Free Day on Sunday

Yesterday (Sunday) the group had the day to do as it pleased. I went with about 12 other students to the textile and fabric market early in the morning. Our professor recommended one specific tailor, so a bunch of us got measured and picked out fabrics for shirts, skirts, dresses and/or suits to be custom-made and delivered to where we're staying by Monday night at 9 pm. I bought 3 dress shirts and also 8 ties from another vendor, for a post-haggling total of about $45 US. Unbelievable.

The market itself was very busy. It was several levels tall and each floor had small sectioned-off shops with tons of gorgeous fabrics. If you were an executive who needed lots of suits, this would be the way to do it.

After the market, about 10 of us took cabs down to the Bund (riverwalk area) and ate lunch at an Italian restaurant. Then 7 of us had scheduled massages at a spa near the university called Dragon Fly (rumored to be one of the best spas in China). The Chinese massage was very relaxing and felt great. It was an hour long and about $20 US - another amazing price compared to the States. The area the spa was in was very interesting. From the street, you couldn't really tell anything was back there, only a small driveway led from the street to the spa. But once back near the spa, there was an entire courtyard of little shops and restaurants: Japanese, Mexican, Thai, Indian and Chinese. It was quite a treasure trove. After the massage the group hung out at the Mexican restaurant for a while.

I took a brief nap in the afternoon as I hadn't slept much the night before, then ventured out for dinner at the back gate of the university with two other students. We wandered around through the crowds for a while seeing things that still struck us as unusual, despite our week-long adjustment to the culture shock, and eventually settled on a little place with just about anything on the menu. We kind of caved in to our cravings for western food and ate ice cream and french fries along with our meals (I blame the massages). At least we resisted the temptation to get McDonalds!

While we were looking for food we wandered into a department store similar to a Macy's. It was the first time I had seen non-negotiable prices and non-pushy sales people in China. In the shoe and athletics department, a giant poster of Clyde Drexler loomed over a display of basketball shoes, which we found kind of funny since he retired from the NBA about 8 years ago (and hasn't been a good player since about 12 years ago), but has apparently worked out some good promotional deals over here in China.

Today (Monday) we have a corporate visit to AIG, then an afternoon lecture. We have the evening free again, but have to meet the tailors at the university guesthouse we're staying at to pick up and try on our shirts. We already leave for Beijing on Wednesday, so I only have two more nights of sleeping in Shanghai. I'm not sure how much Internet access I'll have in Beijing, so the blog might be temporarily postponed after Wednesday. I have some pretty good pictures of me imitating the Clyde Drexler poster and eating lunch with my new tie on under a polo shirt, but they are on a friends camera. If I can get them from her camera onto my computer, I'll stick them below.