Big Trouble in Little China

Today was an exploding day around the local area... Kerry and Paul had to head back to the market o negotiate a new SD card for Clinton’s camera, as the first was not right. Clinton and Beth went walking around the Former French Concession of Shanghai - around the area of where they live. The first pic shows one of the big flyovers of the elevated roads. Note the flower boxes...all the elevated roadways have them! Very civilised!

There are lots of parks and green spaces in Shanghai - Clinton showed me a spot that is a bit of a haven for expats from everywhere. It is called Found-58, and is basically a park, with a hole in the ground, and lots of restaurants and bars. There was a German biergarten, a Mexican cantina, and more, plus, a new addition: Little Creatures - from WA. It even sold Aussie wine, which is very expensive here, but not too bad there, as long as it is happy hour, which seems to start at varying times everywhere.

This remains very much a PRC state, despite the very obvious capitalism, and there are signs espousing the core values everywhere. This sign are the core values specific to Shanghai... quite unusual that they’re in English...

We kept walking, looking at some amazing little laneways and high end shops. They can turn around a new shop fit out in a week, and it happens frequently. We found a pop-up shop for the very gorgeous Stieff bears, and I couldn’t resist shooting Clinton with one.

We visited the site of the Second National Congress of the PRC, from the 1920’s. The First National Congress was in Xintiandi, just down the road from Kerry and Clinton’s apartment. This was very austere, and very much waving the red flag.

From there, we found an amazing Art Deco antique shop...it had an amazing array of stunning pieces, from Cartier spoons, to silk screens, to amazing humidor to fit hundreds of Cubans...it was like a museum, thrown together...but with price tags...it was a great glimpse into history, but not limited to the Art Deco era...some pieces were much much older...bronze statuettes, enamels, and petrified bones...

We had a late lunch at a restaurant called Chicken & Egg - it served the most amazing roast chicken...tender and plentiful, with chat potatoes roasted in chicken fat (sensational), garlic baby beans, and cauliflower au gratin...divine, and cheap as chips.

Foot sore we wandered on, and found a little cat cafe, with what you expect...it was very cute. We wanted our coffee at Cupple, however, and if you’ve seen my Facebook page, you’ll have seen our coffees with our faces laser etched on them! Quite amazing!

We headed back to the apartment for a leisurely evening - the boys went to look at the car showrooms, looking at Maseratis and McLarens. We’ve seen some very interesting vehicles on the streets, from high end Porsche’s to Lady Penelope’s pink Bentley. They then found a bar and had a beer, while Kerry and I sipped on a baileys or two, and watched a doco on The Eagles, while we packed for our trip to Xian tomorrow...Read more