We continued walking the four blocks as instructed, turned left, and come upon Old Town Shanghai. I was taken aback by the beauty of the area, the hustle and bustle of the people, and the Chinese architecture. I was really in China!
Man kicking back in a cart...
The detail at the peaks of the roofs was incredible!
Me and...Mao??
Ahhh...the fine art of bartering! Here's Claire going at it with a local vendor for a t-shirt she wanted to buy for her husband. When shopping in China, you never accept the first price you are given. One, because they see us North Americans coming and the price is instantly doubled or tripled, and two, because it is customary to do so.
At one stall I saw a beautiful robe I was interested in buying. The vendor came out and the price was 300 yuan ($60!). One of the first phrases I learned in Mandarin was "tigh gway luh" (too expensive!). Being American, I have learned to instantly come back with half of what they ask for, so out came my "tigh gway luh" and I offered 150 yuan. She said 300 and I said 150. She said 250 and I said 150. When this was not accepted, I walked away because I knew she was just trying to get the American to pay an inflated price. As I did so, I could hear, "Hey, Lady! 150!" I kept walking. "Hey, Lady! 100!" I kept walking. "Hey, Lady! 80!" I kept walking. "Hey, Lady! 50!" I kept walking. "Hey, Lady! 30!!!" I decided to call her bluff and turned around. "OK, 30," I said. To which she replied, "30? Who said 3o? 80!" I laughed and walked away again.
Calligraphy pens
More calligraphy pens
Beautiful fans
I popped into this shop to have a gifts made for my nieces. It had to do with their names written in Chinese characters and that's all I'm going to say.... Don't want to ruin the surprise!
While making the gifts, the gentleman did some calligraphy for another customer.
More calligraphy brushes.
More Chinese architecture.
This guy came up and offered me a ride.
Many motorcycles and scooters everywhere! Even mothers with their children used them to get around.
Long arm shot above the crowd to get a glimpse of the dancers in the square.
Yep, Starbucks! Even in Shanghai.
Lunch time! We found a great dim sum restaurant in the middle of Old Town Shanghai called LuBoLang. Even Bill and Hilary Clinton and Queen Elizabeth II dined here!
This was my first dim sum experience and, man, was I in heaven!
After having to pass up so many yummy things to eat for so long, I was very happy to be digging in!
Delicious!
Group shot in front of LuBoLang Restaurant.
That's the restaurant behind Claire and Nancy taking a picture of...
...me taking a picure!
All the young children were lined up to get a picture with Haibao,
Shanghai's World Expo mascot.
I too had to snap a picture with this creature who looked like a
combination of Smurf, Gumby, and Bob's Big Boy!
We then took a walk further into Old Town. Right around the corner was this beautiful tea house in the middle of a pond. If we weren't so full from our amazingly delicious lunch, we would have stepped right on in for a pot of tea.
Which way do we go? Decisions, decisions.
We decided to take a walk over the bridges that led to the tea house...
...and were greeted with picture postcard views.
Industrial size carp
Stay tuned...more to come!
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