great day, bad hair

Shopping Day Number Two started out very foggy and somewhat misty. I had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast before we went and it had been calling for a good chance of rain every day we were there. So far we had pretty much lucked out.

We skipped the huge breakfast and took a cab to another marketplace on the east side of town. Ken had stayed in this area before and wanted to go to this place. He said it was a little bit more upscale (if you can call it that!) than the other one we went to. It definitely was quieter than the one the day before. We shopped there for a couple of hours and ended up with a variety of things. I decided I liked the quality of the purses better at the place we had been previously, so we took a cab back there and spent another couple of hours.

It was midday by now, so we returned to the hotel to dump our things since we wanted to head out to to the Old Town section again. I am surprised Ken wanted to be seen with me because my hair seemed to be growing by the moment. It reminded me of a Friends episode where Monica's hair got frizzier and frizzier through the show until she looked like Diana Ross (they were on some tropical island). I tamed it down some even though I knew it wouldn't help. I guess recently coloring it and also needing a haircut wasn't working out with the humidity of the day. Before we left, we made reservations to eat at the hotel again. Everything I read said that Shanghai has wonderful restaurants but we decided we just wanted to keep that area easy. Maybe another time.

On the way to Old Town, we passed shop after shop with ribbon, buttons and lace. Another street seemed to specialize in evening wear - quite pretty. We wandered down the marketplace stalls for awhile. They were selling alot of red paper lanterns and paper items to celebrate the Festival of the Lanterns and the Chinese New Year. I bought some interesting postcards and a clock that intrigued me.

The streets were getting more and more crowded. We bought tickets to go into the area that had all the lanterns. The pictures I made just do not do it justice. there were lanterns of all shapes and colors everywhere lining the pedestrian streets.
My travel book says that the Lantern Festival is on the 15th day after Chinese New Year on the first full moon. People parade through the town with paper lanterns, while parks and temples display more elaborate and fanciful lanterns, all accompanied by fireworks. It says that it isn't celebrated as much anymore except for around the Old Town Bazaar, which is where we were. I found one shop that interested me that had Chinese paper cutouts. These were cutouts of tissue thin paper that were either all red or in bright colors. There were numerous scenes - I wish I had bought more. Ken asked me what I was going to do with them - I don't know at this point but I am sure I will find alot of uses.
We then turned the corner and came to a large tree in the middle of the square that was covered with red banners with Chinese writing on them. On one end was a coin and people were tossing them up into the tree. We bought one of them but didn't throw it because I wanted to save it for a souvenir. The young girl we bought it from said that the one we bought was for family. Others had to do with fortune, health, etc.


We then rounded another corner and came to a large pond with a stone bridge running across it.
In the water were various scenes set up.
I don't know what they represented partially because we were nearly crushed to death walking across the bridge to look at them. It really got a little scary at times - you couldn't even walk, you were just moved by the crowd. Ken was in front of me, he turned around once in awhile with a look on his face like he was going to hit someone if they didn't quit pushing him. Even some of the Chinese had looks of "I can't believe this" on their faces. Very dangerous. However, you would have thought my hair would have scared some of them away so they would let me through.

We were exhausted and in bed when the fireworks began - you could see them out our window. What a wonderful end to our trip!!