Shanghai Day Four - Shopping

On Day Four, we took the morning to go shopping through the antique markets on Dongtai and Nanjing roads, the former being a reconstructed old-town district with vendors lining the streets, and the latter being more like Shanghai's version of Times Square.

Both shopping districts had the obvious goal of attracting western tourists to unload their paychecks on the cheap touristy trinkets.

Strolling the streets was enjoyable, and we wandered into the Yu Yuan garden, which is a pleasant way to spend a portion of the day, winding through paths of flowing streams, shrubs, and tightly manicured flower beds.

We also wandered into a tea merchant, where you sit down and the tea-seller runs you through a formal tea tasting.  The first tea we tasted was one that was good for "my fat American belly," as he told me.  (A hard sell.)  Then, we tasted a sweet tea with yellow flowers that was good for digestion and allergies.  Both were so delicious that I ended up buying a tin of each.

We also sampled some exotic local foods, but I'm saving that information for another blog posting by itself!