X-mas must be around the corner!

   I had quite the day yesterday. I spent 7 hours wandering around which should explain why I wasn't able to post all of these pictures until tonight. I've been tired from all the walking around that I did. I am going to take you on a picture tour of my Saturday. Hope you enjoy it!

   The first part of my day consisted of going to the traditional Chinese market to buy some vegetables and rice. Meat is also sold at this market but I am always so scared to buy it b/c their methods of storage are not regulated, see the below picture as an example. All the meat is just laying out, the other thing that creeps me out about the meat here is that people just walk up and touch all the pcs until they find the one they want to buy. They don't seem to care that they are touching raw meat and they definitely don't wash their hands afterwards. I wonder how many people get sick from that practice. Surprisingly, I gave meat buying a shot anyways. I would just have to be sure to wash the meat and then cook it at high temps and cook it until well done. I still think that touching the meat at the market is gross and unsanitary so I just pointed to the pc that I wanted but then the merchant threw my cut into a plastic bag and set the plastic bag on top of the other raw meat table so then i had to carry that bag home w/o it touching any of the other purchases that I made (gross!). 

My meat lady, she was very nice but didn't speak a drop of English.
I bought a LB of pork for $2.68, a pound of rice for $0.94 and a ton of
fruit for $5.60 (1 lb of Lychee, 2 huge apples, 1 lb of Cali grapes). I always
buy my fruit from the same lady so I think that she recognizes me now. After
my purchase she had a big smile on her face and threw in some cherries tomatoes for me :)

    Earlier in the morning I had watched a documentary on China (Netflix Instant Watch: China, Revealed...it was pretty good) and they had many parts about Shanghai. One of the things that they talked about was an area called Xitiandi. I had gone there, or what I thought was there a couple of Friday's ago and was hugely disappointed b/c it just seemed to be one giant expensive mall but according to the documentary it is a outdoor shopping and dining experience worth checking out, they showed pictures and it was not what I had seen. So, I decided that I better head back to that area and find the true Xitiandi. And I did...

I wouldn't say that I was anymore impressed with what I did find to be the real Xitiandi.

It seemed to be an newly constructed area catering to rich Chinese and westerner.

All the food and boutiques seemed to be way overpriced. And on top of that, the 

shopping wasn't all that interesting. I was hungry at this point but decided that my

money could be better spend somewhere else. I stayed in this area for only about 30 mins.

This was one of the only cute shops I found.
 I bought a small item from this designer, Annabel Lee.

New construction built in an "old" fashion. It wasn't stimulating or interesting like

 many other areas that I have found around Shanghai.

This beautiful Taipingqiao Park was close by. Check out the crutches for the trees!

Yes, that is a cement patch job on a tree (?!?)
It wasn't the only tree that was "fixed" like this either.

A look back towards the Xitiandi area from the park, not sure if it shows
but you could see all the nice beautiful buildings of this high-end area.

This goes out to all the dogs in my life that hate getting dressed up
(ie Duncan and Indie!). This dog seemed to be doing just fine
denim overalls and hoodie.

Across the street was a construction zone that looked as if an old traditional
 area was being torn down to probably add more fancy high-rise buildings.
China really believes, Out with the Old and In with the New.

   Next, I decided that I was going to walk through Old Town, known to the locals as Nan Shi (Southern City). There are many small criss-crossing streets and tons of people watching to do. I had plans to walk all the way to The Bund, which is a hefty goal. It just seemed like there was so much to see along the way that taking a taxi or the subway would just not be the same. So, my feet and I were off on a journey!

The architecture down this street was pretty cool. I love all the colors on the buildings.

I was standing at a street corner waiting for the light to turn green, turned
around and saw this. I giggled, grabbed my camera and took a shot. All at the
bewilderment of the old couple that was standing next to me. They turned and
looked at the sign but just didn't understand. I wonder what the translation
 in Chinese is. Iris, is this funny in Chinese?

Traditional Shikumen

Remember how I said I was hungry earlier at Xitiandi, well good thing that I
waited until now to eat. I could have bought a meal at Xitiandi for 150rmb ($23.60USD) or
I could purchase a steam bun for 1rmb ($0.15). I made a good choice. And, I knew I
could find more street food to fill me up along the way.

   As I was wandering I stumbled across an antique market (where I'm sure much of the items were not actually antique, just made to look that way and so tourists would spend a lot of money).

I was SO excited to come across this shop. The man pictured, designs and constructs

bags from beautiful indigo cotton cloth. I had actually seen these bags being sold near

my apartment at a boutique who had a price tag on them for 350rmb ($55USD). I really

wanted one but can't justify that kind of price for a cotton bag. But now I found the source!

I bought the exact one that I wanted for about 10USD. What a better deal.

Anyone want a communist party ceramic figurine from the Cultural Revolution?
There are a couple of Chairman Mao's in the crowd.

   I was walking down the street minding my own business when I walked past the guy pictured below. He had a small fire going in his cart with some sort of cast iron pot above the flames. I noticed that this women walked up and seemed to be giving him instructions. I had no idea what was going on so I kept walking. Then i'm about a half block away and here what sounds like an explosion or gun shot. I turn around and realize it is the mans pot that made the sound. I couldn't not go investigate. As I was getting closer I could tell that the man was popping grains and the women had asked for him to make some fresh. The sound I heard was the pot and grains popping all at once. The women could tell that I didn't fully understand what was going on so once she filled her bag with the popped grain (which turned out to be rice) she held her bag open as an offer for me to to try it. It was slightly sweetened and really yummy so I bought 2 bags of different popped grains (rice and corn).

    I managed to stumble across lots of good things during this journey to the waterfront. I found a small food street and purchased an oyster and scallop that was then grilled with tons of garlic and oil. Donald and I had this same snack when he came to visit. I'll be heading here for sure!

There were so much good street food here.

They grill the seafood right in the shell. It totally hit the spot.

   After leaving the food street I needed to start heading East b/c it was starting to get dark. I had been dilly-dallying but wanted to cover some ground so that I didn't get home too late.

I came across the Taoist Baiyun Temple but it was already closed for the day.

I am always amazed at how much construction is going on in this city

   Now I was getting to the heart of Old Town.

There was Christmas stuff around every corner. It was overwhelming for only being early November.

More Christmas stuff...

Finally, I made it to The Bund. It's just so beautiful all lit up at night!

This is only half of the crowd crossing at this light, I was with the
other half on an opposite crosswalk. You really have to watch your
belongings here. I'm sure there are plenty of pick pockets among the crowd.

This was funny, the jewelry store was having a Love Sale and it was
all older men admiring the jewelry in the window. Normally it's women, right?

I took advantage of the US food festival and purchased a Welch's Grape Juice.

Donald, I even ate a Wife Cake just to prove that I'm a good wife ;) It had nothing 

to do with the fact that it was stuffed with my favorite yummy sweetened bean paste.

Then my night was topped off with watching older Chinese
 couples ballroom dance for the crowds out shopping.

   I hopped on the subway, got home and relaxed. My feet were tired and I needed to get up early on Sunday for my long run so I headed to bed early. It was a great day out and about!