Lost and penniless

I usually spend my weekends in Puxi to escape the highly-sanitised Pudong. However this morning as I prepared to leave the apartment, I couldn't find my Shanghai guide book. To my horror, I realised that it was left behind in a restaurant last week. Sigh...

So I set off and re-traced the steps from my last excursion into Puxi. To my great joy, I stumbled onto the Dongtai Lu Antique Market. Although it looks like the poor-cousin of Xintiandi next door, it's atmosphere is genuinely delightful. Pottery, brassware, coins, birdcages, posters & paint brushes are piled high onto make-shift stalls, while sleepy stall-owners lounge in their rattan chairs. Peddlers threaten to mow you down with their bicycles, while little children stuff bao (dumplings) into their mouths.

This is the Shanghai that I had come to see - so I just took my time to stroll, browse, and lose myself in its hustle & bustle.

Picking through the piles of "antiques", I found some lovely items. Since I look Chinese, the stall owners were less aggressive and offered lower opening prices. When I started speaking Mandarin, the prices dipped even further! I was really fascinated by the Mao-era memorabilia e.g. the little red book (yes, I got one!), the green suits & caps, the armbands.

So I began to buy a piece here, 2 pieces there, 4 pieces further along, 10 pieces in the next street and before I knew it, I was down to my last yuan. The stall-owner watched with bated breath as I opened my wallet and laid out every single piece of Chinese currency I had left. To my embarrassment, I was short of Y50. He magnanimously offered to accept all the cash I had and waive the rest. And so I left DongTai Lu without a cent, relying on my legs and pre-paid transport card to get home.

When I got home, I laid out all my purchases and started admiring them one by one:

• The copper teapot with frog design is very unique and playful at the same time
  
• The "jade" water pipe is really intricate and detailed - it was the find of the day
• Replicas of the oriental girl advertisement posters really evoke the atmosphere of old Shanghai - I love them!
• Sepia-toned photos of the Peace Hotel & Nanjing Road in aged wooden frames
• Ten little cloisonne owls that double as jewellery boxes
• Mao's little red book - in English...how genuine is that :-)

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the day I got lost and penniless in Shanghai.