking girls (I later found out from their mothers' accet that they're actually from Taiwan, like me! Shame...) decided that the playhouse with kitchen, strollers and babies are "theirs" and told me my son to leave when he tried to get in. My son did not really understand so he just stood there. One of the girls started shouting at him and the other started to block the door to the playhouse with toys. When my son tried to get a toy stroller they almost hit him trying to get the toy back.

I thought that I should let my son experience some tough side of life so I did not walk over to help him. But I tried to get the attention of the girls' mothers by saying loudly to the girls that they should share with other kids.

As there is no response whatsoever to my comments I thought the parents to the girls were absent, only to find out that they were just sitting next to me gossiping! They must have heard what I said but just ignored it... and being Taiwanese... shame...

While I'm at it might as well share our experience in other places.

Like the other posters have said, Kidtown is a good place except the absentee parent thing and the bullying children...

Pigeon is alwasy almost empty when we go (3 times so far, but always late Sunday morning). So my son has the place almost all to himself. Can't beat the cleasiness - could have rubbed my face on the floor no problem. Always someone to help watch the kids even though the parents are always there too.

One good thing for which I think Kidtown does beat Pigeon is that Kidtown is designed in a way that parents can sit in the middle and let the little ones explore around the place for a while. You can keep them within eyesight most of the time, while Pigeon has different separate "rooms" and you actually have to follow the kid when they walk around (comment from a lazy mother to an active toddler...)

Went to Shanghai Kids Museum yesterday. They tried to create the same environment, and the hardware are there. However it is obviously not attended to since a long time and the place just looks abandoned, broken equipment, missing toys, dirty floor... (although there were still quite some kids on a Sunday morning). No elevator and the main kids' area is on the second floor. Disappointed and will not go back again.