Susan’s Shanghai
(Susan waiting on lunch: Shanghai, China)
This post is a rough continuation of the one before; it may make more sense to read that one first. Just click the arrow on the right (>) or click here: http://china.analoguegirl.co.uk/rail-stress/
I recovered quickly from what my friend Spiff calls ‘the fear’, a term I take to be a state of heightened agitation and nerves rendering normal behaviour difficult. The train from Suzhou to Shanghai worsened my condition by shunting occasionally so violently that I wondered if we had hit a brick on the line or even a large animal. It was a truly nerve shredding experience this first time. Susan had been given a permit so she could enter the Shanghai station without a ticket and I was utterly relieved to see her. The following hours spent with her made me forget ‘the fear’, she made me feel better by explaining that she found rail travel a harrowing ordeal too.
We made a stop at KFC to test the Chinese style against the Western one – this is something I have been told about but never experienced. I am not a fan of fast food, but in the interests of education, I can make an exception this time. I ate an ‘Old Peking Wrap’ that contained duck instead of chicken, though it was treated in the same Kentucky fried way. I have to say, perhaps my nervous journey had sapped my energies too much, but it was really good. We whiled away the day with chatter and shopping. I know, how very cultural, it was just so pleasant to see a friendly face from home.
We stopped for a proper lunch inside the market, Susan is not being rude here, using her phone; she was receiving calls all day from her work about a container of goods that couldn’t be shipped on time. It all sounded very serious. I had seafood rice and shortly after I took this photo, her ribs and rice arrived.
We spent most of our time in a ‘fake market’ specialising in fashion for both retail and wholesale. I learned a lot about bargaining from Susan, but also about the approximate worth of any item. For instance, I apparently paid too much for my bag last time, I could have reasonably bargained for 60RMB (around £6) less. In the end we both came away with several sumptuous items of clothing; one shop sold couples t-shirts, a phenomenon I find vomit inducing yet hilarious. T shirts are sold in pairs; one small one for the girl and a larger, slightly different design for the boy. Usually if the t shirts are worn together, they tell a story or complete a scene. I can’t imagine anyone in the UK wearing them, aside from overly saccharine couples or as an ironic gesture. I decided not to subject Ying to that humiliation so bought us both different ones. I finally found a t shirt I have been searching for these past months; a yellow one featuring a bowl of rice and in Chinese, “I like to eat rice, but I don’t like to wash up”. It looks so spectacularly tacky and wonderful and was a snip at £2. Susan also did the same, imagining her boyfriend would also not appreciate the double fun of a matching wardrobe.
If anyone else would like to visit, I am happy to relive the terrors of the railway once more. I will be taking the bus on Monday to find my mum and aunt at Pudong airport. I recall how frightened and excited I was to arrive in China and I had Ying with me. I won’t be subjecting them to the confusion of being alone in China for the first time.
haha, can’t believe I am here. So honored. Hope we can meet and shop together soon. Good luck for the coming adventure. xxx