...Shanghai Sunday

The Buddhist temple. The really fancy traditional Chinese lunch. The Brits. The Bund. The Kites. The Market. The tea. The Market. The guide. The city.

Sunday was a “free” day in Shanghai with a guided tour (kinda) and a sponsored lunch. In them morning we walked through the temple, where the incense captivated both my mind and my senses. It was a smell that I would have liked to follow me all day…as some of the other places were not so…fresh. There were loads and loads of tourists at the temple and I kept wondering how the Chinese could worship amid so many tourists.


We then headed to the Bund, the place along the river, where we strolled the morning into afternoon and tried to avoid the peddlers selling kites, mont bloncs, watermelon and glasses that would have been perfect for a night on the town with Mr. Mears and LucAss. Pretty much the most amazing views of the city I could have asked for. Next time I’ll ask for a little less haze, but the vibrance of the city was definitely alive on the Bund.


Oldham Li and Nie (several Brit lawyers) sponsored our lunch at the finest restaurant in Shanghai (apparently) on Sunday where the conversation started with business (surprisingly as it generally ends with business after several meetings) and ended with tales of fake-personal-enhanced jokes about timbuctu. The Chivas (the recommended fee for international lawyers – 4 bottles that were presented as a gift) was opened and more than sufficiently disposed of during this four-hour meal that could only be described as one of the coolest, tastiest, interestingest meals of my life. Favorite dish of the several courses…little baby shrimp the size of my thumbnail still bearing the shells and the eyeballs of the little creatures. One of the lawyers said I could deshell, but I hesitated since it was so tiny, but upon the encouragement of my boss and Mr. Bradbury, I tried it whole and it was fantastic. So, shell it NO, I’ll have it whole.J

We later found ourselves market shopping for knock-off goods where I acquired a Chanel bag, two pairs of sunglasses: Chanel and Gucci, several silk scarves, a whole lotta tea and a Chinese fan. I didn’t need it, I didn’t even want it really, but I couldn’t help myself….I got lost in the moment. Which luckily we had a nice gentleman who established himself with us at one of the first shops and guided us through the ENTIRE market looking for whatever we wanted…he took us to his sister’s shop for the bag, which was in a house up four flights of stairs…that dagmar and I hesitated to go in but decided was safe after some others in our group came down the stairs…we let Jack guide us into several shops of that nature. (Mom don’t listen…) down little back alleys completely void of westerners and up five or six flights of the tiniest stairs in the world where each room was filled with contraband for sale at the cheapest places. At the end of the day, we decided to tip Jack for his troubles and for getting us out alive. He didn’t want to, but we insisted. He really did help us score the goods. The real goods….I guess.

Like nothing else I’ve ever seen in the world……