Greetings, Travelers! Today I bring you tales of a land far
from your home with oriental dining and marvelous goods from around the world.
This place is Shanghai, China. Now, I only got to spend a couple hours in this wonderful
place, but I did get to try some marvelous food and see what a Chinese mall
looks like. (Spoiler alert: it’s a lot like ours)
Once again, I only had a couple of hours before I had to
return to the ship, but that was alright because this particular mall is really
close to the port; 10 minutes by taxi. I traveled with my co-worker for this
particular adventure, mostly because he knew a good dumpling place and wouldn’t
stop making slurping noises at me until I agreed to come along.
The dumplings were really good. There was also soup, but by
the time it arrived the dumplings had filled me up and I felt bad for not being
able to eat the soup. It was a big thing of soup. They also don’t keep their
soda cold. It arrives in a can, not warm, but not icy like we Americans usually
drink it.
After lunch we wandered around the mall to see what shops
there were. I think Chinese and Japanese malls organize themselves by
department or category rather than any store wherever there was an open space.
So women’s clothing on one floor, men on the next, ect… There was only one
electronics store, though, which I’ve noticed elsewhere; They seem to have
specialty stores for electronics rather than buying them in malls. Malls seem
to be mostly for clothing, souvenirs and restaurants.
They also have daycares for children. Literally, a mall
outlet that is designed as a play land where you can drop off your kid while
you go shopping. They even take little walks around the mall for you! It was
really cute, actually. It’s probably easier on the parents, their fellow
shoppers, and the children. The Parents don’t have to worry about keeping track
of their kids, the other shoppers don’t have to listen to screaming or
complaining children, and the children get to play and not sit on a bench while
their parents shop. It’s a pretty good deal all around. I wonder why we don’t
do that? (Probably because we’re afraid of kidnapping or something.)
They also had a GIANT ball pit. Like, heaven for kids. I
didn’t see anyone playing in it though. I’m sure it was pay-to-play, but I wasn’t
sure if there was a height limit. I totally would have tried it out if we had
time, though. It looked really cool.
So we wandered around, did some basic shopping for souvenirs
and such, then met up with a couple of our musicians for a taxi back to the
ship. (Which ended up being a good thing, because they told me a change in the
schedule I hadn’t heard about and really should have.)
And that’s Shanghai! I promise there will be more blog
updates in the future: I’ve been busy and haven’t had a lot of spare time for
writing. (and when I do get back to my cabin I’d rather sit and play Skyrim and
not think.) But I’ve had some great adventures and there will be more to
follow!
Until next time, Travelers!
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