I walked down the Nanjing Road (pics 1&2) , a pedestrian walkway filled with shops, tourists, and pesky panhandlers trying to sell you watches and handbags. Then made my way to the Bund (pics 3&4), the old financial district along the riverfront. Across the river is an area called Pudong, the new financial district, that features the tall space needle looking TV tower. From there, I walked to through an area of stalls selling fabrics, buttons, beads, etc. and then on to the Old City (pic 5), again filled with tourists, and people trying to sell those hand bags and watches.
Met a young art student from Sh'wan (sp?) (home of Tsing-tao beer) who was visiting Shanghai. We talked for a while. She asked the same questions as the others: how old? business or holiday? married? children? etc. Very nice, and interesting in her take on things. We picked out tourists and guessed where they were from.
Got a little lost on my way back to the hotel. Very, very hot and humid. Tried to buy water, but didn't have correct change. This, of course, made things a bit extreme. Plus, I walked through a poorer area, again lined by stalls of the most random things for sale--everything from fruits, to beads and buttons, to bicycle repair, beer, etc. Took the rest of the afternoon to recover in the AC of my hotel room. Semi-lame, but necessary.
More to come.
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