Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Hangzhou and Shanghai
Time to finish the final part of the trip.
In the morning, we visited some jeweller's shop. The local guide told us that there was no pressure to buy. In the end, it turned out that their boss was there. He was born in Singapore but spent most of his life in Thailand. He told us that the items were way overpriced, and gave our group huge discounts. For example, a 4000 RMB necklace became 500 RMB. In the end, everyone bought something.
After that stop was more shopping in a quaint looking street lined with shophouses. There was quite a lot of interesting stuff, including a parachute toy which can be flung quite high, but it was relatively expensive.
We returned to Shanghai after lunch and the tour guide brought us to a shopping complex which sold clothes. All of them are fake but really cheap.
The next day, we were brought to a place for a foot massage. After soaking out feet in hot water infused with herbs, those above 21 were given a foot massage. It didn't really have any effect on me though. The masseurs are said to be so good that they can diagnose ailments by pressing on acupoints in the sole of the foot. Maybe that's true, but after a while, it degenerated into a sales pitch. They would say you have so and so problem, and their herb here can help with it. Following that, they'll quote some price and say that you can only find this mixture of herbs at their place.
We returned to the hotel after that and bade goodbye to our tour group. There were 2 families staying for a few more days, and the other elderly couple was taking the much later flight on another airline. After lunch, we were taken to the airport and came back to orderly Singapore.
In the morning, we visited some jeweller's shop. The local guide told us that there was no pressure to buy. In the end, it turned out that their boss was there. He was born in Singapore but spent most of his life in Thailand. He told us that the items were way overpriced, and gave our group huge discounts. For example, a 4000 RMB necklace became 500 RMB. In the end, everyone bought something.
After that stop was more shopping in a quaint looking street lined with shophouses. There was quite a lot of interesting stuff, including a parachute toy which can be flung quite high, but it was relatively expensive.
We returned to Shanghai after lunch and the tour guide brought us to a shopping complex which sold clothes. All of them are fake but really cheap.
The next day, we were brought to a place for a foot massage. After soaking out feet in hot water infused with herbs, those above 21 were given a foot massage. It didn't really have any effect on me though. The masseurs are said to be so good that they can diagnose ailments by pressing on acupoints in the sole of the foot. Maybe that's true, but after a while, it degenerated into a sales pitch. They would say you have so and so problem, and their herb here can help with it. Following that, they'll quote some price and say that you can only find this mixture of herbs at their place.
We returned to the hotel after that and bade goodbye to our tour group. There were 2 families staying for a few more days, and the other elderly couple was taking the much later flight on another airline. After lunch, we were taken to the airport and came back to orderly Singapore.
posted by cosine @ 9:35 AM 
