Our first day in Shanghai. Either I've gotten tougher or we've lucked out and the bed is softer than I remember Chinese beds being, as I slept really well last night. I was awake early and enjoyed having a look at the city skyline from our hotel window. We are on the 23 rd floor, so we have a good view. We can see the river from both sides of the apartment too, so the river view claim has held up well.
Out the window we can see China's tallest building. We call it the bottle opener because of its shape and we have a great view of it from front on. We have a glimpse of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We are going to visit it tomorrow for a buffet lunch and then have dinner there when we get back to Shanghai at the end of my trip.
We started the day off with breakfast at the hotel. the room has one breakfast included and the second breakfast costs 50 yuan (~$8). We didn't buy the extra breakfasts when we booked because we like to wander out and try the local restaurants. If I'm feeling really brave we may even try street food.
The breakfast was quite lovely. There was the traditional option of congee. I've never tried it. I don't like porridge or sago or tapioca or rice pudding, so I can't see that congee is going to be on my breakfast list. A couple of people were standing by to cook eggs to order. The cereal option was tucked to one side. There were pastries and toast and hot and cold food. The hot food included fried rice, steamed buns, a cabbage and noodle dish, mini-sausages, bacon, cauliflower, green vegetables, corn, and baked beans. The cold food included curly black mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, cold meat and fruit.
Because I've been working so hard to lose weight, I concentrated on filling my plate up with vegetables. I also had some bacon and one sausage, tried a steam bun and the cabbage and noodle dish. I really enjoyed it. Graham added an egg to his breakfast and didn't take quite so many vegetables. We both enjoyed our meal but we'll venture out tomorrow when we're feeling more rested.
We were up ridiculously early. The shops in China don't open until 10 am, so we wandered off for a walk around the area. We like exploring down the smaller streets as that's where you find the local markets. We headed off in the direction of the river, as they are doing up the Pudong side. We had hoped to walk along the river but we were met by a giant construction project. I'm sure it will be lovely this time next year. Instead, we wandered around a gated apartment complex, all electric fences above attractive fencing, with glimpses of greenery and a series of giant apartment buildings looming above us. We then worked our way around to some older style apartment buildings. To our delight we found a local market. We wandered in for a look. You could tell that they weren't interested in tourists as nobody tried to sell us anything. We were checked out quite thoroughly and politely, as we walked from stall to stall, but we're used to that. A nod and a smile to the stall holder seems to keep everyone happy.
We got back to the hotel, waited a little longer as we were still too early for the shops, then made our way by metro to Nanjing Road to get our Chinese sim cards. Once we had that organized, we headed off to the fabric market via the metro from People's Square. It would be so easy to catch a taxi, but it's so much fun to travel on the subway. It's amazingly easy to do. It also makes me feel really adventurous as we don't see many westerners on the metro.
Graham had worked out how to get us to the fabric markets by studying maps of Shanghai, and remembering where the taxi had taken us on previous visits. We got there without any trouble and then the serious part of the day began.
I shopped. And shopped. And shopped. Graham waited and waited and waited. He was so good. We got to the fabric market at around 11. We stopped for air at around 3:30. I went through my list, checking off items and working out what I still wanted to buy. We worked out that we needed more cash for deposits than we'd expected. Fortunately, we found a bank near the market that changed travellers' cheques, no small feat as we've learned in the past. It takes ages to change money, which gave us both a well needed rest, then we headed back into the fray and I shopped some more.
I ended up buying my work clothes - jackets, trousers, skirts, shirts (winter and summer), some casual tops to wear on the weekend, a beautiful top to wear out to dinner, and the leather coat that I wanted. Not only that, I spent less than my budget, so I have money left over for ready made clothes if I want to buy any, as well as accessories. If you add the cost of my flight and my clothes together I am still well ahead. :-)
To give you some idea of the savings I made, I priced a leather coat before I went away at $575. It wasn't the style I wanted and would have been too long in the arms and in length for me. I bought a leather coat, right style, right length, exact colour I wanted for $225. My work jackets averaged out to be 1/3 of the price I would have paid in Canberra, and my work shirts were less than 1/4 of the ticket price in the stores. The most expensive top I bought, which I'll wear out on special occasions, was less than $40. A casual t-shirt style top from Target is $40. I don't have to have anything taken up when I get home either.
All the hard work and preparation paid off. I am glad Graham was willing to stay there for so long. We shopped for a good six hours. I was exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. I was also thrilled with my purchases. All that remains is to try them all on when we get back to Shanghai, then pay the balance and somehow fit them into my suitcase to get them home to Oz. I can see my old clothes being bundled into a box and shipped home via a slow boat.
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