Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Shanghai Shopping and The Bund

Today we finished our brief introduction to living in China. We learned a bit about Chinese history, culture, some conversational do's and don'ts, and a bit about the difference between house churches and registered churches. We also had an opportunity to review a draft of our employment contract- so far, everything looks very good.

After lunch, we went in to the shopping district of Shanghai, over by the river between Puxing and Pudong (East of the river/West of the river). We were looking for cell phones and a digital camera, so Jenny took us to an electronics mall. It was a large four-story indoor mall, with each floor dedicated to a particular type of electronic device. The 1st floor contained primarily laptops and cameras, the 2nd and 3rd floors were computer components, media players, and GPS units, and the 4th floor was predominantly cell phones.

In China, the cell phone carriers rarely sell cell phone handsets, so there is very little incentive for cell manufacturers to lock the handsets to one particular cellular provider. Consequently, most handsets are sold by themselves, unlocked, and work with any of the Chinese carriers. We ended up getting 4 basic, minimum featured motorola handsets for 250 RMB[1] each (This was a really good price.)(It was a really REALLY good price). We'll add cell phone service after we get to Wenzhou.

[1] There are approx. 6.8 RMB per US Dollar.

While we were out, we got dinner at a nice sit-down restaurant for about 40 RMB each, then went out and saw the Bund. The Bund is a section of Shanghai along the river that was built in the late colonial era of Shanghai, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I've attached some pictures below.

We got back to our hotel rooms at about 10:15 this evening, and need to be down in the hotel lobby by 7:45 tomorrow. It's going to be a shorter night tonight than it was last night, but we'll be able to sleep on the bus.



Our hotel:


The Electronics Mall:

Silk cocoons in a tailor shop:


The Bund, looking south:

The Bund, looking north:

The Customs House on the Bund:

The four of us at the Bund- from left to right, Jessica, Jonathan, Jeremiah, and Shannon:

Across the river from the Bund is the commercial district of Shanghai:

There were a lot of people out tonight!


- Jonathan

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great pictures! I have never heard of a 4-story electronics mall! Those silk cocoons were very cool. Were they on display to show customers what the tailor made his clothing with? I noticed it was written in English- is there a lot English signage?

Anonymous said...

Wow, looks like you guys are having quite an adventure! I enjoyed reading your posts so far - it helps us know how we can pray for you better. It also made me want to go back! I've actually shopped at that electronics mall! :) Blessings