Take Bus to see more of the city
Line 49 travels one of the longest bus routes in Shanghai. It has been around over 50 years. Well established route goes through major divisions in Shanghai: XuHui, PuTuo, Jing’an.
The route begins at one of the old residential areas Dong’an in the south of the inner circle, where you can sense the strong community being. When the bus springs out its journey, it takes you through the interesting areas, such as centrally situated Science Academy where Pushkin statue quietly stands nearby; the cool restaurants with large camphor tree occupies the courtyard and a pub called ‘Abbey Road’.
Then the bus goes across Huai Hai Road, a popular boulevard closed to the heart of the stylish locals in the older days. You can get off any of the next couple of stops for shopping and walks, Xiang Yang Park is handy to be found, boutiques and bars and clubs are clustered in the area, easily to spend hours after midday.
If you stay on the line, you get to North Shan Xi Road, with swanky designer stores, large department stores, fashionable shops like Zara, plush office blocks, etc. If you are patient, this bus will take you to Xin Tian Di. The location of the first communist party’s conference is situated next to the shops where the items are priced in dollars. This area has been revamped but remains the traditional Shanghai façade of architecture, beautifully decorated shops and trendy restaurants are very attractive to all visitors. Today, this area is one of the most visited places.
After that, 49 passes Xi Zang Road to Fu Zhou Road, you will be chuffed if you are interested in books, Chinese calligraphy or musical instruments. The area is close to Nan Jing Road, which is the longest shopping street in Shanghai.
Finally bus line 49 takes you to the Bund, where it ends it long stride, you can see the new Shanghai, Pu Dong, across the river in the east.
Shopper Bonanza
When the result of Brexit vote was broadcasted, my WeChat popped out several messages from Shanghai: “UK decided out off Europe, what’s going to happen to the Chinese?”
When the result of Brexit vote was broadcasted, my WeChat popped out several messages from Shanghai: “UK decided out off Europe, what’s going to happen to the Chinese?”
“What is it likely if we are going shopping”…. People there are only interested in the values of their shopping British brands. Is it going to be cheap or be expensive? Minutes later afterwards, pound fell.
Apart from the plush high street retailers the big British brands opt in China, Shoppers in China do a lot online shopping. From the biggest Chinese online platform Alibaba (the Chinese equivalent to Ebay), they can buy thousands and thousands of consumer goods, millions of Alibaba’s online retailers (or small vendors) act as agencies to sell the British goods to Chinese. Those middlemen take handsome cuts for their labours. On Alibaba, you can find the stuff from M&S, Asos, Top Shop, Neal’s Yard… I was once shown some stuff, supposed to be British, which I have not come across in the UK.
The Chinese online shoppers are urban, relatively younger and audacious to go for anything foreign if it is a big attraction. The Chinese have to pay hefty import and consumption tax for the imports, but the scene is gradually easing in the recent years. However, the demand is still there. Some of the UK retailers have liaised with Alibaba, the products which bear their name can be sold directly to the consumers there, this can ensure the authenticity of the goods, a nice way to protect the brands.
Last year, the revenue on the Single’s day (Nov 11th 2015) for Alibaba was US$14.3bn, shoppers went crazy, it finished at US$170bn this year. Plenty of retailers (online middlemen) took the advantage and worked overnight at this Chinese black Friday then high-fived toast after the following dawn. .