Shopping Capital of China

At least in my mind it is. Shanghai has more shopping per square mile than anywhere that I've ever seen in the world. Everybody is always shopping. Not necessarily buying, but shopping.

Luckily for me, I've found a few friends in Shanghai to keep me company and show me around town. So far I've been all over People's Square (it's basically my hood at this point) and a few uncertain adventures in Pudong. The day I went to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower was unusually smoggy and therefore highly unphotogenic, but still fun since I had great company.

My only failure in planning was the fact that the day I took my new ladyfriend Tina to Shanghai, it also happened to be Valentine's Day. Not only were the streets JAM PACKED with people, particularly couples, but we were accosted the entire time with Chinese folks trying to sell us flowers. Now I was definitely getting some good vibes from Tina, but since it was our first date I didn't want to do the flowers thing yet. And I definitely didn't want to be pressured into buying her some flowers by a push Chinese woman, which she would then have to carry around for the next four hours. I don't care what country I'm in, I like to do things on my terms. Chinese people will walk all over you if you let them. If you don't show any backbone, they'll rip you off and shove you out the door faster than anything. That's one thing I've learned since being here.

Another thing that I'm slowly learning while I'm here in Putonghua, or Mandarin. Having previously studied German in school, I feel qualifed to say that Mandarin is freaking hard! The tones really bog down Westerners. However, I'm finding that with a little perseverance some things are starting to come together. I really wish I'd studied a little Mandarin before coming here, but that's life I suppose. I also wish I had time to do a class while I was here. I'd like to make time when I get back to the States.