Long Live Hooky Street

After celebrating us beating the scam artists we had one more day to kill in Shanghai. We were in need of some cold-weather gear for heading north into China and for Nepal afterwards. We heard there was a locals-only market on our side of the river so we got up reasonably early (for us!) and got the metro out there. We considered ourselves seasoned travellers/market hunters by now so any haggling with hard-nosed locals would be easy street.

The metro station had an exit that lead into the market and as soon as we approached the entrance two pushers came straight up to us and began to harass us. They wanted to know what we wanted, where we were going, how much we wanted to play for things, but we just weren’t interested. We tried valiantly to ignore them and browse at our leisure, but they just wouldn’t leave us alone. They would try and lead us down one row of stalls towards their shop(s) but we would do a quick turn down another to try and lose them. Sure enough, after about 20 seconds they were tailing us. They were persistent, I’ll give them that. So, in an effort to get them off our back I made a slight deal with the girl – we would go to their shop, but if we didn’t buy anything they would leave us alone. “Yes, yes, of course” came the response and she sped off with me following, just to get the crazy woman away from us.

We ended up outside a market stall that seemed closed. Maybe it wasn’t open after all. But then she swooped aside the curtain and heaved up a roller shutter to reveal the shop. Inside the small, cramped shop were coats, shoes, jumpers, and about 4 other people, that had previously been having a nice relaxing time of it. I begrudgingly entered and had a look round, aiming to look through quickly, say “thanks, but no thanks” and then get the hell out of dodge. But then I noticed a coat that I was after, and I reckoned that I could get a good deal out of them. But I played it cool; I didn’t want them to know what I was interested in. James had followed me into the shop, and I think that both our spidey-senses were tingling a little. The one by the door began to pull down the shutter and pull the heavy curtain across so nobody could see we were in there. Alarm bells! Ringing loud and clear. Just what was this scam we had walked into? Was it a robbery? Was it stolen goods that they didn’t want the police to see? Either way James blurted out that he wasn’t happy with the situation and bundled out of there under the shutter. I had one eye on the coat and one eye on the exit, and it was the one on the exit that won. I managed to squeeze my way through the sellers, all still asking what I wanted and that they could do me a very cheap deal, until I made it back out into the open. After narrowly avoiding another potential scam we made a swift exit, to the next floor up.

No surprise there was another hawker straight onto us as soon as we breached the staircase. We tried our best to walk round and browse at our convenience, but it just wasn’t possible. As soon as we batted away on hawker another would soon appear, as if taking it in turns like a relay team to wear us down. It was academic anyway as the prices of the items were all too high for us anyhow, so we made the decision to head over to another market, this time across the river. A similar situation as the one previous; out of the metro and into the market. But this one seemed much more relaxed than the other, after we had got through the first couple of entrance guardians. They all seemed to be selling the same kind of things, but not “tat” exactly, more souvenirs and clothes. We had a look round a few places and got an idea of prices and what was on offer but nothing really grabbed our attention. James did do a bit of nifty haggling for a jumper but the only thing I got my wallet out for was for a KFC for lunch!

Ooh, suits you, sir!

Once we were done with the market we tried to get into the nearby Science & Technology Museum, but it seemed closed. If it were open we still wouldn’t have gone in, not for the price they were asking - £20! So we watched some skaters try to fill a guy doing a very simple trick, which we couldn’t achieve in all the time that we watched him. Next up was the nearby Century Park that looked quite good. Only because it was a green patch on the map and we had some time to kill. When we saw that we would need to pay an entrance fee to get in we turned on our heels and marched out of there. I know we still have plenty of cash, but we’re not crazy.

Nice! But pricey...

And that left us with a little walk down Century Avenue to get to the Oriental Pearl building (the one that looks like a space rocket) and the opposite side of the river to The Bund, to see what it looked like from the other side. Well, I say “little walk” but it actually took ages. It was a nice wander though and we were free from touts and hawkers alike. Some of the buildings along the way were astonishing in their subtle beauty, and how massive they were yet nobody would know about them as they are not along the river front next to the Oriental Pearl et al.

The view from Century Avenue

We arrived at the Oriental Pearl and had a decision to make. It was getting late in the afternoon and we could try and hit the riverfront and potentially miss out on the Art Museum, or do the Art Museum for sure and miss the riverfront. Having been to The Bund twice already we went for the latter.

The Oriental Pearl

We would have a problem finding it however, as it was located near the territory of the crazy tea scam girl, and we certainly didn’t want to run into her! We also assumed that our other scammers may also be in the area as there are plenty of tourists hanging around there. We skulked about on the other side of the road trying to identify the building, which we had no idea what it looked like. As we searched for the Art Museum and scammers we saw a Western tourist talking to three locals. We watched in interest to see if he would take the bait, we couldn’t just stand by and let him be fleeced. But then, we didn’t want to cause another scene like last time. Thankfully he turned and walked away, and we breathed a huge sigh of relief that the scammers didn’t get another mug for their tea shop.

Scammers at work

We found the museum not far down from the scammers nest and wandered in. It was another freebie too! We were happy, and the exhibition was all about Mario Testino and his portfolio of photographs of celebrities on a different light. Some of them were truly fascinating and I made a mental note to check his other work out when I got home.

Art.....innit

Speaking of home, that is exactly where we went after the museum (well, our Shanghai home, of course). It had been a long and hectic day and as it was our last night we thought we would head back to Grape to have a guaranteed cheap and tasty night out. We noticed that on the way back home it was getting rather chilly, so we would need to step up our search for winter clothes on the morrow, before we left for Beijing.