STREET SIGNS
(Scenes from Shanghai, Part 2)


Had a free Friday afternoon, and spent some time walking along Nanjing Dong Lu, Shanghai's premier shopping street. Designer boutiques, old-fashioned department stores, not to mention stores selling all sorts of odd-looking dried foodstuffs, line this pedestrian-only street.

I was amazed by the sheer number of people milling about. It seemed like 5 million out of China's 1 billion citizens were here, at any given time!

Anyway, i chanced upon this clothing store:





Hmm. . .i don't think the makers of Crocodile would be amused, no? Unless there's been a newly-discovered reptilian specie who just happens to be a close cousin.

At the far end of Nanjing Road, quite near the historic Peace Hotel (which, incidentally, is undergoing a much-needed renovation), guess what i saw?





Hah!? :-d I knew it! These Shanghainese folks weren't as stuffy and bland as they would let us think!

The merchandise inside was quite tame, though. Which, come to think of it, wasn't a bad thing at all. We wouldn't want the locals to become over-amorous and start propagating like crazy, and faster than you can say "Nanjing Dong Lu", China's population would reach 2 billion already, do we?