You have to understand that I never ever wanted to ever in my whole life go to China. I'm not one of those Asians who feel like they're not complete until they've been to the Mother Land. Middle Earth to me is somewhere in a Tolkien novel. It just never appealed to me. John would ask if we could go and I would say no, never, no thanks! So it was all thanks to my good friend Christina who paved the way for this trip to happen. Her sister happens to be working at a company in Shanghai and Christina had a chance to go visit her sister last November. Christina came home and showed me the amazing deals she got in Shanghai and I was hooked. Six months later, our whole family was on a 13 hour plane ride to China.We were able to use the miles we've been saving up for years and years to get 4 roundtrip tickets for about $100 in fees. And we got to stay with John's parents in their condo for free for almost 2 weeks. Their complex is in the middle of a busy shopping district and very convenient to all the other parts of Shanghai. Here's one of the buildings in the complex.
There are tons of little shops everywhere and they sell everything you can imagine....even this mugger's mask....
But my favorite place in Shanghai would have to be the fabric market. Oh my! There were 3 floors of small shops selling every fabric imaginable. You would walk around and find the fabric you liked and after haggling over the price, they would measure you and have you come back in a couple of days for your garment. I got coats and more coats and pants and jackets and curtains and roman shades, and even dresses for the kids. Everytime I'd go back to pick up the things I had made, I'd see something else and have them make that too. It was an unending cycle. We ended up going to the fabric market 5 days.
Then there's the fake market. It's in the subway station by the Tech Museum in Pu Dong. There were a dizzying amount of small shops selling purses, jeans, clothing, jewelry, luggage, everything. Some shops were a little more secretive than others. We were led to one shop where the lady took us to a room in the back and knocked on the back of a row of shelves and the shelves turned out to be a door to another room where they had the "A" quality inventory - usually the Louis Vuitton bags. You couldn't take the bag out of the secret room until you purchased it. At another store when John was looking at watches, someone thought they saw police in the station and so they shoved us out of the store and turned off all their lights and locked the doors. But all was well and it was a false alarm.
Most vendors are really nice and if you're buying a lot they're even more willing to bargain. We went with Christina's sister Deborah to both the fabric market and the fake market and she is definitely the master. She doesn't speak much mandarin, but for what she knows, she can really make it work! Her classic lines were, "We're all Chinese." and "We're friends!" And if you walk away, they'll usually come after you and give you the price you offered.While we were shopping one day, I saw this and thought it captured the essence of the fake market.
If you can't read that, it says "Barbara and the 12 Dancing Princesses".More to come in Shanghai - Part 2 - The Eating
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