If you haven't had enough already...

I present you with more Shanghai. Joanne (my coworker), Ashley, and her roommate met up with me in Shanghai for one of our weekends. We had a sweet hotel room at the Hongta Hotel. It's a luxury collection hotel from Starwood--used to be a St. Regis. Needless to say, it was very western and super relaxing. They had an indoor heated pool, hot tub, sauna, spa, and other more standard amenities. We got a nice fruit basket and tons of bottled water when we checked in. I think we've all kind of gotten used to staying at hostels and "Chinese" hotels, so this was a real treat. They provided all sorts of in-room amenities--bath salts (yes!!! there was a bathtub!), loofas, slippers, emery boards, shaving kits, dental kits...cotton balls and q tips in the room (these were all in addition to standard amenities). And they provided turn down service complete with chocolates on our pillows. So nice. 

We were so excited to be at a legitimate hotel that it was a little destroyed before I got pictures :)

 

We didn't necessarily have plans for Shanghai. Except the fake markets. I hadn't been to any of the ones here until this recent trip. I love the markets. There's different kinds of markets though, and this one is definitely the fake kind. You can get Beats by Dr Dre headphones, "name brand" makeup and perfume, purses, beads, clothing, DVDs, computer software, watches... souvenirs from China. Lots and lots of things. I like negotiating with the people, I think it is fun.

 I love the beads. I have actually bought a few strands to make some necklaces. I love going into a jewelry shop and asking just for the beads and then they open a drawer full of heaven. Literally hundreds of strands of beads. Sometimes I get strange looks... but I get strange looks on a daily basis, so I guess that's nothing new. I love rifling through the beads.
I actually got a better deal at one of these shops because as I was oogling over the beads, I overheard a couple speaking Spanish. I knew they were from Spain by the way the Spanish sounded. So I talked to them for a few minutes and they were so happy I spoke some Spanish that I ended up helping them buy some things too. I translated from Spanish to Chinese.. well, at least the prices. The lady at this particular shop did speak some English... so I spoke a bit of all 3. She was happy for the help translating that she gave me a discount on the price we had already negotiated for... so I guess she was "ripping me off" and then felt a tinge of guilt. To the left you can see some of the makeup. Everything comes in packaging that looks legitimate. They had OPI nail polish, tons of MAC and Benefit makeup, and pretty much any kind of perfume you could think of. Of course I couldn't just window shop, this is what I bought:

 That green bag is a "Gucci" bag--it smells like leather, but I don't know if it is. Then I bought this Gucci by Gucci perfume and a MAC duo lipgloss/stick. I didn't really care about the "Gucci" brand, I just liked the look of the bag and the scent of the perfume. I paid 150 yuan for the bag (about $24), 50 yuan for the perfume ($8) and 10 yuan for the lip stuff ($1.50). All in all, I'd say it was a successful trip.

Oh, and I did buy a panda shirt that says I love Shanghai too :)