IKEA everywhere!

The more things change, the more they stay the same - great to see our favourite Swedish common sensical shop out here in Shanghai. Same old labyrinthian design to maximally tempt shoppers to buy things that they didn’t even know they wanted. Apparently though, crocs are a hazard on the escalators and pretty much forbidden!

Another fascinating discovery about China in 2019, as we don't recall this level of paranoia from our last trip - knives are a really big deal. We bought a pair from IKEA - one of the 5cm paring variety, and the second a 10cm standard small-ish kitchen knife. For starters, the knives were not even available in the store - you had to pick them up in the warehouse, post check-out, and of course only with official ID. As we had no passports on us (who would bring a passport to go to IKEA?!) and maybe even a Chinese ID was needed, poor Yuning had to sign his life away on our behalf and is forevermore on the hook should any crimes be committed with our fearsome IKEA paring knife.

Next step, trying to get home on the subway. Doesn't sound so hard, does it?! Except that Davy notices the giant security sign in Chinese and graphic imagery... clearly indicating that no knives are permitted in the subway... Yuning himself had forgotten, and had a bit of a face-palm moment when we asked about it. Doh! Luckily, we declared the knife before going through the security scan and he was able to explain the situation to the security guards - had to sign against his official ID again - and we were able to take the metro all of three stops to get back to the apartment.

Oh and the kicker is gas - so you have to take a cab to a municipal utility management office in a dodgy part of town (Yuning himself had not been familiar with either the words used in the street name or with the location of said street) and there you can buy credits for gas at 3 RMB per cubic metre. Nobody knew how much typical consumption might be, and it didn’t matter in the end since we could only buy in 10 cubic metre increments anyhow.

We chatted and ranted about how the purchasing of gas credits could and should be automated and online. But then whatever would happen to the little old ladies who don’t know how to use the internet to recharge their cards? What indeed - apparently they like to go to the local utility management office, where stylish reading glasses are even provided for them!Read more