Thursday in Shanghai

Thursday morning in Shanghai, I woke up and prepared for our visit to the World Trade Center (this was the first day we actually had to dress in business casual). I had my usual breakfast on the 4th Floor, joined by Paul and John. we piled into the bus at 9 am.

We visited the Pennslvania Center, and had an interesting discusison on what Pennsylvania is up to in China. It's always nice to see some familiar faces after traveling for a long period of time, and it was nice to be able to understand the speakers without having to overcome a language barrier. After our visit, we returned to the hotel to go to a German lunch (the first non-Chinese meal I will have seen since leaving Dulles Saturday morning).

We walked to Dan's (not Dan Vogel's restaurant... but just Dan's) and first walked the wrong way on the street... which allowed Zelon and Jaime to get peed on by a baby. Yes. So babies here don't wear diapers as it is thought to be unnatural. So they just wear pants with little open flaps and their little bums hanging out. And they're just allowed to go whenever since it's natural, and you can't get mad if the baby goes on you because it's not their fault. So as we walked pass this woman with a baby in the lap... her baby boy decided to pee... and managing to hit both Zelon and Jaime's foot. Um. Can we say disturbing!? Needless to say, they were both happy when we hit the restaurant and they could wash off their feet.

Lunch was delicious!

After lunch, we walked backed to the hotel to get on the bus to go to the Urban Development Center, which was a highlight of the trip! They have a tennis-court size model of what Shanghai will look like in 2010 in preparation for the World Expo (think Olympics for business). It was just a really neat museum with lots of models. Unfortunately we only had about 20 minutes to explore it (I don't know why we weren't given more time... but you'll have to check out the pictures).

The next item on the agenda was to hit the Knock-Off market. We were dropped off and we were to be picked up in an hour. I thought that would be more than enough time, since I wasn't interested in looking at anything. Well Paul and I decided to venture in the market together.... and emerge... 2.5 hours later.

What a thrill!!! It was like a game... all the bargaining that went on. Luckily our guide told us the prices he usually gets. He told us that a tie can be had for 10 yuan, a designer shirt for 40, and a purse for 120. Divide everything by a loose 7 to translate to U.S. dollar prices.

So off we went into the market. The first thing on Paul's list (remember, I wasn't looking for anything) was a new watch... so we checked out a few places and finally this man approached us and said he had what we were looking for. We were then escorted into a t-shirt shop and were confused. Well then through the back wall of t-shirts, the man opens up a door and we enter in a 2x8 backroom. This was the first of many backrooms that we would enter into. I'm glad tall Paul was there with me just in case the backrooms didn't have an exit!

We were ruthless bargainers (thanks India) so we always got the price we wanted. They wouldn't let you walk out of the shop without settling a deal (which is how you always got the price you wanted). At one point a lady wouldn't go down to my price, 30 yuan... so I just walked all the way down the hallway, with her shouting 85... 80...75...70... etc., to me until I heard her say "Okay, oh you kill me, 30." Score!

Paul got himself a designer bag (a murse), three purses for sisters/Mom, a wallet, two watches, a handful of DVDs, and some jewelry. He managed to get the purse lady from 13,500 yuan to 650! Go Paul.

I managed to pick up two wallets for myself (Louis and Coach.. which they kept calling "Cooch"... um, no thanks), one for Steve (Armani), a few other trinkets for Steve (I'm really excited about one of them... but can't say... on the off chance he reads this ;-)) and others, a few trinkets for myself, a DVD (haven't checked if it works yet), some jewelry and that was it for me.

It was a great afternoon, and I'm glad Paul was there with me, just in case a deal went awry. We then walked outside to hail a cab in time to return to the hotel for the Acrobatic show. It took a while to hail a cab, but we made it back to the hotel for 11 yuan (less than 2 dollars).

We left for the Acrobatic Show at 6:30 and it was really fun!! Paul and I sat in the front row with popcorn and commented on the entire thing. It wasn't as good as a Cirque du Soleil because it was lacking a coherent theme (it was called "ERA: Intersection of Time"). The most impressive act was the one where the two "dancers" use scarves suspended from the ceiling and float around... it was beautiful!! There was also a motorbike segment where there were 7 bikes in this small cage at once... I was nervous they would crash, but the whole performance was executed flawlessly.

There was also some pot juggling, flexibility demonstrations, jumping through hoops, etc. The whole thing was a magnificient display of athleticism and an enjoyable evening.

I went back to the hotel and managed to finally speak to my parents via Skype (Steve, get Skype!) and then was exhausted and hit the bed hard.

Friday was our first free day, and Paul and I were meeting at breakfast at 9 to venture... you guessed it, back to the knockoff market!