March 10th, 2007
Today’s 1st stop was the Yu Garden, followed by a quick tour at the Jade Buddha Temple. After, we had a short stay in the “old town” which had lots of things to see; crowds of people rubbing shoulder to shoudler, antique shops, food hawker stands and street vendors grabbing your arm hoping to sell you a rrrrrolexe or Gucci purse. Within 2 minutes, a man approached us and pulled out his menu of items. “Follow me”, he said. I replied, ‘okay, we go!” After walking through a few alleyways, down a dark path, up a few broken stairs and behind these hidden doors, we ended up in someone’s living quarters, shelves full of fake shit, and displayed quite neatly. I guess the crackdown on knock-off stuff is really on the high but as always, Chinese people will find a way when it comes to illegal stuff!
After lunch we strolled The Bund, the water-front area overlooking the many tall skyscrapers (Shanghai has over 2800 buildings over 20 storeys!!). Our free time was spent just down a few blocks on ‘Nanjing Road’, a 5 km stretch along one of the most popular streets for shopping. After about 4-5 times into the back alleys and into someone’s hole in the wall, we were getting use to the ‘follow me routine’.
Our day ended at the Shanghai Acrobatic Show, probably one of the best and most complete displays of ridiculous Chinese style gymnastics/stunts and acrobats I’ve ever seen. You wonder why China is so consistently strong in the summer olympics….these guys and gals start very young and can bend, lift and balance better than anyone on this earth
Today’s 1st stop was the Yu Garden, followed by a quick tour at the Jade Buddha Temple. After, we had a short stay in the “old town” which had lots of things to see; crowds of people rubbing shoulder to shoudler, antique shops, food hawker stands and street vendors grabbing your arm hoping to sell you a rrrrrolexe or Gucci purse. Within 2 minutes, a man approached us and pulled out his menu of items. “Follow me”, he said. I replied, ‘okay, we go!” After walking through a few alleyways, down a dark path, up a few broken stairs and behind these hidden doors, we ended up in someone’s living quarters, shelves full of fake shit, and displayed quite neatly. I guess the crackdown on knock-off stuff is really on the high but as always, Chinese people will find a way when it comes to illegal stuff!
After lunch we strolled The Bund, the water-front area overlooking the many tall skyscrapers (Shanghai has over 2800 buildings over 20 storeys!!). Our free time was spent just down a few blocks on ‘Nanjing Road’, a 5 km stretch along one of the most popular streets for shopping. After about 4-5 times into the back alleys and into someone’s hole in the wall, we were getting use to the ‘follow me routine’.
Our day ended at the Shanghai Acrobatic Show, probably one of the best and most complete displays of ridiculous Chinese style gymnastics/stunts and acrobats I’ve ever seen. You wonder why China is so consistently strong in the summer olympics….these guys and gals start very young and can bend, lift and balance better than anyone on this earth
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