Shanghai Quest - shopping

Today I start my blog before lunch, I will most likely not complete it before lunch, but it doesn't really matter. When you're going to read this, it will look virtually seamless. The only reason you'll know that there is break in the blog is because I'm telling you that I'm starting it before lunch, yet it will most likely include what I ate for lunch. The reason I'm starting before lunch today is because we're going shopping after lunch, and then I'm leaving for Hangzhou. So I won't have much time to finish the blog.

Last time we left off, I was hunting for deodorant, and I still am. Though I've found directions to an expat market that is bound to have some in stock. I'll have to head there next week and check it out.

Last night George invited Autumn, Jorge and I to go to YuYuen Gardens. He said we should leave at 7pm... I asked him if we should go earlier so we can go shopping and he laughed at me. "That's a LauWei question" he said "In China people go shopping and eating late, 9pm is a good time to eat." Ok, so maybe I don't know the culture.

We hop on a taxi and head to YuYuen Gardens. George warned me to kep my money close, because there's a lot of people there. It was almost 7:30 by the time people got their stuff together and when we arrived, the place was busy, but not packed. We start shopping, it's the touristy place, so I'm looking for a bottle opener fridge magnet. Apparently, this invention has yet to arrive in China. The closest thing I could find was a bottle opener key chain.

As we're shopping, I notice shops closing. It's only 8pm... hmm, so I ask George. He tells me that someone at the office told him it was open until midnight. So he asks a shopkeeper. It turns out it's only open late on weekends. and by 9pm tonight everything will be closed. We shop around some more, take some pictures, buy some stuff. I found a stand selling video games! Stuff for the Nintendo DS... So I rifle through and find Final Fantasy 4 and Final Fantasy 12. I ask the guy how much for 1, he says 180. I say how much for two, he says 300. I pull out my phone and calculate the price, $45 for two. As I'm about to protest, Jorge walks up the me, and looking at the calculator he says "What? That's the same price as in the US." He thought I was just buying one game. So on cue, the guy starts to protest, and I tell him that Jorge is right, it's the same price... not a very good deal. The guy is all confused at this point. So I interupt his protests with 230. He says no he can't 280 is best price. 250 I counter and he settles with 260.

The Jorge points out that I should try the games. So I ask him, and he pulls out a DS. FF12 works but FF4 is broken. And they don't have another copy. After asking me if I would like any other game and suggesting every second game on the shelf, one by one. Finally he resigns that I'm only gong to buy one game. So he says 150 for one game. I laugh and I say no, 130. He says ok ok. I pay and walk away with the game. $18 for a copy of FF12, I dunno if it's such a good deal, but I had fun haggling. Trish will say I suck at it, but whatever, I got him down to 65% of his original price. I could have done better I'm sure, the guy jumped at 130 way too fast, but whatever.

Anyways, everything closed at 9pm, including the food shops. So we left. We headed towards people's square. There was a group of girls who were very dressed up for the area, they looked like they were going to a club. Jorge and I tried to figure out if they were "professionals" but it didn't really look like it, the way they were acting.

We ended up at people square, or at least nearby. And hunted around for some food. We ended up at a fancy Sichuan restaurant. Ate some stuff, nothing really new or special. A dish I hadn't had before was buns in the shape of mushroom caps that you filled with pork. It was a good supper, very tasty.

We went back to the hotel, and I slept like a rock until 9am... doh! So I took a quick shower and ran out to grab some more of that tasty street breakfast. I finally found real 100% orange juice, it's 5 rmb for 300ml instead of 3rmb for 500ml of the punch. Crazy.

At lunch I went shopping with ZiPing, Autumn and Robert. ZiPing is great, she would haggle and get mad at the vendors when they said LauWei. I could make out the word, it was pretty funny. I got a new wallet for me and some pressies for Trish. I had some street food on the way to the office, octapus on a stick, it was really tasty.

We ate at a Shanghai style restaurant for lunch, my favorite dish there was pinapple sticky rice. It was served in a pinapple! It was pretty awesome.

I'm in a bit of a rush because I have to pack for HangZhou, so this blog will be cut a little short. And by short I mean it ends here.