China 2009: Week 2(-ish)
Jun. 10th, 2009 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiruiSlowly cutting down the backlog of entries now that I'm back. Will probably have one more Shanghai related post after this before putting together the sales post for ACen leftovers.
So here's 05/30 - 06/02: Photo heavy, but shouldn't be too bad. The tl;dr on the other hand... lol.
05/30/09 (warning: bitchfest)
We were supposed to meet up with one of our classmates who lived in Shanghai for dinner, but he never really specified where per se... or when, for that matter. But since he lived somewhere in the southwest direction (i.e. not anywhere near my grandparents' vicinity) it seemed most logical to meet at a midpoint.
So after checking on the status of the glamshots at noon and walking around like a headless, desperately in need of directions, chicken looking for a train ticket kioske so that Inaho could buy her freaking ticket to Nan Chang, we headed off to People's Square with no real plan in mind except to maybe burn off two hours or so.
Got there at ~4:00pm and called the dude. And he asked us if 7:30pm was okay because apparently his friends who were supposed to join us got up late, had lunch late, due to drinking themslves into stupors the night before. ALSDKFJASDFH Seven fucking thirty. And he still didn't know where the dinner location was. ::facedesk:: It was pointless to say no unfortunately, so Inaho and I basically hung around the underground markets and looked at shoes/bags/jewelry without any real intent of purchasing anything. We did stumble across a stand that sold the standard Chinese spread-out market fare of Asian pop-paraphernalia--SuJu, DBSK on keychains, cell-phone accessories, wallet portraits, freaking 20"-sized portraits. We might've LOL'd a little more than necessary though, but it really was kind of hilarious.
Unfortunately that sort of wandering lasted us for only about an hour-and-a-half before we stalked back up to the main subway area, thoroughly pissed and tired, with nowhere to fucking sit. I called our ;alskdjfsh classmate again with the admission that I really wanted to break in his friend's face.
At his suggestion, we went to Raffles City (the equivalent of a US shopping mall) afterwards in an attempt to burn off more time. Went through all seven floors in another 1.5 hours and quite. Frustrated. Like burning. :||| Everything was ridiculously priced and it was boring as hell to be honest. Was never one to enjoy window-shopping since it really is an utter waste of time.
With half an hour left before the designated meet-up time (and still without a meet-up place) Inaho and I attempted to assuage our overall feelings of justified murder with some Häagen-Dazs maccha icecream. FFFFF expensive like you wouldn't believe (￥28 for one scoop), but sooo worth it. Not the first time I had HD maccha icecream, but the last time was 4 years ago when China didn't even know what maccha was LOL.
Look at that color... just look at it. SO GREEN. SO DELiCIOUS.
When 7:30 rolled around though, go figure, there was no peep out of our classmate. It was only another 15 minutes later that we get a call to go to 淮海路 and meet up with them at Hong Kong plaza. After giving us some really shitty directions, he, the native, asks two non-natives to go find him. So we walked. And walked. And ended up in a dimly lit area of the city with road construction and adult sex shops. =___= We'd apparently missed the road completely and Inaho'd developed a foot cramp by then. (By then we both were hoping that we'd get mugged because we were both really rearing to simply beat the shit out of someone.)
人民广场 at night.
Backtracking, we finally met up with them ~8:00pm. Hong Kong Plaza turned out to be part of a foreigner-haven shopping district. They chose a fancy Thai restaurant and the entire time they were speaking English. Which was really weird at first, since, dude, speaking English anywhere else but that tourist center got you targeted for massive rip-offs and price-discrimination. When we told him what we'd done for the last two hours, the asshole had the gall to even think we actually "shopped"/bought things in an area where I can't haggle the price for 2 hours. Man, seriously, what's the stereotype of Shanghainese girls nowadays? (Wait, I think I actually know that one... and I definitely fit in more with the previous generation fffff).
Insult on top of injury, his guyfriends were even later and we didn't really start eating until 8:45pm. By that time I was exhausted and on automatic, i.e. flinging snark and ascerbic responses right and left. When our classmate's friend DID get here, most of my witticisms went in his direction (at one point I vaguely remember Inaho telling me "DOWN GIRL" lolwtftheypissedmeoff OTL OTL).
There were funny moments during dinner, but not enough mask the general unpleasantness I'm remembering it with. The highlight ended up being the food and not the company, go figure.
Our appetizers of mini samosas (left), and someone else's appetizers.
Inaho's duck and rice in a claypot (left), and my spicy beef with basil leaves (right)
05/31/09
Went to 城隍庙/Cheng Huang Temple since Inaho said she'd never gone there before but. APPARENTLY SHE HAD. She'd just forgotten what it was called (this was on the tailend of her failing to tell me that she's been in Shanghai before, to boot). WTF-reaction to this bout of miscommunication aside (no point in denying your communication fail,butterflycages), got reacquainted with The Tourist Trap once more. SO many tourists, it was... weird.
The buildings will always be pretty though...
Really talented dude playing a "Chinese Saxophone."
Got myself and my sister a signature stamp; Inaho got one for herself too. Went around asking a few vendors their starting prices. Had haggled mine from ￥85 to ￥45 at one stand, and then helped Inaho haggle hers and my sister's from ￥55 to ￥30 each at a second place.... and then, on a whim, asked a vendor near the exit gate what their starting price was. =________= ￥30. 真地让我心痛阿... T___T My soul still aches at the memory.
Had an early lunch of 小笼包 and soup. Again, over-priced, but delicious.
This one was taken by Inaho; looks like it belongs in a brochure or something, doesn't it? |D
Now, doesn't that look good? ::BRICKED::
Wandered around a bit more before getting to the center where we bought a couple of old-man fans, of which we might take photos of later.
Starbucks. It is seriously Everywhere.
Dairy Queen too. Maccha latte ♥.
CHECK OUT ALL PEOPLES ARU.
06/01/09
Qi Pu Lu again, with the goal to find the original vendor of the hotpants and switch them for something more... wearable. But in the end we couldn't find the exact building/floor/row it was in and gave up on that one.
Would totally wear that shirt... if only it wouldn't get me reported for public inpropriety (or something) in the US.
Unlike the last time we went though, the buildings were pretty empty of people. No sweaty human walls to force our way through. Did most of the bargaining again and managed to haggle everything to at least 30% of the asking price, or 60% at most... but there were still instances when we'd walk away with our purchases and my soul would start aching. OTL That's when I definitely knew that the starting price was probably some amount higher than normal (whatever normal was lolsob).
WE DID BUY THE MAN!SHIRTS THOUGH. I love mine to death, srsly. And it's a good thing I'm really happy with the purchase overall because even though I talked the vendors to go from ￥160 to ￥75, my soul. It pained after we set off to the next floor. OTL (I really should stop mentally tormenting myself now...)
Bought bubble tea when we got thirsty and... The girl who manned the refreshments cart has remarkably good aim, no?
Bought a red Tai Qi shirt/pants set on the side (Inaho bought a white set). Give my hair a month or two and I'll totally have a closet Hong Kong cosplay, lol. But our main targets aside from the Man!Shirts and tops to go with the skirts we bought during our first trip was to buy matching shoes. It was during the grueling trek through the shoe-stalls wherein I realized just why exactly I hate being a girl (and shopping in particular) sometimes.
1) You buy a skirt, thinking it'd be useful for formal/business occassions in your career oriented future.
2) You realize you should probably buy a top to match it if you don't have one already, and so you trawl through more shops and racks looking for suitable tops.
3) Finally, finally after you find a suitable top, and have yourself a brand-new outfit, you realise OH FUCK NO SHOES TO COMPLEMENT THIS ALSKDFJASDFHALSDKFJASDFH. Not to mention a size 7.5 in the US equates to something like a 38/39 in China ONLY NOT REALLY BECAUSE SOMETIMES THEIR NUMBERING SYSTEM MEANS JACK SHIT, YOU KNOW? D8
Had 刀削面 for lunch again, but this time with pictures! :DDD
Seriously, the texture is divine.
We shopped a bit more after lunch, looking for hats and belts. But somehow got targeted by one of those salespeople--the type that carry around an advertisements and try to get you to go to their particular stand and "look at their stuff." The asshole was like a freaking parasite and wouldn't piss off despite our telling him repeatedly that we weren't interested (in retrospect that might've been the problem; we acknowledged his existence and were too polite to tell him to GTFO right away OTL OTL OTL). He touched my elbow once and I lengthened my strides and ignored him after that. Inaho wasn't as lucky since was trailing me and he apparently grabbed her arm at least 7 times before she finally, finally lost her temper and snapped at him to not touch her.
So here' s one for the reference books: Physical harrassment is a given if you're polite in Chinese black markets.
06/02/09
Inaho spent most of the morning packing while I flitted around making taxi arrangements and stuff. Mother called and persuaded that I ask her friend to accompany us to the train station since she wasn't assured of us two getting there safely by ourselves.
Brainstormed a bit more for Pomoland while waiting for the aunt who was going with us to the train station.
Shipped Inaho off to Nan Chang on her 9:00pm train and that was that? :D;;
So here's 05/30 - 06/02: Photo heavy, but shouldn't be too bad. The tl;dr on the other hand... lol.
05/30/09 (warning: bitchfest)
We were supposed to meet up with one of our classmates who lived in Shanghai for dinner, but he never really specified where per se... or when, for that matter. But since he lived somewhere in the southwest direction (i.e. not anywhere near my grandparents' vicinity) it seemed most logical to meet at a midpoint.
So after checking on the status of the glamshots at noon and walking around like a headless, desperately in need of directions, chicken looking for a train ticket kioske so that Inaho could buy her freaking ticket to Nan Chang, we headed off to People's Square with no real plan in mind except to maybe burn off two hours or so.
Got there at ~4:00pm and called the dude. And he asked us if 7:30pm was okay because apparently his friends who were supposed to join us got up late, had lunch late, due to drinking themslves into stupors the night before. ALSDKFJASDFH Seven fucking thirty. And he still didn't know where the dinner location was. ::facedesk:: It was pointless to say no unfortunately, so Inaho and I basically hung around the underground markets and looked at shoes/bags/jewelry without any real intent of purchasing anything. We did stumble across a stand that sold the standard Chinese spread-out market fare of Asian pop-paraphernalia--SuJu, DBSK on keychains, cell-phone accessories, wallet portraits, freaking 20"-sized portraits. We might've LOL'd a little more than necessary though, but it really was kind of hilarious.
Unfortunately that sort of wandering lasted us for only about an hour-and-a-half before we stalked back up to the main subway area, thoroughly pissed and tired, with nowhere to fucking sit. I called our ;alskdjfsh classmate again with the admission that I really wanted to break in his friend's face.
At his suggestion, we went to Raffles City (the equivalent of a US shopping mall) afterwards in an attempt to burn off more time. Went through all seven floors in another 1.5 hours and quite. Frustrated. Like burning. :||| Everything was ridiculously priced and it was boring as hell to be honest. Was never one to enjoy window-shopping since it really is an utter waste of time.
With half an hour left before the designated meet-up time (and still without a meet-up place) Inaho and I attempted to assuage our overall feelings of justified murder with some Häagen-Dazs maccha icecream. FFFFF expensive like you wouldn't believe (￥28 for one scoop), but sooo worth it. Not the first time I had HD maccha icecream, but the last time was 4 years ago when China didn't even know what maccha was LOL.
Look at that color... just look at it. SO GREEN. SO DELiCIOUS.
When 7:30 rolled around though, go figure, there was no peep out of our classmate. It was only another 15 minutes later that we get a call to go to 淮海路 and meet up with them at Hong Kong plaza. After giving us some really shitty directions, he, the native, asks two non-natives to go find him. So we walked. And walked. And ended up in a dimly lit area of the city with road construction and adult sex shops. =___= We'd apparently missed the road completely and Inaho'd developed a foot cramp by then. (By then we both were hoping that we'd get mugged because we were both really rearing to simply beat the shit out of someone.)
人民广场 at night.
Backtracking, we finally met up with them ~8:00pm. Hong Kong Plaza turned out to be part of a foreigner-haven shopping district. They chose a fancy Thai restaurant and the entire time they were speaking English. Which was really weird at first, since, dude, speaking English anywhere else but that tourist center got you targeted for massive rip-offs and price-discrimination. When we told him what we'd done for the last two hours, the asshole had the gall to even think we actually "shopped"/bought things in an area where I can't haggle the price for 2 hours. Man, seriously, what's the stereotype of Shanghainese girls nowadays? (Wait, I think I actually know that one... and I definitely fit in more with the previous generation fffff).
Insult on top of injury, his guyfriends were even later and we didn't really start eating until 8:45pm. By that time I was exhausted and on automatic, i.e. flinging snark and ascerbic responses right and left. When our classmate's friend DID get here, most of my witticisms went in his direction (at one point I vaguely remember Inaho telling me "DOWN GIRL" lolwtftheypissedmeoff OTL OTL).
There were funny moments during dinner, but not enough mask the general unpleasantness I'm remembering it with. The highlight ended up being the food and not the company, go figure.
Our appetizers of mini samosas (left), and someone else's appetizers.
Inaho's duck and rice in a claypot (left), and my spicy beef with basil leaves (right)
05/31/09
Went to 城隍庙/Cheng Huang Temple since Inaho said she'd never gone there before but. APPARENTLY SHE HAD. She'd just forgotten what it was called (this was on the tailend of her failing to tell me that she's been in Shanghai before, to boot). WTF-reaction to this bout of miscommunication aside (no point in denying your communication fail,
butterflycages), got reacquainted with The Tourist Trap once more. SO many tourists, it was... weird. The buildings will always be pretty though...
Really talented dude playing a "Chinese Saxophone."
Got myself and my sister a signature stamp; Inaho got one for herself too. Went around asking a few vendors their starting prices. Had haggled mine from ￥85 to ￥45 at one stand, and then helped Inaho haggle hers and my sister's from ￥55 to ￥30 each at a second place.... and then, on a whim, asked a vendor near the exit gate what their starting price was. =________= ￥30. 真地让我心痛阿... T___T My soul still aches at the memory.
Had an early lunch of 小笼包 and soup. Again, over-priced, but delicious.
This one was taken by Inaho; looks like it belongs in a brochure or something, doesn't it? |D
Now, doesn't that look good? ::BRICKED::
Wandered around a bit more before getting to the center where we bought a couple of old-man fans, of which we might take photos of later.
Starbucks. It is seriously Everywhere.
Dairy Queen too. Maccha latte ♥.
CHECK OUT ALL PEOPLES ARU.
06/01/09
Qi Pu Lu again, with the goal to find the original vendor of the hotpants and switch them for something more... wearable. But in the end we couldn't find the exact building/floor/row it was in and gave up on that one.
Would totally wear that shirt... if only it wouldn't get me reported for public inpropriety (or something) in the US.
Unlike the last time we went though, the buildings were pretty empty of people. No sweaty human walls to force our way through. Did most of the bargaining again and managed to haggle everything to at least 30% of the asking price, or 60% at most... but there were still instances when we'd walk away with our purchases and my soul would start aching. OTL That's when I definitely knew that the starting price was probably some amount higher than normal (whatever normal was lolsob).
WE DID BUY THE MAN!SHIRTS THOUGH. I love mine to death, srsly. And it's a good thing I'm really happy with the purchase overall because even though I talked the vendors to go from ￥160 to ￥75, my soul. It pained after we set off to the next floor. OTL (I really should stop mentally tormenting myself now...)
Bought bubble tea when we got thirsty and... The girl who manned the refreshments cart has remarkably good aim, no?
Bought a red Tai Qi shirt/pants set on the side (Inaho bought a white set). Give my hair a month or two and I'll totally have a closet Hong Kong cosplay, lol. But our main targets aside from the Man!Shirts and tops to go with the skirts we bought during our first trip was to buy matching shoes. It was during the grueling trek through the shoe-stalls wherein I realized just why exactly I hate being a girl (and shopping in particular) sometimes.
1) You buy a skirt, thinking it'd be useful for formal/business occassions in your career oriented future.
2) You realize you should probably buy a top to match it if you don't have one already, and so you trawl through more shops and racks looking for suitable tops.
3) Finally, finally after you find a suitable top, and have yourself a brand-new outfit, you realise OH FUCK NO SHOES TO COMPLEMENT THIS ALSKDFJASDFHALSDKFJASDFH. Not to mention a size 7.5 in the US equates to something like a 38/39 in China ONLY NOT REALLY BECAUSE SOMETIMES THEIR NUMBERING SYSTEM MEANS JACK SHIT, YOU KNOW? D8
Had 刀削面 for lunch again, but this time with pictures! :DDD
Seriously, the texture is divine.
We shopped a bit more after lunch, looking for hats and belts. But somehow got targeted by one of those salespeople--the type that carry around an advertisements and try to get you to go to their particular stand and "look at their stuff." The asshole was like a freaking parasite and wouldn't piss off despite our telling him repeatedly that we weren't interested (in retrospect that might've been the problem; we acknowledged his existence and were too polite to tell him to GTFO right away OTL OTL OTL). He touched my elbow once and I lengthened my strides and ignored him after that. Inaho wasn't as lucky since was trailing me and he apparently grabbed her arm at least 7 times before she finally, finally lost her temper and snapped at him to not touch her.
So here' s one for the reference books: Physical harrassment is a given if you're polite in Chinese black markets.
06/02/09
Inaho spent most of the morning packing while I flitted around making taxi arrangements and stuff. Mother called and persuaded that I ask her friend to accompany us to the train station since she wasn't assured of us two getting there safely by ourselves.
Brainstormed a bit more for Pomoland while waiting for the aunt who was going with us to the train station.
Shipped Inaho off to Nan Chang on her 9:00pm train and that was that? :D;;