1. SCAMS! Soooo, pretty much my first Shanghai experience happened when Brian and I were walking on the street when we were stopped by a seemingly nice, innocent Chinese couple from outside of Hong Kong. They speak pretty good English, we start chatting, and they invite us to go have tea with them. Brian looks at me, I look at him, we both shrug our shoulders and agree to go. We walk a few blocks, go into this shopping center and up a flew floors. I'm starting to think a) this is sketchy and b) probably not the smartest thing I've ever done. We get scurried into this store front, where a woman brings us down this hallway past some wooden doors - I see Brian peek into on of the high windows on the door as we walk past so I'm thinking, this is great, he's as sketched out as I am! We wind up in the last room in the hallway where there's a table and a whole tea shin-dig set up - we sit down with this couple and the woman takes us through a "traditional" tea ceremony ... seems harmless enough. We're chatting it up with this couple having a grand old time until the bill comes - 500 RMB please (500 / 7ish = about 71 USD). We have to rush off to catch a tour with our school group, and we're kind of thinking OK, maybe we got suckered into that one a bit. Obviously word spreads to the group about our little tea adventure - the best part is, while we're at Disney, the guy who's talking to us starts dishing out advice and what's one of the first things he tells us? If someone Chinese tries to get you to go to tea with them - DON'T GO - they'll stick you with a huge bill. AWESOME. Good start.
2. This is not in chronological order, but while we're on the topic of scams, my China trip started with a scam and now I can proudly (or not proudly) say that it ended with one. A bunch of our friends decided to get our Chinese classmate who is here with us to book us massages. 90 minute massages for 188 RMB (27 USD) ... not bad! Well, we're on the street trying to get a cab to get over there, and apparently all 18 million people in Shanghai decided to use the cabs at the very same time. We finally get one cab, but only four people can fit (there are 6 of us going) ... so, Brian and I as the late additions to the massage escapade tell the others to go on and we'll see them later. We head back to the hotel and decide we'll see how much the massages at the hotel are ... 45 minutes for 200 RMB and we decide we're in. Well, long story short and 90 minutes later, somehow they've managed to stick both of us with a 480 RMB (each, that is). But you know, even now I'm still trying to be mad, but it was a pretty freaking good massage!!!
3. Caught a 5v5 tournament on the street. It was on turf but the turf kept getting ripped up in the middle through the run of play, so they kept having to call time-outs to fix the turf ... we forget how good we have it in the U.S.!
4. Almost got run down in the streets by a car, a bus, a motorbike, a bike, and many pedestrians on various occasions. Commute at your own risk!
5. Went to a 3-story Nike Town, walked two blocks, and then went to a 2-story Nike Town. Is this heaven??
That's all for now - time to pack ... 5:30am departure for the airport and it's off to Japan!
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