Shanghaied

At last, I have finally been able to find a way to access blogspot. It took me much longer than finding a route to the University website, but I did it. Now, just have to figure out what to write..heh.

I am finding this second trip to Shanghai much more interesting than the first. Granted it was a very short visit last December, and we only found just enough time to get in the main tourist sites. This time however, I am getting a better sense of the city, its people and its extremely vibrant cosmopolitan "underbelly". With D spending very long hours at the office, I have been able to spend whole afternoons just strolling along the tree lined streets of the French Concession, looking into the old rather dilapidated colonial mansions, imagining what it must have been like in yesteryear to live in such elegant surroundings. When I get hungry, I just find a little shop and with alot of hand signals and smiles, I order what I think will be edible. Inevitably I get a bowl of something delicious for ridiculously low prices. At night, D and I will catch a cab and head towards Xin Tiandi, a pedestrian mall of cafes, bars and boutiques (like Shanghai Tang) set in restored colonial buildings. Ironically, this area where a G&T can cost from RMB40 to 70 (a price of a meal in a nice restaurant elsewhere), is also the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party.

While I enjoy my daily jaunts into the city, where I just get a cab, point to an area on the map, and wear down my walking shoes until I get tired and get into another cab to take me home, I enjoy my weekends with D the most. Last weekend we had breakfast near the Dongtai Antiques market where we strolled along the supposedly antique laden stalls, looking through mounds and mounds of pottery, carvings, bowls and jade. We had no intention of buying anything until we wandered into a furniture shop and found a gorgeous cabinet. The price was very reasonable but I wanted to look around before we made a decision. We then discovered that the shop was only a showroom and that the factory was not too faraway by cab. So of course D and I were flagging a cab within seconds. We got to the factory, looked around, and spent the next 3 hours haggling over a solid elm antique cabinet, 2 smaller cabinets to be used a bedside tables and a coffee table. After 3 hours we got them to knock down 60% of the asking price and to ship the things to NY only in August. While I am pretty sure that we could have got them to take off another 5%, it just felt like a very fair compromise. Also, unlike in Beijing, where the shopkeeper will pull out a figure from thin air and inflate it 10 times when they see D, the starting prices were quoted on a the price tags.

After our extremely fruitful day, we decided to have drinks on the terrace of M on the Bund. We liked it so much we made a reservation for our first month anniversary dinner next week. We saw the sun set and headed home. Where we find out that D's Dad may be visiting us next week. He may be joining us for our anniversary dinner.