China Travel, Travel Articles

Source: NYTimes
URL: http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/travel/10journeys.html

June 10, 2007
Journeys | Shanghai
An Outsider’s Camera Provides a Ticket Into a Secret World
By HOWARD W. FRENCH

I CAN still perfectly recall those moments, a handful of times late in my first year here in Shanghai, when the late afternoon light was at its limpid best and the very special beauty of this city seemed distilled for me in all its clarity.

There was the scene around a blackened wok in which thick sections of river fish had been freshly deposited in dancing, golden oil, drawing a hungry and animated crowd that was more interested in focusing on matters at hand than in locking in on the foreigner with the big, old-fashioned camera who was busily taking their pictures.

There was the pudgy boy taking his time with a mass of cotton candy as he clung to a street sign post, circling it now and then like a game park carousel. He eyed me more warily, probably never having seen anything like my Rolleiflex, with its bulging eye-like twin lenses. But eventually his pink snack provided just enough distraction, allowing me to get a shot that even now feels like a ticket into a secret world.

There was the grizzled man in the wool cap and greatcoat, perfectly still, with one foot perched on his bicycle cart stacked high with mushrooms. He had parked his cart smack dab in the middle of the street, as if he were holding the line against the encroachments of a new and unwelcome kind of lifestyle: one built around honking automobiles and fluorescent-lit supermarkets.

(Posted Image)
Howard French, NYT

All three of these scenes were shot on a street so obscure that I found most taxi drivers needed directions to get there. It is not that the neighborhood is so far from the center of the city. It is not. Rather, Shanxi Road, just north of Suzhou Creek, had been more or less spared the unsparing onslaught of demolishing crews that precedes the breakneck redevelopment of this city, making it a very special, if neglected place.

Standing in the middle of Shanxi Road along with its salt-of-the-earth traders in those early days couldn’t have been more of a revelation for me than if I had I stepped into a time machine and strapped myself in for a journey. Here was a slice of that increasingly rare thing in China, indeed anywhere — the authentic.

(Posted Image)
Howard French, NYT

Neighborhoods like these, and the city that was built from them, were Shanghai’s unique contribution to a culture whose experience of cities was long and distinguished, going back at least 3,700 years, but which had nonetheless never seen anything like this before.

Other large Chinese cities had in fact always been more like oversize villages; the greatest of them, Beijing, being a gigantic imperial village. But Shanghai, a precocious forerunner of today’s globalization, with its influx a century ago of bankers and industrialists from the world over, was new and different. And byways like Shanxi Road with their busy grid layouts, their European-influenced housing of two-story walk-ups, their internal courtyards and endless alleyways were built to accommodate a new kind of lifestyle created for and by millions of migrants drawn by the novelty of cash-paying jobs in factories.

My love of Shanxi Road gradually led me toward other discoveries, and over the last three years, I have come to relish nothing more than finding these unspoiled outposts of the past in the middle of Shanghai’s ever thickening forest of skyscrapers and losing myself in them for hours at a time, camera in hand.

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Howard French, NYT

None of the neighborhoods that I began to plunge into were truly hidden. Rather, they lived on in their quiet timeless way, wholly unsuspected from just a block or two away, obscured as it were by flashy new neighborhoods composed of jostling tall structures or roped off by looping expressways. I stumbled upon one after a stroll down Huai Hai Road, one of Shanghai’s great modern shopping boulevards. The telltale sign of traditional black Chinese-style roof tiles, just barely visible, lured me down a narrow, gently winding side street, which I followed for a short distance until it spilled onto a larger street, which took my breath away.

This street, Fangbang Road, in all of its slightly shabby glory, became one of the centers of my photographic world over the next two years, drawing me back again and again, as surely as I was pulled along that late afternoon that fall day by the swift current of foot traffic of people returning home in time for an early dinner. Busier by a good measure than Shanxi Road, with small shops open to the street on the ground floor of just about every building — a fish monger chopping up his catch here, a poultry dealer depluming chickens for a customer by dunking them in scalding water there, the incessant beckoning Cry of the fresh fruit and vegetables ladies — it took me a while to catch the rhythm of this place.

Eventually, though, I learned to isolate people taking a break from the bustle, and now and then I managed to freeze, as it were, those moments of absolute calm.

One of the most pleasurable of these moments happened as I came upon a shirtless young boy on a stultifying summer afternoon. He sat on the curb in front of his empty bicycle cart, having sold or delivered its cargo and wearing a look of deep fatigue.

Another day on that same street in that same season I happened upon a family at dinner, their chairs and table in the street. As I crept closer, the boy was being scolded by his mother — ostensibly about not finishing his dinner. I knelt on one knee and quietly took the shot, feeling like a privileged guest at the most intimate of rituals.

To walk these streets is to get a skewed impression of Chinese demographics. Old people are everywhere, and they form an undeniable part of the character of these places, with etched faces that speak of all the unspeakable travails of China’s modern history. With the areas I have focused on — all fast coming under the assault of bulldozers — the gazes of the elderly often seem to convey their deep sense of uncertainty, anxiety even, as the tightly knit neighborhoods where they have spent their lives are plowed under and they are moved to unfamiliar settings on the outskirts of town for the difficult climb of making a new life.

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Howard French, NYT

These looks, seen over and over, inevitably raise the question of how Shanghai’s people feel about the extraordinary urban redevelopment process that is under way. For the most part, they have never been asked, certainly not by the government, which executes its grand designs by fiat.

The answer, in fact, is not a simple one. Shanghai’s fast-disappearing old quarters drip with charm, but they are also full of problems, from cramped living spaces that have been subdivided over the years to inadequate heating and plumbing.

Many who can afford to move into the high-rises sprouting up everywhere are happy to do so. Others wear looks of mourning.

Over and over again, I have been asked by the people of these neighborhoods what is my purpose in taking pictures of these lives? Am I trying to show a bad side of China? To make fun of poor people?

I have no trouble answering, and my reply is effective more often than not because it is sincere. “I take pictures in your neighborhood because there is something very beautiful about the lifestyle you have,” I say. “Things may not be perfect, but there is a very special kind of community you have, and soon places like this will all be gone.”

HOWARD W. FRENCH is chief of the Shanghai bureau of The Times. His website is at www.howardwfrench.net.

Okay, this isn't a travel article but I didn't know where else to post it. It's more social commentary than anything else. There's also a video that accompanies the article.

Source: New York Times
URL: www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/world/asia/25pole.html?ref=asia


July 25, 2008
From the Erotic Domain, an Aerobic Trend in China
By JIMMY WANG

(Posted Image)
Shiho Fukada for New York Times


BEIJING — Clad in knee-high leather boots, spandex shorts and a sports bra, Xiao Yan struck a pose two feet off the ground, her head glistening with sweat and her arms straining as she suspended herself from a vertical pole.

“Keeping your grip is the hardest part,” she said. “It’s really easy to slide downward.”

Ms. Xiao, 26, who works as a supermarket manager, is one of a growing number of women experimenting with China’s newest, and most controversial, fitness activity: pole dancing.

“I used to take a normal aerobics class, but it was boring and monotonous,” Ms. Xiao said. “So I tried out pole dancing. It’s a really social activity. I’ve met a lot of girls here who I’m now close friends with. And I like that it makes me feel sexy.”

A nightclub activity mostly considered the domain of strippers in the United States, pole dancing — but with clothes kept on — is nudging its way into the mainstream Chinese exercise market, with increasing numbers of gyms and dance schools offering classes.

The woman who claims to have brought pole dancing to China, Luo Lan, 39, is from Yichun, a small town in Jiangxi Province in southeastern China. Her parents teach physics at the university level.

“I’m not good at science like my parents. I’m the black sheep of my family, in that sense,” she said.

Ms. Luo said she struggled in 20 different occupations — secretary, saleswoman, restaurateur and translator among them — before deciding to take a break. She traveled to Paris in 2006 for vacation. It was there that she first saw pole dancing.

“I wandered into a pub, and there was a woman dancing on the stage,” she said. “I thought it was beautiful.”

Ms. Luo, who quickly discovered that pole dancing for fitness was popular in America, realized that if she could take away the shadier aspects of the erotic dance and repackage it into an activity more acceptable to mainstream Chinese women, she might create a Chinese fitness revolution. Here was an exercise that would allow women to stay fit and express their sexuality with an unprecedented degree of openness and freedom.

But she remained keenly aware of the challenges in a society where traditional values dictate that women be loyal, faithful and modestly dressed.

Upon her return to Beijing, Ms. Luo invested a little under $3,000 of her savings to start the Lolan Pole Dancing School. She placed advertisements in a lifestyle newspaper and called friends to get the word out.

Slowly, young women trickled in to take a look.

“People here have never seen a pole dance, and for that reason they don’t associate it with stripping or women of ill repute,” Ms. Luo said. “I knew if I could give people a positive first impression of this as a clean, fun, social activity, people wouldn’t just accept it, they’d embrace it.”

Before long, Ms. Luo was contacted by several magazines. In March 2008, Hunan Television, a nationally broadcast network, invited her and a group of her students to perform on a talk show.

“Most of the people in the audience had no idea what this was,” said Hu Jing, 24, an instructor at the Lolan School. “They just thought it was fun and clapped afterward.”

Since the broadcast, pole dancing for fitness has spread through China. The school now has five studios with plans to open six more this year. A rival pole dancing school, Hua Ling, opened half a year after the Lolan School.

Pole dancing’s move onto the fitness scene, however, has been a rocky one. Many Chinese, who disapprove of its sexual movements, consider it unruly and licentious.

“Five years ago, this wouldn’t have been permitted,” said Zhang Jian, 30, a manager in an interior design firm. “I think this is just a fad, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for women.”

Ms. Luo said she had received prank calls and plenty of criticism. “I’ve been contacted by many people who don’t like what we’re doing,” she said.

But those who embrace pole dancing for fitness are a snapshot of urban youths whose values are changing from those of their parents.

Although China has no state religion, study of Confucianism and Taoism, two conflicting philosophies that underlie much of modern Chinese thought, is mandatory in China’s education system. While Confucianism emphasizes achievement and propriety, Taoism stresses the unseen strengths in being humble and, in some cases, being perceived as average.

Although Jiang Li, 23, a pole dancing student, studied both philosophies in school, she said she could subscribe to neither.

“A lot of people expect Chinese women to be subdued and faithful, that we should marry and take care of kids at an early age,” she said. “But I don’t think that way — I want to be independent. I’ve been studying traditional Chinese dance for many years, but this is totally different. I feel in control when I do this. If I learn this well, I feel I can be a superstar. I want to be a superstar.”

Lucy Liang contributed research.

Source: NYT
URL: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/travel/15hours.html

March 15, 2009
36 Hours in Shanghai
By ARIC CHEN

NOW that the Beijing Olympics are but a memory, the spotlight in China is moving to Shanghai as that city gears up to host the 2010 World Expo. With an anticipated 70 million visitors and 200 participating countries, the six-month World’s Fair will be enormous by any measure — not that Shanghai has ever needed an excuse to party. While the global economic slowdown has had its impact, Beijing’s naughty sister is still up to her tricks: from the flashing neon signs and light-bedazzled skyscrapers to the throbbing clubs and houses from the foreign-concession era hiding their decadent secrets. But beyond the clichés, mainland China’s most cosmopolitan city still offers a breadth of experiences.

Friday

7 p.m.
1) JOURNEY TO KITSCH

Tonight is about embracing the kitsch. So set the tone by taking the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, a Disneyesque ride from the historic Bund area (look for the sign across from the Peace Hotel on Nanjing Road East) to the futuristic Pudong district. Buy the 40 yuan ticket (about $5.70 at 7 yuan to the dollar), and a silver pod will shuttle you across the Huangpu River through an extravaganza of pulsing, flashing and spiraling lights, creepy blow-up dolls and even creepier voice-overs (“hell and paradise,” “nascent magma”). Don’t ask questions; just sit back and look forward to that cocktail at the end of the night.

8 p.m.
2) DINE AT THE TOP

But first more sensory overload. Emerge from the tunnel in Pudong and walk toward the Oriental Pearl Tower, a TV tower that would be Shanghai’s Statue of Liberty if the Statue of Liberty looked like a rocket ship in Christmas lights. Then head to the skyscraper with the giant hole at the top: the new 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center. If you can stomach it, go up to the 100th-floor observation deck (150 yuan) with its terrifying glass floors. Otherwise, enter through the Park Hyatt Shanghai and take the elevator to 100 Century Avenue, the sprawling restaurant on the 91st floor with triple-height atriums. Its six open kitchens serve everything from oysters and pasta to sushi, Peking duck and wagyu beef (dinner for two, with wine, about 2,000 yuan). Admire the geometric mosaic floors and swirling bas-reliefs — if you can keep your eyes off the panoramic views.

10 p.m.
3) DRINKING IT IN

You can’t avoid the Bund. Across the river from Pudong, this waterfront stretch of Art Deco and other edifices is Shanghai’s signature promenade and a hub of upscale restaurants and bars. At night, its floodlit facades offer an unparalleled vantage point for marveling at the giant light show that is Pudong. So go for a nightcap at the Glamour Bar (No. 5 on the Bund, sixth floor; 86-21-6329-3751), a perennially popular lounge with a 1930s inflection.

11:30 p.m.
4) UNTIL IT’S OVER

Caught a second wind? Head to No. 18 on the Bund, which, depending on your perspective, is either a hotbed for the stylish and beautiful or a nightmare of boozy, over-coiffed expats in too much cologne and too-tight camisoles. There you’ll find two swanky spots: Bar Rouge (seventh floor; 86-21-6339-1199) and Lounge 18 (fourth floor; 86-21-6323-8399). For something more underground, don’t miss the Shelter (5 Yongfu Road; 86-21-6437-0400), a testing ground for up-and-coming D.J.’s. Housed in a former bomb shelter and painted black, it’s packed with the hoodie-and-skullcap set.

Saturday

11 a.m.
5) NOSH AND SHOP

Start your day in the French Concession district, with its old lane houses and tree-lined streets — specifically, in the former residence that now houses the Citizen Cafe & Bar (222 Jinxian Road, 86-21-6258-1620; www.citizenshanghai.com). Try the club sandwich (45 yuan) in a parlor-like setting of wainscoting, vintage-style ceiling fans and velvet banquettes. Then have a wander among the area’s fashionable boutiques. Make sure to stop by the antiques shops known as Lao Zhou’s (152 and 204 Jinxian Road; 86-136-8191-6036) for Old Shanghai-era furniture and knickknacks; One by One (141-10 Changle Road; 86-21-5306-3280; also at 141-12 Changle Road and 143 Xinle Road) for work by the city’s emerging conceptual fashion designers; and Spin (758 Julu Road, Building 3; 86-21-6279-2545), which produces contemporary ceramics in the traditional porcelain-making center of Jingdezhen.

2 p.m.
6) ROOM FOR DUMPLINGS

Feeling peckish? Despite lines that are often long, Yang’s Fry-Dumpling (54-60 Wujiang Road) is worth a wait. Not much more than street stalls, this institution’s two adjacent locations dole out pan-fried sheng jian bao — pork dumplings encrusted in sesame seeds and scallions (1 yuan each) — that are so deliciously soupy you might wish you had a bib. The trick: bite a small hole and slurp out the juices.

3 p.m.
7) CULTURAL REVOLUTION

Time to feed your cultural appetite, and you have three museums in People’s Square to select from: the Shanghai Museum (201 Renmin Avenue; 86-21-6372-5300; www.shanghaimuseum.net), an important repository of ancient Chinese art, including bronzes, jade, ceramics, calligraphy and painting; the Shanghai Art Museum (325 Nanjing Road West; 86-21-6327-2829), with exhibitions that range from more calligraphy to modern painting and the Shanghai Biennial; and the Museum of Contemporary Art (231 Nanjing Road West; 86-21-6327-9900; www.mocashanghai.org).

5:30 p.m.
8) FOOT RELIEF

After searching for great art, give your feet a rest at Dragonfly, a Shanghai-based international chain of Zen-like spas where the treatments include an hour’s foot massage for 135 yuan. There’s one (458 Dagu Road; 86-21-6327-1193; www.dragonfly.net.cn) not far from People’s Square.

8 p.m.
9) ETHNIC EATS

Sample cuisines of China’s ethnic minorities at Lost Heaven (38 Gaoyou Road; 86-21-6433-5126; www.lostheaven.com.cn), which serves foods from the groups in and around southern Yunnan province. Its dark, vermillion interior, sparely decorated with ethnographic art, is a good place to try dishes like sea bass with black bean sauce from the Dai tribe (80 yuan) and Yunnan chicken salad with chili and sesame (60 yuan).

10 p.m.
10) BOHEMIAN NIGHT

Jazz fans can wrap up the night at JZ (46 Fuxing West Road; 86-21-6431-0269; www.jzclub.cn), a club with nightly live performances and an Old Shanghai speakeasy vibe. Another option is Y.Y. Club (125 Nanchang Road; 86-21-6466-4098), where you’ll find an artsy crowd smoking, drinking — and smoking some more — in a salon-style interior (think upright piano, velvet drapes and splashes of Mao-era propaganda). No need to rush; it’s open 24 hours.

Sunday

10 a.m.
11) FROM HAR KOW TO MAO

Xintiandi, another must on the tourist circuit, is a popular enclave of recreated and restored — over-restored, some would say — lane houses that are now home to high-end restaurants, shops and bars. Start with dim sum at Crystal Jade (6-7 South Block, Xintiandi, Lane 123, Xinye Road; 86-21-6385-8752), a Cantonese restaurant in a new mall. Its setting may lack charm, but you’ll love the shrimp har kow (24 yuan), steamed soup dumplings (24 yuan) and pan-fried turnip cake (16 yuan). Then stroll to the Memorial to the Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China (76 Xinye Road). It’s where the Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921 and where one might ponder what Mao Zedong would make of today’s Shanghai.

THE BASICS

Continental recently announced daily nonstop service from Newark to Pudong International Airport outside Shanghai, with introductory fares starting at $777 round trip for travel next month, according to an airline spokeswoman. United and American are among several carriers with one-stop service out of the New York area, with fares starting at about $700 and $815, respectively. Shanghai has a good metro system, which is being expanded for Expo 2010, and taxis are cheap.

The new Park Hyatt Shanghai (100 Century Avenue; 86-21-6888-1234; www.parkhyattshanghai.com) occupies the 79th to 93rd floors of the Shanghai World Financial Center. In addition to jaw-dropping views, it offers minimal-luxe décor, several restaurants, an impressive spa and 174 spacious rooms with oversize, deep-soaking tubs. The standard rate is 5,500 yuan, or $785 at about 7 yuan to the dollar, with lower rates available online.

Housed in a 1920s building, the 55-room JIA Shanghai (931 Nanjing Road West; 86-21-6217-9000; www.jiashanghai.com) is small and intimate, with a richly textured contemporary eclectic-Asian interior. Jia means home in Mandarin, and the hotel’s generous rooms and perks (free afternoon tea, an open bottled water, juice and soft drink bar) live up to the name. There’s also an excellent Italian restaurant called Issimo. Studios are from 2,000 yuan, with lower rates available online.

The 26-room URBN Hotel (183 Jiao Zhou Road; 86-21-5153-4600; www.urbnhotels.com) claims to be China’s first carbon-neutral hotel. Its sleek design in a retrofitted post office building features reclaimed wood and brick and rooms with sunken lounges and wraparound sofas. Studios from 1,400 yuan.

URL: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/trave...bespotters.html

March 15, 2009
Asia-Pacific Issue | Globespotters
The Perils of Hong Kong Jade
By JOYCE HOR-CHUNG LAU

A VISITING Frenchwoman once asked me for advice on buying quality jade, one of Hong Kong’s best-known commodities. So my mother took her to Chinese Arts & Crafts (www.crcretail.com), which is where we would go ourselves. Our visitor was so horrified by the prices that she fled empty-handed.

In retrospect, she was probably just after something pretty, green and Chinese and would have been better off at the Jade Market, which is part of a hodgepodge of themed shopping areas in the Kowloon area.

At the Jade Market, a homely spot housed in a squat concrete building, 30 vendors hawk necklaces, amulets and carvings, as well as pearls and crystal.

A dealer known as Ms. Tsui said she started selling jade 30 years ago. Back then, she noted, Hong Kong’s markets sold high-quality jade to local residents. Now, that business has mainly gone to the big-name jewelers.

Today, she sells mostly items like tiny jade amulets that are used to decorate cellphones and are sold for 15 Hong Kong dollars, about $2 at 7.91 Hong Kong dollars to the U.S. dollar.

She said these were not fakes made from soapstone or glass; but she wasn’t vouching for their quality either. “Come on,” she said. “At these prices, you can’t expect good stones.”

She held up two carvings, one a dull off-white and another a forest green. The latter was obviously the product of artificial coloring injected into an inferior jade. “We’re very honest about that,” she said. “We mostly sell cheap because that’s what tourists want.”

Ms. Tsui offered some blunt advice for browsing the market. “If you know what you’re doing,” she said, “there are hidden treasures to be found. If you don’t, just get some cheap souvenirs.”

Jade of a totally different class is sold at the 30-odd branches of Chow Tai Fook (www.chowtaifook.com), Hong Kong’s best-known jeweler.

At Chow Tai Fook, jade is often fashioned into intricate designs with white gold and diamonds. As for pure jade pieces, even the cheaper ones, like a smiling Buddha amulet, go for around 29,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Among the most prized pieces are traditional bangles, which are carved from a single block without any clasps, joints or fused parts. One, even in tone and the color of grass, was 75,000 dollars. Another item was priced at 273,000 dollars. To me, its swirls of emerald and creamy white seemed imperfect, but the saleswoman said it had great clarity and luminescence. Held under a spotlight, it glowed.

Alex Chan, who runs a shop called President Jewelry and Gems and has been teaching about jade for the Hong Kong Tourism Board since 2002, explained the three classes of stones.

• Grade A, made from pure jadeite, is simply carved, polished and waxed. It’s all natural and not altered internally.

• Grade B is bleached with chemicals, a process that can leave small fractures in the structure — sometimes not visible to the naked eye — rendering the piece more brittle.

• Grade C stones are not good quality to begin with, which is why artificial dyes are injected into them. The color may not last.

In Hong Kong families, jade is often passed on as an heirloom, and a stone that is pure and strong may be prized over a prettier piece that is fragile or whose beauty may fade.

URL: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/travel/15bites.html

March 15, 2009
Asia-Pacific Issue | Bites
Restaurant Review: Se Wong Yee in Hong Kong
By KABIR CHIBBER

An often-repeated joke is that if Adam and Eve were Chinese, they would have eaten the snake instead of the apple. That rings especially true in Hong Kong, the world capital of the aw-that’s-so-cute-let’s-kill-it school of cooking that is Cantonese cuisine.

Snake soup is one of the most common variations with the locals, who remain steadfastly traditional about their food, despite the rapid changes in the city around them. Hong Kong residents prefer their snake soup, said to increase blood circulation and cure aches, as nourishment during winter. Among the best places to go on Hong Kong Island is Se Wong Yee, nestled in vibrant Causeway Bay.

Even Anthony Bourdain will have to stand in line to get in, and probably share a table in this crammed, no-frills establishment dedicated to packing them in and kicking them out. Every social stratum in Hong Kong comes here, from families to old aunties eating together to teenagers ignoring one another while they text.

The waiters, in light-brown uniforms, can help you with English-language menus before the food is brought out by men in white shirts and thick rubber boots, which should give an idea of what the kitchen floor is like. The snake soup costs 52 Hong Kong dollars, about $6.60 at 7.9 Hong Kong dollars to the U.S. dollar, but most order the combo set, 78 dollars, which comes with rice, vegetables and duck liver sausage.

What does the soup taste like? Sweeter than you might expect, because of the addition of chrysanthemum leaves and spices. The thick broth also has chicken in it, so you might struggle to single out the snake, which has been boiled and has had the bones removed. Feel free to slurp as much as you like; it’s not rude in this kind of restaurant. Enough spoonfuls of the soup and you’ll see why it’s revered. Anyone who can eat the pungent sausage that comes with it, though, deserves Hong Kong citizenship.

Fussier eaters won’t feel deprived, as there are plenty of snake-free local staples on the menu, from roast duck to chicken feet in broth. As alluring as it is to turn the tables on a feared reptile, the appeal is the simplicity and tradition of eating honest local food in a dai pai dong, or food stall, in a metropolis that changes by the day.

And who knows? Snake may even make it on to your grocery list in the coming weeks.

Se Wong Yee, 24 Percival Street, Causeway Bay; (852) 2831-0163.

I'm sorry I missed this earlier, SamIAm. I found it interesting because I bought a jade bangle in Beijing last September.

My shopping experiences in China were different than I'm used to, to say the least. My Chinese friends all ordered me to barter, but when I got there I ended up paying full price for what I bought because I discovered I have absolutely no resistance to young Chinese women trying to sell me stuff! :P The first place we went was a pearl store in Beijing. A black pearl strand caught my eye. The next thing I knew I was surrounded by three girls, the strand was around my neck, a mirror was in front of my face, and I was being told that the pearls matched my skin tone, my eyes, and my hair color! The kicker was when I was offered free matching earrings if I bought the strand. I left with pearls for me and more pearls for my friends...

Next day we went to the jade store. I didn't even try to resist! ;) I wanted a bangle, so I got one I could afford and escaped with most of money still in my wallet! I learned about bangles becoming family heirlooms, how to tell real jade from fake jade, and to watch for the color to get darker over time.

The day we went to the cloisonne factory, I didn't even wander around. After lunch I went straight to the van and hung out with the driver. He didn't speak English, but he got that I was burning out on shopping and it was only Day Three! :D

No one tried to sell me anything in the big nine-story bookstore in Beijing, probably because it's not a tourist money pit. In fact, the evening I went to find the book about Takeshi I almost had to physically restrain someone to get them to help me. She was then surprised when I spoke Mandarin to ask for the book!

My vocabulary is larger now. Next time I go to China I have promised my friends that I'll at least make it interesting for the salepeople by trying to barter!

:D :D :D :D :D :D
My great fun is to ask how much they would ask for their merchandise at the cheapest and tell them the (pre-barter) price in Osaka. Absolutely everything is 10 times cheaper here. :lol:
(Posted Image)
That one, they gave me for a song. :whistling: Far, far from Beijing. (Close from Burma where they are made)

Krikri

Krikri, that's a gorgeous piece. You know, when I visited Japan in '99, I didn't do too well bartering there either. :o

I guess I need a Shopping Coach! :D

Oh DaJieJie, I can say I 'll be your shopping coach ! ;)

I came back from Shanghai 2 days ago and all I bought there were two pairs of thongs !
Well, one pair were "crocs", but they costed like 5 dollars ... :lol:

And I caught a bad cold but it's highly confidential because if it's revealed, Japanese quarantine officers
would come and get me and tag me along to somewhere !! :lol:

Hi Hi creme,

Back from a nice lil holiday? Hope you are better...better from what...oh...of course from nothing... ;) shhhhsss

I know the rule is to haggle in China, but as my friend mentioned, sometimes, it's like soooo cheap already, you kinda think, it seems kinda weird/stingy to go lower. I mean something like $1 after the conversion ...
Well, guess, give it a go, and see what they say....although I'm not much of a haggler either.

Welcome back, creme!!! :wave I would say you did very well resisting temptation in Shanghai!! I thought the people on the streets trying to sell junk would make me crazy because they are so aggressive, but I managed to avoid them with a continuous chant of "Bu yao, bu yao, bu yao!!" :lol:

Creme, I'm dying to know how the weather was and if the air was clearer than when I was there. Tell us more, please!!!!

Hi Paige !
Yea I know, sometimes my son insisted to haggle but when they sell a stone bracelet for merely 3 dollars, I couldn't even try ...
Well, I tried but the vendor seemed to think "I don't believe it" and shook his head. :lol:
I can almost read his mind, "What, this Japanese is trying to make it cheaper
when I'm offering a cheapest price ? <_< "

And of course my daughter and son and me bought bracelets for ourselves
( Oh, I told you a lie DaJiejie, I also bought a stone bracelet ! ) :D
And I'm recovering from ... nothing :happy: thanks for asking ne !

Hi DaJieJie !!
The weather was OK, before we went it's been raining the guide said.
When we were there, it wasn't so hot ( compared to Tokyo ) and sunny. Well. Sunny but cloudy ... maybe it was hazy ...
Just like you said, the sky was beige and hazy all the time. I had a sore throat so perhaps it's because of the air.

But the view was beautiful over the river. It's just that if there hadn't been a construction on Bund area crry

Oh, and Shanghai acrobatic circus was really really impressive !!!
I can't believe a human being can reach to do those things ... so worth seeing !! :clap :clap :clap

:clap Jill your Chinese helped a lot :lol: Yes,U can insiste giving a low price and at last U'll succeed! The price of a necklece is different if I have a local accent when I go to seaside :rolleyes:

Creme chan, :wave
happy to know that U are back,Take a good rest ;)
It's hot in ShangHai,and even hot in my city now(I'm sure the temperature is a few degrees lower here),BUT I got sick three times this month. crry And I recovered now. :)

creme, did you see the show "Era" in Shanghai? We may have seen the same show! :D If it was the same, I know what you mean...it was AMAZING! It was a lot like Cirque du Soleil productions. I loved the theatre because it was small and I felt close to the action. The act that sticks out in my mind involved a bunch of performers on motorcycles riding fast on the inside of a giant ball! :o

Lucy, take care of yourself. Getting sick three times in one month is three times too many!! :hug

Glad to know you recovered Lucy.
It was hot in Shanghai, but it's even hotter in Tokyo, so when I was at the airport
I was relieved.
My son visited Peking just a month ago as a school trip, he said it was way hotter in Peking.
Much hotter than in Tokyo !

DaJieJie, ERA is the most popular one I think.
When we tried to make a reservation ERA was full :( so we went to another one.
But they had that motorbike acrobats in a wire ball !
THAT WAS TRULY AMAZING !
I almost yelled, "stop ! No more !" and there were 5 people altogether in the ball ..
After I came back when I was checking internet, it says there had been an accident
in the past and one man actually died ... scary ...

Other stunts were also very impressive too, like a boy ( about 10 years old ) stood on
one hand on the top of 8 or 9 chairs ! :clap