Day 4
Xitang Water Village
Xitang Water Village
It's the coldest temperature I've experienced in China. And I wasn't even wearing decent winter clothes for the entire trip. I felt like dying when I got onto the sampan and the boatman began rowing. The wind kept blowing in our faces, even the guys were shaking. Funny sight indeed. Then the guys came up with this silly idea of rocking the boat from side to side. errrrhs that's not good. I almost lost my balance and clutched my camera for dear life. The water was murky. God knows who peed or washed their laundry in the water. There's an awful lot of puppies and cats in this village.
And they all ran away whenever people tried to take a photo of them. >.>
Amtek Engineering
Met two really friendly Singaporeans working there.
They offered to bring us around and gave us tips on slashing prices. We found out from them that our shopping places in the itinerary weren't exactly the best. Huge disappointment there.
Day 5
Shanghai Volkswagen Factory
The representative took us on a tram ride around the assembly plant.
It was very interesting however I feel that the ride was too short.
We saw caucasian teenagers in the plant, probably Germans since Volkswagen is originally a German brand and they were obviously on an educational trip just like us. They probably thought we were from China. A funny moment occurred when our two groups met. We were staring at each other. Maybe it's my imagination but I get the feeling that we're appraising each other. Like 'So that's how asian teenagers look like', 'I wonder where they are from', 'So that's the fashion sense of asian youths' and 'I wonder if there are any good looking caucasian guys/girls'. <--- I'm sure most of us have thought of the last one before. =P
Alright Alright I have this thing for German people lately, I think they are really good looking. At least the Germans I've met are all endowed with good genes. >.<
Shanghai Stock Exchange
Another interesting place. How many people get to view the trading area of a stock exchange except for brokers?
Shanghai Stock Exchange
Oh look. Here's the man responsible for the recent global economic crisis: John Thain
The Bund
View from the Bund
Cheng Huangmiao
I witnessed a pickpocket being hauled to a shed. Turns out that shed was a police station. Ate some Xiao Long Bao. We were lucky because there weren't many people queuing at that time. They're not as fantastic as people made them out to be though.
Xin Tiandi
Xin Tiandi
It reminds me of Clarke Quay.
I got to fulfil one of my wishes heh. I always wanted to walk down the street hugging a cup of hot coffee between my hands, drinking from it to warm up from the cold weather. Well I did and it was an awesome feeling.
On to the not so pleasant part.
Dumbass taxi drivers. They are heartless.
There's this driver who left us girls out by the road in the cold night because he claimed not to know the hotel we're going to. Right after we got in too.
We heard from the traffic police that it's impossible for a taxi driver not to know the location of our hotel since it is right in the middle of the Central Business District which is like a few streets away. It's obvious he didn't want to earn our money since our destination is so near. But come on. Tourists. Freezing. Girls. Nighttime. Don't know our way around Shanghai. We didn't even know the hotel was that close. The least he could do was show some compassion. It's perfectly alright if he didn't want us as his customers, a simple 'no' would suffice. Why must he go to such an extent of being a fucking retard? I have a very bad impression of this taxi brand.
Day 6
Shanghai Normal University
Shanghai Normal University
Had lunch with the Chinese Students. I had a really hard time deciphering their English. We went to a Japanese restaurant in their campus for lunch. I got to kneel on the cushions, Japanese style, while eating. It was the first time I sat like that. Five minutes into this and I gave up. It's too taxing for my knees.
Traditional Japanese restaurant
And the highlight of the trip.
Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower
Oriental Pearl TV Tower
This is the attraction I've been looking forward to throughout the entire week.
Imagine my disappointment when we peered out of the viewing gallery to discover that it was foggy. I wonder if it's because of the weather or the air pollution.
All this in a span of 3 seconds.
I was snapping this one second and the next thing I knew, I saw this on my camera.
Anyhow I saw a cute guy. We tried to snap several photos of him abid unsuccessfully. He's the one on the left. :P
Eye-candy
And I laughed when I saw this dog. I remember I commented that this dog was very lucky because the cute guy patted it lol.
Poor doggie
Next we went down to the Shanghai Municipal History Museum located at the base of the tower.
A chinese prostitute. She's butt ugly though.
Nanjing Road
My camera was running low on battery by now so there's no more pictures after the museum. Nothing much to comment about this place except people spat everywhere and I saw a wax figurine of Jackie Chan. He looked life-like from afar. Everyone was scrambling to take a picture with him. Oh and the three of us linked arms and we walked down the crowded streets like that. Great method to avoid getting lost and people would automatically get out of our way. Wonderful feeling really.
Day 7
Longhua Fashion Market
I was banking on doing all my shopping at this place.
This must be my most hated place ever.
All the fake Gucci, D&G, Chanel, Burberry and Prada bags are all here.
Then it must be nice right? you think.
WRONG. I don't want fake goods. I want normal brandless bags.
I intend to buy my first branded handbag using my first paycheck and I sure as hell won't buy it from China. Most of the fake branded bags I saw there were even more expensive than the normal brandless ones in Singapore. I asked for the price of 1 FAKE D&G bag and it was 260RMB. Divide that by 4.4(current exchange rate) and it costs around S$59. Wth is this shit. Of course we can haggle the price with the shopkeeper but since I'm not particularly skilled at the art of bargaining, it was an unpleasant experience. The lowest price the owner was willing to accept was 130RMB which is around S$29. By that time, I was quite fed up and I refused to buy the damn bag. I didn't even like it that much.
Michelle and Pauline bought silver earrings. They reminded me of the cheapskate kind in Bugis, like 3 for $5. I swear the quality of the earrings there are doubtful. The shop tenders were emphasising that they are silver. I was thinking to myself, 'Yeah right you liars. How can that be silver? It looks rusty and dirty in some places'. I didn't buy anything from that shop but my friends paid 80RMB per piece for their accessories. That's like S$18 for a pair of earrings. No thanks I'll rather get those in Singapore.
After they paid for them, I found out that they had initially thought that all the earrings were for 80RMB instead of 80RMB per piece. But they paid for it anyway.
Then I felt guilty for not stopping them when they paid for it, I thought they had really wanted those earrings. Plus I tuned out whatever the shopkeeper was saying when I saw another shop owner across the stall we're in gagging and mocking the shopkeeper when he said the earrings were silver. It's obvious he was lying through his teeth.
Michelle was so pissed, she went around calling all the shopowners liars LOL.
Conclusion: I didn't buy anything from the fashion market. Not even for myself. The only thing I got for myself to commemorate my first overseas trip(as in on a plane) was a 20RMB necklace at a roadside stall the night before.
I like the country but some of the people and the shopping...yeaaaah not so much.
