Back!
Okie, I’m back in one piece. A bigger piece perhaps.. *jia lat*
Lingzhi, who met us for dinner on a few nights, brilliantly described the trip to be a decadent one. We hit the bed early… Rise just before noon… 1st destination of the day was definitely for lunch… We pretty much ate, shopped and slept our way through the past week.
I saw a hotel commercial on the flight back- The stories you bring home are more important than souvenirs. (phrased somewhere along these lines)
I agree totally.
You know how people always bring back those little koalas from Australia? Let’s be frank here. Do you jump for joy when you receive one or do you think to yourself: Oh… Another one to collect dust at home…?
I reckon my friends won’t fancy panda keychains, panda tissue boxes, panda pencil case, panda whatever, so I didn’t contribute to the Souvenirs aka Rip Tourist Money sector of the Shanghai economy.
It was my first time doing some real exploring in Shanghai- the working trip in 2003 only had 3 places in the itinerary: Airport, Hotel, Stadium.
Since the Bush Administration and their friends in Europe were persuading (and extorting) China to revalue the Renminbi, I naturally assumed that I would shriek like a bird at every shopping mall and alley- Cheap Cheap Cheap!
Oh no. No No No…
I was in 淮海中路 and saw a sign proclaiming the stretch to be the Asian Champ Elysees.
My FOOT! My size 9 foot!
The people who came up with that marketing proposition have either not been to Champ Elysees themselves, or they were tragically conned to actually believe the French have such bad taste.
The place didn’t have any tangible factors to make me believe I was in the Asian Champ Elysees. But they tried very hard to create this illusion that I was in a high class shopping paradise by setting ridiculously high prices.
RMB $100 for a local brand T shirt that may not survive 10 machine washes?
RMB $150 for a obiang shirt that even the coffee shop owner downstairs might reject?
I ended up browsing the international brands. Most of the stuff e.g. Calvin Klein and Gucci actually cost more in Shanghai than in Singapore. Nonetheless, I got some stuff from G Star, FCUK, etc- items I haven’t seen in Singapore and things I wouldn’t buy back home. Yup, I’m already a spendthrift at home and I turn into a major credit card brandishing bandit when I set foot on foreign soil. If you want to see more entries on this site, please pray I don’t get a cardiac arrest when the bills come in.
(Btw, Champ Elysees is in Paris, and it’s pronounced something like Sean-se-lay-zay.. Correct me if I’m wrong… I always try to pronounce it like Jay Chou so that people won’t notice the mistake. Just don’t say Champ-E-lie-see ok?)
Possibly Related posts:
- 流行教主?
- I’m going to Shanghai!
- “At work take MC, Go army also take MC…”
- At home at 7am on a weekday…
- Kung Fu Panda.
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