We kicked off the day today with breakfast at the hotel. I have found that the kitchen staff at the hotel don't seem to know what foods are supposed to be hot, and what's supposed to be chilled. Everything seems to come out rather warm. I find that I have to request that they make me "fresh hot black tea" just to get a half decent cup of tea. Maybe it's just me being too western?
Ryan took us to this really cool gallery / museum in the French concession. It was hidden in the basement of an apartment building, so we never would have found it without Ryan. The gallery featured a history of modern "New" China propaganda, and told the story of Mau through artworks.
Mau was the longest serving leader of China, and is credited with leading a "cultural revolution" which saw the modernization of Chinese culture, traditions and technology. Mau used posters as his main form of communication with the people, encouraging them to unite against the invading US forces, and for Chinese to support the Russians during the cold war. Mau also wrote a book of quotes and sayings, and encouraged the people to read it, and live by it.
I spent about 5 times as long as everyone else looking over the posters, so by the time I had finished looking, there was not much time to peruse the small gift shop.
We stopped for coffee on the way to Jin An Temple. Jin An Temple is a buddist temple which was built many years ago. It appeared to have been destroyed by fire or something, so they are re-building it. The new temple is very beautiful, and has a giant inscents burner in the center of the courtyard. I found it very curious that the interior of the worship space was not decorated. the walls were bare concrete, and no money had been invested on the most used space in the building. The outside of the buildings were very showy and grand, so I hope they have just not completed the worship space interior yet.
From the temple, we caught the subway to the copy market. The marketplace is called "Qipu Lu" market, which sounds strangely similar to "cheap-o-lou" in English. The rest of the day was spent shopping and being hassled by Chinese stall-holders. We started to get the hang of the bartering system, and managed to get some shirts for around 50RMB each. I wanted to get them for 40RMB, but the lady didn't want to accept that. Still, it's a small price to pay for faux Armarni. At one stage, we had about 16 people following us around the shopping complex, all wanting us to buy from their stall. It was unbelievable. It was really fun too!
When we left the market, we were trying to hail a taxi and I caught a man trying to pick-pocket things out of my backpack. He didn't take anything, and ran away straight away, so I was lucky.
That night, it snowed! The snow didn't gather on the ground, because it was too light, and it was too warm, but still, snow is snow! It has been unusually cold here in Shanghai according to the local press. The weather is hovering between about 2 degrees and 5 degrees every day.
We headed out, braving the cold weather for a walk along the Bund. I wanted to get some photos of the pretty lights of Shanghai. In retrospect, this was probably a stupid idea, not only because of the snow, but because I was so cold I couldn't hold the camera still. I left the mini-tripod in the apartment... :(
On the way home, we spotted some posters for the Australian Open, which we had to stop at and take some photos. :)
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