Old Chinese proverb “To go too far is as bad as to fall short“.
I am not sure which mistake we made today but not all went according to plan, well one persons plan anyway. We start off after breakfast taking the Line 1 Subway to the People’s Square to visit the Shanghai Museum. Even though we are at the tail end of the rush hour commuter traffic seems light, and we do not have to queue at the ticket office to get tickets (no change for the machine, mistake number one). We arrive at the museum, through the usual security checks and spend a pleasant couple of hours wandering around the exhibits, restricting ourselves to the galleries with jade carvings, the ethnic costumes and Chinese paintings. A lot of the exhibits are over three thousand years old, and the artistry and form of the carvings leaves us dumbfounded. My fellow traveller makes a couple of purchases on the way out, most notably some lucky red money envelopes. Please note that we had already found a lucky ¥1 coin earlier on in our travels and we have been rubbing parts of many auspicious statues, we must surely be in for some good fortune.
Anyway, leaving the museum we head off shopping. I take the lead and head off to the subway looking for the route to Nanjing Road, where I believed we were to make for following previous discussions the night before and earlier in the day. My companion however was harbouring doubts at this point that this was where we should be going but felt it best to let me carry on regardless. Arriving at Najing Road it is evident that this is not the destination my companion desired, it is The Old Town which is where we should be headed. We are standing in the middle of the pedestrianised area when we realise that neither of us have the faintest idea how to get there or even where it is. Moreover we look at each other accusingly when we realise that neither of us has brought a map. I tell my companion to take a look in this art shop, and wait outside for me to return. I will endeavour to determine which direction we should be heading. I march off and walk around two blocks looking for a hotel concierge (well it worked in Beijing), but none could be found. I return to meet up with my fellow traveller now coming from the opposite direction from when I left her. She remonstrates with me as I have been gone “for ages”, and by the way it was a cosmetics shop not an art shop. The tubes that I had seen in the window were in fact face creams and not paints. All is well however, as she is holding in her hand a piece of paper with the name of Yu Yuan Garden, in Chinese, which we can show to a taxi driver. There was a session in the shop with the assistant and my companion “interfacing” with each other through the medium of a translation app on her smartphone. We catch a taxi, and are delivered to the correct shopping area. By the way I must advise you that one set of pages in my purpose made travel encyclopaedia has most certainly proved itself. Before we came away, I spent many hours looking up places on the internet and finding their corresponding Chinese translations. We have used these on many occasions when getting taxis.
Shopping now, there are many local shops and stalls here. Our first purchase is a new case (to hold our forthcoming purchases) and a coolie hat. Next stop, I buy more tea. My companion buys some paper and ink. I buy an ink pad for my jade seal. Another tea shop and no tea this time but after much haggling and walking away I purchase a tea cup (the sort with the filter) and a tea pot to match at very good price. I endeavour to find a location for a kite shop from the tea shop owner and he indicates a place around the corner awaiting my business. He offers to take me there himself but I decline. Kite acquired, together with a spool of line complete with winding mechanism we move on. Next a fan, and some confections made with wild walnuts, a sort of bun with what seemed to be an undercooked centre. Not very pleasant.
Back at the main road I use my above mentioned translation document to show to a taxi driver to get us back to our hotel. He does not seem too sure of this, possibly because the hotel has only recently changed its name. My companion provides some emphatic instructions telling him, with accompanying gestures, that it is near the station. All seems fine, and off we go. I recognise a number of the intersections we pass and am reassured that we are indeed going in the correct direction. We arrive at the hotel junction, but he is looking around. We point in unison at the hotel entrance, but the taxi driver seems to have an aversion to entering, the entrance being partly obscured by a van which he finally sees around and then enters the hotel driveway. He can be forgiven as the hotel entrance is in the middle of a building, the sign not obvious until a tunnel is entered.
I make a short stop at the convenience shop again for our coffee sachets. We will probably need one shortly as the packing is to begin. All I can say about that is I am so glad that we had the room upgrade for somewhere to lay our cases out for the exercise.