Ruminations in Korea

Shanghai Redux: The Final Chapter

I had a bad habit of staying up way too late to watch Fear Factor, 911, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and assorted bad movies that I would never watch in the daytime.  As a result, I would wake up after the breakfast buffet was over.  I only got one breakfast while I was at the Westin.  That’s a shame.  It was pretty good food.

A bigger regret about sleeping late is that it cut down on my shopping and looking around time.

Monday, January 5, 2003, dawned overcast and drizzly.  After a bit of room service, and some work on my report of the previous day’s activity, it was time to do some serious shopping.

I went to the Pacific department store and checked out some electronics.  My intention was to get some cheap electronics such as a new Palm Pilot, ipod, laptop or some such.  I was utterly disappointed to see that the electronics prices were comparable to prices in the US and sometimes even Korea. 

Next stop was to have another good look around the Xiang Yang Market.  The silk scarves that I bought the week before were a big hit.  All eleven of them had been snatched up and distributed in about 2 hours.  I bought 11 more scarves.  I also picked up a nice chopstick and placemat set for six for about US$ 3.  I checked on the price of a Gameboy Advanced SP, but I couldn’t get them down much past the US price.  From there, I jumped a taxi back to the area of Hong Kong Plaza and had dinner again at the restaurant with the excellent crab.

I went back to the hotel for a few hours of rest and work on my report.  Now, fully aware of the fact that everything in Hong Kong shuts down early, I decided that I should head back to the Xiang Yang Market before they closed for the day.

I was feeling like walking there from the Westin, so I asked the concierge how long it would take to walk there.  She said that it would take approximately 30 minutes.  She must have misunderstood.  I think she understood me to ask how quickly a well-trained athlete could sprint there. It took me almost exactly one hour to walk there. 

It was a nice walk under the elevated road down to People’s square, over to Huai Hai Zonglu, down to the crab restaurant, Hong Kong Plaza and Pacific Department store, across a huge intersection, down to the churrasco restaurant, and on down the road.  I kept walking past a great-looking candy, cookie, snack food, tea shop creatively called “Special Food Store”.  I made a note to check it out on the way back.  I continued walking for ages.  I eventually passed Maoming Lu and arrived at the entry to Xian Yang Market.

I tried unsuccessfully to strike any sort of deal to get a cheap Gameboy.  However, I decided to check out the DVD sellers.  One guy spoke good English and said his shop was located in the market.  I followed him and spent the next hour or so looking at 2,000 DVDs.  I eventually settled on 40 titles.  As I paid the money, the market started closing.

I hoofed it back to the Special Food Store and bought some delicious cookies, some macaroon sort of thing.  One lady talking me into trying something that looked like an small crabapple dipped in liquid sugar.  I took it and bit it in half.  It tasted like a sugarcoated crabapple.  The tartness of the apple literally exploded into my mouth, then the sweetness of the sugar melting in my mouth covered the tartness.  I blinked a few times, stunned by the remarkable taste.  Then I mumbled something like, “wow” and promptly bought about a kilo of them.

After dropping my DVD’s and snacks off at the hotel, I took a quick walk over to Nanjing road.  It was late, cold, and drizzling, so there were not many people around.  It was dead, so I went back to the hotel.  After several hours, I went to sleep.

I woke just in time to throw on clothes and run down to the lobby for some breakfast.  It was actually quite good.

I worked on my report until about 2:00pm.  Then, it being my last day in Shanghai, I decided to hit the streets for some power shopping.  I went back to Nanjing Road and went through all of the department stores on the road looking for a cheap DVD player or something else interesting.  I found a few gifts for other people, but nothing for myself.  I continued my walk back to People’s Square and jumped a taxi back to Xian Yang market.

I picked up all sorts of little gifts for a bunch of people.  For myself, I picked up the entire James Bond series on DVD plus a few more movies.  Of course I needed a large case to store all of the DVD’s.

Back to the hotel. Again to Nanjing Road for a last look around.  I ate the best sushi I have ever had in a place called Sumo-somethingorother.  Tuna salad sushi, salmon salad sushi, crab sushi, and a bunch of other tasty types of sushi.

From there, it was back to the hotel.  Pack.  Sleep.  Airport.  Goodbye to the annoyed, armed, uniformed soldiers and Shanghai.

Thus ends my trips to Shanghai. 

Soon I will post my observations on Shanghai and my trip.