Underground market and wet market

The last day (of a great visit!!) for Dave and Ayumi in Shanghai was much more relaxing than the first several.  This day was the final attempt to get good prices at the underground market.  The underground market is a very large shopping area with hundreds of vendors selling clothing, watches, video games, sunglasses, and many other things.  Some are fakes, some are overstocks, some are just poor quality so inspection and patience is paramount.  Earlier in the week Dave had tried some bargaining on his own but proved to be too soft.  It definitely takes some practice and a strong will.  Dave and Ayumi found the back and forth very entertaining, often resulting in us walking away while the vendor comes after you with a better price.  In the end, Dave and Ayumi went away happy with their purchases and spent a lot less money on some good items.

We also went to the "wet" market, which is located near downtown Pudong, not far from the Jinmao Tower.  The market has a variety of meats for sale.  All very fresh and out for display.  It is a good place to see where some of the locals shop for their meat and vegetables.  We did not pick anything up, but were tempted...not! (more pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/krfraser5/WetMarketShanghaiMay2008)

 

The next day Dave and Ayumi left without a hitch from the right airport.  We miss you guys!!  Dave, keep practicing the foosball...

 

 

"Venice" of China

More pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/krfraser5/ZhouZhuangMay2008

 

To the west of Shanghai there is a large area full of rivers and lakes and with it a number of water towns claiming to be the "Venice" of China.  We visited one such town called Zhou Zhuang.  Zhou Zhuang is only about 32,000 people and one of the smaller water towns.  We decided to go here thinking the larger towns would be more crowded due to the holiday weekend and it came highly recommended by our Ayi.   Our thinking was correct, and we encountered far less crowds than normal.   Going to this type of town was something Ayumi had wanted to do before arriving and this was certainly a highlight of our trip. Here we got a chance to get a little closer to real China, despite still being a tourist area.  In this town were a number of sights: a buddhist temple, a small museum dedicated to the local fishing customs, a number of shops and restaurants, and of course lots of canals.  Justin continued to be Mr. Popular and Tanner even got his picture taken in this town.   

Yes...there was an earthquake...far from Shanghai...we are fine...

We have had a couple of messages from folks asking about the earthquake that was in China.  It was over 1000 miles from where we are at.  Enough to sway the taller buildings downtown and evacuate a couple of buildings.  But in the 3rd tallest building, the Jinmao tower, Ron did not evacuate and watched from the windows as some large high rises across the park did.  The Jinmao tower made some noises, but it seemed more like high wind as opposed to an earthquake.  Kim was stuck downtown grocery shopping and the grocery store is at the bottom of a large office building that was evacuated.  As a result she and a friend had to carry their large sacks of groceries a couple of blocks looking for the driver, who was madly trying to figure where they were in the chaos.   For them a crazy ending to what started out as a walk on a beautiful afternoon in Shanghai.  All-in-all everyone is fine.