Tainted Shanghai

Today John and I headed out on our own.  We firstly braved the subway system here in Shanghai which is excellently signed and easy to negotiate.  We travelled to a location we had been told that had shoes, for John’s cousin Michelle who had been looking after our home and cats while we were away.  She wanted Louboutains and we finally found them, shoes I know she is going to be extremely excited about and I cannot wait to give them to her.  We also did the last of our shopping for family here and have got some wonderful presents to take home.

I have totally had enough however of the constant ‘Hey Lady you want Prada, you want watch’ it gets tiring, John is very polite and he usually interacts with them saying ‘No we have bags, we don’t need watches’ but they just don’t give up.  We were sitting today having our lunch at McDonalds, yes McDonalds, first time we have had such food here but we were both at a point where we needed just something familiar. 

We were sitting eating our lunch and it started, hey you want watch.  John must have said No probably 7 times and the man just kept going.  I finally lost it, I turned around and put up my hand in the stop sign position and said No, now you go, we do not want watch.  I was firm and loud and just over it.  I just wanted to be left alone, I just wanted to finally sit in familiar surrounds like McDonalds provides and eat my lunch with my husband.  I told John I am probably known as the nasty loud Western Woman but I do not care, truly they shit me now.

When he came back again we had packed up most of the food items onto the tray and I had not eaten my chips, he stood there and I thought if he says you want watch I am going to lose it.  But he said they for me, and pointed to the cold untouched chips, I gave them to him and he left.

If he had told me he was hungry I would have brought him lunch it would have cost me $5 for lunch for him without me becoming upset and annoyed with him harassing us into buying a watch.

My view on Shanghai and China is becoming tainted and it makes me sad.