Wild Goose Chase

According to a recent article written by CNN, an exciting antique market filled with Mao memorabilia exists on Dongtai Road. As this sounded exciting to us, Nick and I hopped on the metro to check this place out! Upon arrival, the street where the market was meant to be, simply disappeared. A tad disappointed, we needed our Chakra realigned.

Our first Chinese massage was in order. After reading a few reviews we hit one of the least expensive places we could find with the best ratings. En route to the massage, we stumbled upon this awesome view of some impressive architecture and a well taken care of park.

We decided on a traditional blind Chinese massage and were not disappointed. These guys found your every ache and pain and exploited it! I was huffing and puffing during some parts when he working out all my knots and kinks. Remember those random, circular bruises on the backs of Olympians? Well, we decided to follow suit and get the demons out of us through a method called cupping. It was certainly an odd feeling. Essentially our entire backs felt as if thery were being pinched but all in the name of healing, allegedly. In the end, we were pleased with our massage and all for around $20.

At this point, Nick and I wanted to go to a market that we have been to a few times before. In an attempt to find the metro station we stumbled upon one of the top 50 things to do in Shanghai according to the aforementioned CNN article! What a pleasant coincidence. The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel was exactly as described in the article, "leaves the viewer saying, what?" Needless to say it was an odd experience but the cool part was that it took us underneath the Huangpu river. We ended up at The Bund, a sight we have seen before but still beautiful. Remember the buildings we stumbled upon earlier? We put two and two together and noticed that the view from The Bund is of those same buildings!

Due to our location, our closest subway stop was through the Nanjing Pedestrian Street that I have written about in the past. No complaints here as it is an exciting, bustling street full of luxury goods we can't even hope to afford. Which makes us want some high-end goods for an affordable price...

You know what that means! Sketchy back alleys, winding through people's houses, steep, dark stairwells and secret doors all opening up to well kept, bright rooms filled with fake watches, purses, luggage etc. Here's a photo of our fake good tour guide, I decided to call him Willy the Watch guy.

To specify, I was on the hunt for a particular Cartier watch for my mom. Unfortunately, we could not find the exact model so we left empty-handed. In the end, Willy led us on a wonderful tour full of surprises and even pointed us in the right direction back to the pedestrian street. What a great and exciting experience! Maybe we will find the right watch in Beijing.

After our wild Cartier watch chase, the excitement continued when our train to Beijing canceled on us the day of our trip! We booked two days in advance, only to have Hillary from China Travel Guide shatter our dreams of riding the bullet train cross country. Luckily we have adapted swiftly and booked a flight for later in the day. Unfortunately for Hillary, she will have to live with that guilt hanging over her head for the rest of her days.

Stay tuned for more foolish adventures in Beijing!