I’m typing this blog up on the plane from Shanghai to Xi’an. There’s a hell of a lot of turbulence (there seems to be on every Chinese domestic flight) so excuse any typos!
Woke up around 8-9 and watched some LOST. Then me and Tim set out to find some breakfast. I ended up with Cheetos and Cookies. Yum.
I’d seen earlier on google earth I was just around the corner from Asia’s largest gun museum, so me and Tim left Aya in the apartment and set off on an epicly manly adventure of looking at guns, drinking beer and arm wrestling. Okay, maybe not the last two. Well, turns out, none of those things. After getting to the gun museum we were basically told to go away. We have no idea why, but there were some people playing badminton in the museum lobby! WTF!?
After having our manliness questioned; we had to take action. So, we decided to head to the camera shop to check out some expensive gadgets and do some bartering. Man-stuff.
It turned out the camera shop was actually an entire camera mall! Three stories of near-identical stores, all selling cameras from compacts to DSLRs. Tim fancied a DSLR after having taken a few pictures using my 400D. We were looking at the 350D, and the 1000D, but Tim reached into his bag of manliness (and wallet) and splashed out on a 450D. The shops in the mall were very strange however. They didn’t seem keen to budge on price which is strange for China. So I tried getting them to throw in extra memory cards / batteries and they still weren’t biting. At one point a guy offered us a price on camera + some extras of £476. We said we’d pay £470 – cash, there and then, and he said no! Crazy.
Then while heading up the escalator to the third floor, my lens cap fell off my camera and down the gap. I’d lost my freaking lens cap in a huge camera mall. Oh the irony. I bought a cheap non-canon replacement – but it fits like crap and will probably fall off and get lost, but at least I was in a place where a replacement was easy to find.
Tim bought his 450D, and off we trotted cameras in hand.
Woke up around 8-9 and watched some LOST. Then me and Tim set out to find some breakfast. I ended up with Cheetos and Cookies. Yum.
I’d seen earlier on google earth I was just around the corner from Asia’s largest gun museum, so me and Tim left Aya in the apartment and set off on an epicly manly adventure of looking at guns, drinking beer and arm wrestling. Okay, maybe not the last two. Well, turns out, none of those things. After getting to the gun museum we were basically told to go away. We have no idea why, but there were some people playing badminton in the museum lobby! WTF!?
After having our manliness questioned; we had to take action. So, we decided to head to the camera shop to check out some expensive gadgets and do some bartering. Man-stuff.
It turned out the camera shop was actually an entire camera mall! Three stories of near-identical stores, all selling cameras from compacts to DSLRs. Tim fancied a DSLR after having taken a few pictures using my 400D. We were looking at the 350D, and the 1000D, but Tim reached into his bag of manliness (and wallet) and splashed out on a 450D. The shops in the mall were very strange however. They didn’t seem keen to budge on price which is strange for China. So I tried getting them to throw in extra memory cards / batteries and they still weren’t biting. At one point a guy offered us a price on camera + some extras of £476. We said we’d pay £470 – cash, there and then, and he said no! Crazy.
Then while heading up the escalator to the third floor, my lens cap fell off my camera and down the gap. I’d lost my freaking lens cap in a huge camera mall. Oh the irony. I bought a cheap non-canon replacement – but it fits like crap and will probably fall off and get lost, but at least I was in a place where a replacement was easy to find.
Tim bought his 450D, and off we trotted cameras in hand.
^ The whole mall was made of cube-shaped-outlets, each made of identical cabinets to this. Rough calculations say about 800 of these cabinets. *drool*
^ Flashes, Lenses and bodies, oh my!
^ Tim's 450D - Its tasty.
^ It takes lots of 100 notes to buy a camera :P
^ Tim with his new camera...
^ Taking a photo of me with my camera!
We faffed around in the evening. Aya met up with one of her friends. Then upon returning to our district of Shanghai we met up with Pinky who took us back to his university dorm. He introduced us to his dorm-mates (6 guys living in a room about 5x20 meters) who were all very cool.
^ I love fast food distribution here. Restaurants that have road access are like "hub stores", these restaurants then deliver to the smaller restaurants via scooter. So, the hub stores have gangs of delivery dudes who suit up, helmet on, slap the delivery on their back, and ride out. I can't help but wanna start humming the ghost busters theme whenever I see them...
^ My new brothers! Pinky and his room-mates.
We went out and grabbed some food (very tasty) then back to the hotel for our last night in Shanghai.
^ Every meal should be washed down with a cool Tsingtao. :)
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