SHANGHAI, CHINA DAY III (3/6/2007)

From: Sherman Rootberg (biggiroot)
Date: Mar 6, 2007 11:33 AM
Subject: Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

SHANGHAI, CHINA DAY III

This was our shopping day, like they are not all Bobbi shopping days. When we left the ship this morning it was about 36 degrees outside. Thank goodness the wind had let up a little.

We really did not have the right clothes. We knew the cruise line was giving us jackets again this year. We assumed they would be similar to the ones they gave us the year before. As I mentioned in the past, perhaps several times, they were not. These jackets were light weight and we had not brought any heavier coats from home this year. The best we could do was to put on many layers and then the jackets got awfully tight. Even with heavy warm up suites under the jackets, it was cold. They would not allow taxis on the dock, so we had to walk about two blocks to hail one.

The taxis were very cheap here. A metered cab cost about $2 US for about a 45 minute ride. We were going to the discount area. As I mentioned a day or two ago, these places were thrown out of town and were now quite a distance away.

A lot of things operate underground in this town. There is also gamboling readily available. That too is strictly forbidden but the government looks the other way until it is no longer necessary.

We were expecting stands or mini store fronts that are more like sheds. We see miles of these tiny open front businesses over different parts of the city. This area of discount shops was a five or six story shopping center with escalators. While every local person we have met has been very friendly and easy going, they are very aggressive at hawking their merchandise. We have been many places all over the world where they have been aggressive. Some are nasty and even try to frighten you but we have never been anywhere else where they touch you and grab your arm or clothing. Yet we never feel threatened. Maybe it’s because it is so easy to get a smile or laugh out of these people. If you say something friendly or funny they always give up and laugh. That has been both on the streets and in this very aggressive shopping building where walking down the halls is like running a gauntlet.

We didn’t get very far into the building when we ran into a young fellow selling or rather trying to force wrist watches on us. Some of his stuff looked nice so we followed him to his store. Once we told him what we were looking for, we suddenly had to go into the back room. The back room was much smaller then the closet in our room on the ship. There was barely room for three people to stand. After purchasing a huge amount of merchandise from the young fellow, he asked if there was anything else we were looking for. Bobbi wanted purses. Naturally he had relatives with a store up stairs. We followed him up two flights on the escalator. Even when walking with him, people would come up and grab us to try to get us to come with them.

He brought us to a purse store being run by a small 20 year old girl. Bobbi wanted so many purses, we ran out of cash. They didn’t take credit cards anywhere in the building so we had to go back to the ship to get more money while she held the purses for us. We did grab a cab and went back to visit our money. We then turned around and went back to the Fell off the Truck shopping center. We (Bobbi) also got some terrific stuff for the kids. I think they are going to be really happy with the Bubbi Booty this year. Two people carried all the bags of stuff to a taxi.

We had a Regent sponsored event this evening. The Chinese Circus. It too was a long ride by bus. The inside of the building was much like Circus O’lay. It was a half circle with many different levels of seating. We know the Chinese Circus had been around for a very long time but this one sounded and acted a lot like Circus O’Lay. We later found out that a Canadian woman was responsible for the set up of the show and she did copy much from Circus O’lay which is a Canadian enterprise.

The show was fantastic. The acrobatics and style was outstanding. After an intermission they put on the motorcycles. They put 12 motorcycles in a cage at the same time.