Listen to the World’s First Jukeboxes| Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre
The Shanghai Gallery of Antique Music Boxes and Mechanical Works is a tiny gem tucked away on the fourth floor in the beautiful Oriental Arts Centre (RMB50). It’s home to the oldest music box in the world and an exquisite collection of perfectly preserved disc music boxes, the ancestors of the jukebox. Half the museum is devoted to rare automata from masters like Gustave Vichy and Pierre Jaquet Droz, featuring spooky dolls that can blink, sing, dance and even draw pictures. Be sure to listen to the melodies of 18th century musical chairs and 100-year-old singing birdcages. For a really cultural evening, pop into the museum and then take in a classical concert.

Go Wild | Shanghai Wild Animal Park
Few places in Shanghai offer acres upon acres of unadulterated nature, which is why we were so pleased to find regal white tigers sunning themselves among the trees and large ponds in their roomy enclosure at the Wild Animal Park. The 400-acre park features an expansive, open-air reserve in which you can see an array of large animals including zebras, tigers and bears roaming freely from the safety of a bus (free with admission), or you can rent a two-person bike (RMB50 per hour) and pedal around the more enclosed half of the zoo to see ligers (lions cross-bred with tigers), giraffes, and emus. There’s even a show featuring bears on bicycles and elephants playing soccer. RMB130 for adults; RMB65 for children under 1.3m. To get there, take Metro line 2 to Zhangjiang High Technology Park, then take the Zhangnan line bus outside Exit 5.

Get Animated | Shanghai Animation & Comics Museum
The Shanghai Animation and Comics Museum is a seriously entertaining ride through Western and Chinese animation past and present. The first floor of the exhibition space offers a fascinating look at the evolution of comics in China and the influential role they played through the changing political landscapes of the last century, and original sketches are shown together with animated movies from the famous Shanghai Animation Film Studio in the ’50s and ’60s. On the second floor kids big and small can learn how modern animation and computer games are made, and there’s even the chance to create your own short films, which can be viewed in the 3-D cinema on the top floor. Fans of animation can hang with the icons of Marvel comics and Walt Disney, while more mature gamers will go all misty-eyed looking at the line-up of old gaming consoles. RMB30

Eat Free Steak Sandwiches | Morton's Steakhouse
Shanghai is awash with happy hour deals, but the “Mortini” happy hour at Morton’s Steakhouse is in a league of its own. They offer a choice of five signature martinis for just RMB38 each (plus 10 percent surcharge), sided by unlimited servings of filet mignon steak sandwiches stuffed with grain-fed Australian beef. Be sure to ask for the hand-stuffed blue cheese olives.

Eat Shanghai’s Best Wings | Kyochon Chicken
South Korea’s not known for its chicken wings, but this chain really delivers the goods. Kyochon made its name by inventing a two-part frying process that renders its chicken extra crispy on the outside and moist within, and makes all its wings fresh-to-order (packs of four to 12 wings are RMB18-50). They offer only three basic wing varieties: original (flavored with ginger soy sauce), honey and spicy, though the latter, washed down with a pint of beer (RMB25), is our top pick. Pudong peeps within 2km of the store (the only one in China) even get free delivery.

Freeze Your Butt Off | Ice Bar at Käfer by the Binjiang One
Yes, it’s kind of like your Shanghai apartment in the winter, but believe us, this is colder. Käfer, just south of Lujiazui, is home to the city’s only remaining ice bar, and they keep the entire thing chilled to a frosty -5 degrees Celcius. It’s got piles of snow scattered liberally around the bar, parkas for visitors and 150 different vodkas to choose from, including bottles from unlikely places like Ireland and Mexico (shots from RMB65).

Go to the Extreme | All Over Pudong
Shanghai’s a city of excess, but if you want to experience the most-est, you’ll have to come to Pudong. It’s got the Maglev, the fastest commercial train on earth (with a top speed of 437km/h), the SWFC, the highest building in Mainland China (492m) and even the world’s longest laundry chute at the Grand Hyatt (88 floors long and built with air buffers to slow falling linens). The aquarium features the longest underwater observation tunnel in Asia, and Century Park is the city’s largest completed park. More’s coming in the next few years: the Shanghai Tower, due to be completed in 2014, will be 632 meters tall, and even the castle in the upcoming Disneyland is slated to be the biggest Disney castle ever.

Breathe | All Over Pudong
Shanghai hit record highs with its air pollution numbers in 2011, so if you’re looking for a breath of fresh air, Pudong’s the place to get it. It’s closer to the incoming ocean breeze and further from the myriad factories that have been moved to neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang, two factors that have dropped its API rating (China’s measurement of air pollution) 10 percent below Puxi’s average level on most days. For more API info click here.

Ball Out | Shanghai Sharks Basketball
If there was ever a time to get into the CBA, it’s now. The NBA is on strike, freeing up a bunch of big-league talent to come out and play. Even though the Sharks themselves haven’t yet signed any big-name imports, they look poised to challenge for a playoff spot with a new coach and continued development from its younger players. The home opener at Yuanshen Stadium is against Guangsha on Nov. 30, but there are great matchups all through the season: Dec. 14 sees perennial powerhouse Xinjiang come in led by Denver Nugget Kenyon Martin and former Sharks coach (and current National Team coach) Bob Donewald, while Beijing comes to town Dec. 25 led by former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury for a Christmas Day rivalry game and Jan. 15 sees four-time defending champs Guangdong storm in with seven former and current National Team players flanking 7-foot NBA center Yi Jianlian. Tickets run from RMB40-200.

Bike to the Ocean | South China Sea
This is a full-day excursion if you live in Puxi, so be sure you’re on the ferry by midmorning if you’re up for this adventure—that way you can stop in Jinqiao for a quick lunch. From there, just keep heading east past CEIBS until you hit the ocean. It’s about a four-hour ride round-trip for the average rider, and there are both friendly villagers to provide directions and a small stream you can follow most of the way out. More ambitious riders can even head north all the way up to Binjiang Forest Park (also accessible via Gangcheng Lu Station on Metro line 6), where the Huangpu and Yangtze Rivers meet the South China Sea.

See Italy | Pujiang Italy Town
OK, so it’s not really Italy, but it is part of the Shanghai government’s half-aborted “One City, Nine Towns” initiative, which endeavors to build towns in the suburbs with features from nine participating countries (Thames Town is its English equivalent). The Italian installment isn’t much frequented, but it does have a self-proclaimed “Venetian” canal (pictured below), a couple of knock-off furniture stores and more right angles than all of (real) Italy combined.

Eat Your Heart Out | Yasmine's Steakhouse
Yasmine’s has two of the most ridiculous eating challenges in all of Asia. First off, they have a monstrous 3kg burger (RMB138): composed of a 800g patty, 600g of bun and 600g of veggies, it’s free if you can manage to finish it (100 of some 10,000 entrants have so far). Even more ridiculous is their 2kg Australian strip loin (RMB498)—if you can join the five others who have beat that, you’ll get your meal free plus you’ll take home RMB1,000. A couple of caveats: both challenges are “clean plate” challenges, so you have to scarf down the sides as well, and you have to finish by yourself in one two-hour sitting (no bathroom or cigarette breaks allowed).

Live in 4-D | Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
Blasé about 3-D? Then head over to the Science & Technology Museum for the 4-D Disney cinema experience. You’ll be blasted with water, thrown around in your seat and generally hurled into the heart of the movie. If that doesn’t blow your mind, there’s a world of other weird science to explore, from interacting with robots and passing through an alimentary canal to getting a grip on relativity, Einstein-style, in the Light of Wisdom exhibition.

Taste History | Ippoh Shanghai
“If you like tempura, this is the place to be,” says chef Toyo Seki. We believe him. His family has been cooking up tempura for five generations—Ippoh in Japan has been around since 1850, and the Osaka and Kyoto outposts of the restaurant won Michelin stars last year. Chef Toyo has expanded the Ippoh empire to China, and he’s doing it the way his family’s always done it: fresh and light. With a wok full of safflower oil and a basic, lumpy batter, he cooks up the city’s best tempura right in front of your eyes, all of it so delicately fluffy and noiselessly crunchy that you’d swear the frying process transforms the batter into a puff of a cloud from heaven. Our favorites are the shrimp (RMB38 per piece) and the meatier abalone (RMB80).

See a Picasso | Expo China Pavilion
This show won’t be around forever, so be sure to catch it before it closes in January. As part of the Shanghai International Arts Festival, the China Pavilion is currently exhibiting 62 pieces (48 paintings, seven sculptures and seven prints) from Picasso on loan from the National Picasso Museum in Paris, making this the biggest show of its type to ever hit the Chinese Mainland. Pieces from all three of the Spanish artist’s major periods will be on display, including “The Barefoot Girl,” “Woman in Red Armchair” and “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” As an added bonus, 50 photographs from Picasso’s life will also be displayed. And you thought you'd never go back to Expo. RMB80 weekdays, RMB120 weekends.