Hello, fellow readers. This is my first post written away from Malaysia, and my second away from my own room. My first time blogging outside the house was this post. I am currently in Luwan District, Shanghai, China. The season: autumn. Weather: windy+sunny/cooling. Internet: fast like hell. Culture: shocking.

Welcome to Shanghai, where taxis are Voltzwagens, bicycles have motorized versions and people don’t give a rats ass about red traffic lights. People spit in daylight, walk faster, drive faster, and dont really wait in line. Flyer boys put ads on your hand, no handing them to you for you to take. Speaking of ads, they’re EVERYWHERE. CULTURAL POLLUTION. If you sit on the passenger seat of a taxi, there’s a screen hanging smack in front of you displaying audio-less ads. There’s also plenty of Western ads, like the huge Tag Heuer one with Brad Pitt and Tiger Woods.

Today I went to Qipu Lu (aka Cheap road) and went into a rusty shopping mall crammed with apparel of all kinds. Clothing, shoes, bags, everything. It’s more crammed than Sungai Wang. Five seconds after getting out of the taxi, my folks and I were somehow detected as foreigners and insistent salespersons followed us like parasites. Gosh. First there were 6-7 who followed us for about fifteen minutes nudging us no matter what we say. But two of them followed us for a couple of hours, throughout almost every purchase we made.

That place is a haven for pirated/imitation clothing. Imagine LowYatPlaza for gadgets and comp products? Multiply that effect by ten. Five floors x lane after lane x narrow shoplots chock full of clothing/shoes/bags. It was mental. Okay, enough about that place. I’ve been to Xintiandi where it comes alive with colours at night. You can see some photos I posted here. Everyday I will post at least one new Shanghai photo there so do check it out. I’ll post more info next time so I’ll leave for now.

Wo yau chiao ker li.