Mad About Shanghai

White Shanghai

Its been snowing heavily in Shanghai for the past few days or so.I heard from some locals that this is the coldest and whitest winter in Shanghai for as long as they remember.

Look at the pics Regine took this morning:

Shopping Day at Superbrand Mall

Went to the Superbrand Mall in Pudong today to meet Christine for lunch.

The "agenda" is to meet up and have a good catch up over coffee, a nice meal and maybe a movie.

After lunch, we walked around a bit and I suggested going to the Zara boutique to have a look. Everything in the mall seems to be on sale!

Needless to say, when you expose a woman to this kind of environment, the consequence is usually quite expected. We ended up spending the next few hours shopping and trying on stuff.

Christine bought for herself an elegant trench coat for RMB 1500 from the Zara sale (a steal she says). Good choice I feel too. She looks great in it.

I, only the other hand, spent more modestly, splurging about RMB 700 on a couple of t shirts, a jacket and a shirt.

Heading off to Nanjing soon.

Stay tune. Would write more about the trip.

Shanghai Consumer Rights Hotline

Write this number down somewhere.

You might need this some day...

Consumer Complaint Center of Shanghai
Tel: 12315

Forgetting Where You Are = No Fireworks

We finally have broadband on (things in Sydney move a lot slower than in Shanghai, thats for sure) so you might get lucky and see/hear more from us.

Just a funny little anecdote - we were both in the lounge room, me on the computer writing a few CCTV updates and Sabrina packing some things for our wedding (this weekend!!!) when we both heard the muffled explosions of fireworks.

We both totally ignored that sound because in Shanghai it is a very regular occurrence. It was only after about a minute or so that we realised that we weren't in Shanghai - we were in Manly. So we had a good old look and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Now, if that had happened in Shanghai, we would have likely ignored it because it is such a common sight. So my advice is to not get so complacent about things that you may find commonplace in your life,  such things as fireworks - sure you may see it every week, but it is still a joy to see! Take the time and enjoy these kinds of events while you can.

Another Black Taxi Encounter in Shanghai

We had another encounter with "black taxis" in Shanghai just before we left.

After having done some shopping and eaten our dinner in the Super Brand Mall near Jinmao Tower in Pudong, we walked out of the door with our shopping to look for a taxi. That was about 10 O'clock at night.

We found something strange out there: many taxis parking along the street in front of the Mall waiting, at the same time, many people like us are waiting for a taxi. From the previous experience, I realised that it would be a tough night again in terms of looking for a taxi.

I decided to test the water anyway. So I walked up to the nearest taxi - the driver was standing outside leaning against the door. "Are you going?" I asked. "Where do you want to go?" asked he. "Xizang Road, just on the other side of the tunnel".  "80 Kuai" he quickly answered. 

What? The normal taxi rate is 18-20 Yuan from the Mall to my apartment, he was asking for 4 times of the normal price. Now I completely understand while so many people were waiting for a taxi while so many taxis were right in front of them.

Indignant, I walked away while telling him "get stuffed". Brad detested what is going on from my tone and quickly took a photo of this black taxi and its driver.

The story is not finished yet ...

Emergency Phone Numbers in Shanghai

Just had an e-mail from someone asking about the telephone numbers for emergency services in Shanghai.

So for all of you who are living there or going to visit, here are the numbers you need to know:
Police - 110
Ambulance - 120
Fire - 119

Not the easiest to remember and I'm not sure what the English is like - the best bet is to have  a friend or the hotels phone number stored in your speed dial list.

Also, don't expect them to get there too quick.

" Larry Lang Live" was shut down in Shanghai

"Larry Lang Live" - the most popular financial talk show in Shanghai was shut down. I had the feeling sooner or later it was going to happen. It was not a surprise.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the show on MSN.cn and have learnt a lot from the "Larry King"  - Professor Lang Xianping. His last show I watched is regarding Lenovo -  "The impatient Lenovo".

I was always worried that one day his show would disappear due to his "free style" talking even though that was also what I enjoyed most.

Here are the details about what happened to his show by Reuters.

If one day people like professor Lang Xianping can survive their "free style" talking, then China would be different - more transparent and  more open.

Whats Up With Yahoo! Au

Ever since Yahoo! did their big redesign of their home page in Australia to become Yahoo! 7 (a few months back) their home page hasn't worked in China (at least on the 4 computers I have tried here) regardless of whether I am using IE or Firefox.

The page is displayed so badly to make it virtually unusable. Going to their US or China sites, you have no problems at all.

So what weird & wonderful thing is happening to the formatting as it enters China!?

Yahoo! 7 designers - you have got a lot of work to do to make this a universally accessible portal!

The New Xiang Yang Market

There have been many queries on where to get some good fake stuff in Shanghai now that Xiangyang Market is shut.

There have been several contenders but it appears there are 2 major players, 1 in Puxi  1 in Pudong, these are:

Puxi - 580 Nanjing Xi Lu, close to Chengdu Lu. This is on the north side of Nanjing Lu up a wide set of steps, with two sets of double glass doors and it says something like "Fashion Mall" on the outside.

Pudong - Yatai Market which believe it or not, is in a Metro station. It is located at the Shanghai Science and Technology station on line 2. When you get out of the Metro just look around and you will see different entry points. It is a pretty big underground market and has many areas such as Area A, Area B etc.

They have the usual stuff including fakes of LV, Prada, Rolex, Gucci, Nike, Puma, Reebok etc etc.

Go explore - happy shopping!

Shanghai - See it Now!

Want to check out how Shanghai looks right now - well then have a look at the Shanghai Webcam, courtesy of Onedir. There is also one here from the German School of Shanghai.