Post date: Jun 17, 2011 2:54:50 PM
Not enough has really happened this week to warrant posting each day. So I'll combine the various evenings below.
After work on Monday I went to the Luo Hu Commercial City - a huge five-story mall full of tiny tiny shops. There seemed to be three types of shop there - tailors, handbags/watches, and ripoff DVDs and electronics.
As it was quiet when I went all the shop-keepers were out, and being a touristy type person I seemed to attract them all one after another... All doing their best to 'help me find find what I wanted'. Meaning walk me to their shop, which I had great fun not doing and seeing them get all confused (I did keep telling them I was only wandering, and would make my own way round, so wasn't completely mean). It was a bit of a shock that so many people there spoke English, but unfortunately I just couldn't bring myself to trust any of the shops there... pity as a new suit might have been quite nice. (Found out later online people have had mixed first encounters with pretty much all the tailors there, and all further encounters have been awful).
From the descriptions I had heard, I'd turned up with three hours before it shut. It took forty minutes to go round as I'm not overly interested in handbags, and any electronics should apparently be bought at Huaqiang Bei.
As I thought I had time, I went to stop at Huaqiang Bei on the way back - at the very least I could see if it was worth it for an evening later in the week. It was dead, not (as I'd been told) open 'till 10pm. As I still wouldn't really trust electronics from here, I decided it probably wasn't worth another taxi ride here and back just to look round and not buy anything again - especially if it'll all be shutting down by the time I get here (rush hour traffic seems solid from 7am to 8pm)
Tuesday and Wednesday I looked round the shops in Nanshan more (where the hotel is). Went further afield than before, but found again most of the shops are either shutting, or catering for female tourists only.
Thursday I decided to just relax in the evening. The heat and humidity outside has meant my shirts have been soaked just from walking round. Watched some TV and a couple of movies, ready to get everything packed Friday...