Saturday was awesome!
I got up early Saturday morning and went to East Nanjing road by myself. The boys had told me they didn’t want to get up too early so I didn’t disturb them. Nanjing road is the main shopping street of Shanghai. It is considered to be the 'No. 1 commercial street in China' and is 5.5 kilometers long. There are over 600 shops that on average are visited by 1.7 million people each day, making it one of the busiest shopping streets in the world! You could literally buy ANYTHING here – so obviously I felt like I had died and gone to heaven - a wonderful start to the day.
I tried my best not to wander round and procrastinate and tried to focus on the task in hand of finding the items on the list of things I wanted. This started with a trip to an optician. Three million people in China wear glasses and so they are available pretty cheaply. I chose an equivalent looking store on Nanjing road to Selfridges, I knew I might not get the best price here, but I wanted my eye test to be reliable and I knew you could still barter in these shops. I chose some nice Ralph Lauren (Polo) frames with the help of the shop assistant and then had an eye test. I was told to choose a price from a Chinese price list where only numbers are the same, so I tried my best to establish the difference between what you get for your money but did not really get many answers. I still don’t know. The price started out pretty much the same as England. I got them for half that price. I was told that they would be done in 3 hours! I was really pleased with the result. When I got them and wore them, it was like upgrading my face to HD!
Whilst I was waiting for my lenses to be made, I had a look around the other shops and bought some presents for my brother. Whilst buying these I made friends with one of the shopkeepers sons. His English was really good, I was amazed when he told me that he had never been to school but had learnt English, Russian and Spanish from the tourists in Shanghai! I was most impressed and we had some green tea together. After this he was my personal shopper and took me around the counterfeit markets in Nanjing road. He said that it is illegal to sell copies and so they have to be very careful. He took me to his sister’s shop where there were no branded products…until she opened a secret door into a whole different world! Whilst we were walking through the market, my Nanjing Road friend asked me to hold his hand. I asked why and he said ‘because I know everyone here in the Nanjing Road markets and they will think you are my English girlfriend! ‘ After completing my guided tour of the markets, my friend escorted me back to the high street and taught me a few methods of staying safe and how to hold my handbag so that I would safeguard myself against thieves. He rearranged all my shopping bags into canvass bags so that someone could not key a (plastic) bag and steal my things.
Algis and Miguel came to meet me in Nanjing road for lunch. My new friend recommended a place for us to go, which served traditional Chinese food for reasonable prices. We ate and then decided to go to Shanghai Aquarium in Pudong. The aquarium was designed so well. The internal structure of the architecture was almost as impressive as the animals! We saw alligators, turtles, sting rays, swordfish, iguanas, sea horses, and my favorite, the sharks!
Thumbs UP!
There was also a special event showing hundreds of jelly fish all different sizes, with multicoulored mood lights shone down through the tanks so that there translucent skin took the color of the light. I can honestly say it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
In standard Chinese fashion though, at the end of the aquarium, after you have been inspired by all of the beautiful creatures you have just witnessed, there is a seafood restaurant!! Brutal.
After the aquarium, we decided to visit Shanghai’s Museum of Contemporary Art (definitely my suggestion!) I was already excited enough about the idea of this, but can you imagine my absolute unbelievable frenzy when I saw that the current show was ‘CHANEL COUTURE CULTURE”! OH MY. I couldn’t believe that my already brilliant day could be topped off with something so marvelous! Inside there were two floors of Chanel memorabilia from founding until now. It was so impressive. There was also a dark room with a touch screen table with about 8 different silent videos of various aspect of Chanel, from the handmade production to catwalk shows. When you touched part of the background little bubbles of the Chanel logo glistened like diamonds. In another room there was a video with all the Chanel TV commercials playing on loop, from the first one ever made to the last one. We watched the whole loop. I was pretty much elated. The collection was beautiful; it was given an almost biblical theme, with a constellation of Chanel bibles upstairs. On the third floor was a restaurant and roof top garden. You were not allowed to take photographs inside the gallery, but you could upstairs. We had cocktails and snacks on the Chanel rooftop garden bar overlooking an incredible view of Shanghai. Très chic.
After this, we decided to check out one of the big nightclubs in Shanghai called M2. Upon entry I managed to acquire a big blue glow stick! There was a bit of a rave going on in the main area. Algis decided to get a table for us to celebrate our experience together in Shanghai. The table cost the equivalent of three months rent (in my Nanjing Road friends flat)!! Algis treated Miguel and I to this and I felt very spoilt! We had a brilliant night! I LOVE Shanghai!
Cheers! 乾杯 Gānbēi
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