Nanjing Road, Shanghai
Today I'm at Nanjing Road East, which is one of the most famous shopping districts of Shanghai. I'm at the east end, which is right near the Bund. So this area, like the Bund, is famous for old European-style buildings. And just around here, you can see the skyline of Pudong. But we're not going there today. We're going this way. The buildings may be very European in style, but these flags tell you we're definitely here in China.
There's a lot of patriotism on display right about now because they've just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Here's the Peace Hotel. More old buildings on this side. Including an office for CITIC Bank. Some very upmarket shopping and hotels here. This area, as you can see, is a pedestrian street.
Not all of Nanjing Road is closed to automobile traffic, but this part is. This building feels a little more modern to me, perhaps a bit Art Deco. Here's some pretty old-looking ones, though. This one especially here, forward and to the right.
Here we're going to run into an intersection with a road that does have some bike traffic, but not car traffic, apparently. It seems that's blocked off over here by those little pylon-type things. This one appears to have some residences in it, since there's laundry hanging outside. Interesting. Got a Skechers shop here.
Certainly interesting, the old style of building with modern logos on it, like that guy playing basketball. Not far away, you can see much more modern skyscrapers. Here's the inside of one of these shopping venues. Pretty fancy and full of high-end brands. And they got like six lifts here! Feel like I'm looking at the wrong end of the Tower of Terror here! Neat little fountain here, and look at this! A spiral escalator! I love these things. I'm riding it just because I can.
And look on the other side, you can see the spiral escalators on that side. Too cool! I love this stuff. Wonder what's on the second floor. "Light luxury", it says. "Light luxury of women's wear", "light luxury of men's wear". Okay. I don't know what that means. But I'm not much of a shopper.
I recognize a few brands though. This place is every bit as much as shoppers' paradise as Hong Kong, but one difference is coming back outside the shops here isn't quite such a shock. Why do I say that? In Hong Kong the air conditioning is— inside shops, it's always turned to the point it feels like a fridge, whereas it's— so you come out, and it's like, oh my gosh that's hot. The
ones here are just comfortable air conditioning, so it's not quite such an adjustment. And here's a Huawei shop. Huawei is a Chinese manufacturer of mobile phones and things like that, which you may have heard about in the news due to some... controversies that I won't go into because bringing up politics on this channel is not going to do me any good. Here, we're gonna have to cross a road with some actual car traffic. Let's see if I can get there before the light starts to turn red. Oh,
nope, I don't think so. I am not gonna try to get across in just 10 seconds. Nope, gonna have to wait here for the green to come again. Well, we can watch the traffic a bit. Got a bus coming here. Looks like an electric bus based on the license plate. Cool. And now I can cross. Got some beautiful flowers here as usual. I do love the way the Chinese do flowers.
This sign here says Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street. In Chinese, Nanjing Lu Buxingjie. So we're still in a pedestrian portion of this. And here we've got some kind of cool signs jutting out from the buildings. Reminds me a bit of Kowloon in Hong Kong. Though the ones in Kowloon jut out a lot more.
If you've ever been there, you may know that you can ride the double-decker bus up Nathan Road and it'll feel like, if you're on the upper deck, that you're just barely gonna get under the signs. It's a lot of fun. But I'm not in Hong Kong right now; I'm in Shanghai. And this is a pedestrian road, so I can't ride a double-decker bus down it. Oh, here's an Apple Store. And right across here, we got Samsung. Ah, the great rivals. And there's a McDonald's. This shop is for clocks and watches, the one with the first sign up here. And as is kind of hinted by the clock sign at the top of it.
Got some brands you'll recognize here like Levi's. Other ones you probably won't recognize if you're not familiar with China, and their names are all in Chinese. I believe Uniqlo up ahead there is a Japanese brand. Here's Omega. I'm pretty sure Uniqlo is a genuine Japanese brand. There are actually some fake Japanese brands in China that are deliberately designed to look Japanese, but they aren't actually from Japan. Just makes it look cool. Oh, here's an entrance to the Metro.
Here's a shop for Chow Tai Fook, one of the better known Hong Kong jewelers. And here's another jeweler here, though I don't recognize the brand. Looks like they have some pretty fancy stuff, though. Ooh, some jade here. Awesome. Sweet. I think the reflections make it a little worse on camera than it is for me, alas.
Got a Rolex shop up here. Want an expensive watch? We got that here for you. Oh, and a KFC across the street. You know, fried chicken, Rolex watches, it all goes together right? Commerce. All about commerce. Rolex. Is it here that they have the Rolexes? I don't know how this "tax free" works. Like, the Chinese literally says, like, "tax return".
I'm guessing that there may be a deal where you can get your tax refunded if you're a tourist here. Which I'm guessing means not me, since I am a taxpayer within China's system. ICBC. Banking everywhere. Oh, Vans. Interesting. Well, um, there's a creative name. "Chinese Restaurant!" Holiday Inn.
China Unicom, one of the major telecommunications providers here. Here in China, on sunny days, it's fairly common to see people using umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. One reason for this is the fact that in China, unlike in many Western countries, it's not terribly well liked to get tan. People tend to think lighter skin is more beautiful, so it's
common that the people will hold those up because they don't want to get tan. I'll wear a hat, not because I don't want to get tan, but because I'm usually not able to get tan. I get red. Consequences of being one of the whitest guys you'll ever meet. That's life for you. Oh, another KFC. At least, I see the Chinese word for KFC. I actually don't see the English logo up there. And there's a Pizza Hut. Oh, yup, there's the English sign for KFC. When I was talking before about fake Japanese brands that are really Chinese, this is the main one I was thinking about: Miniso. This is deliberately designed to look like
a Japanese brand. Those characters up there are Japanese characters; they're not used in Chinese. Japanese writing does use Chinese characters, but it also has separate writings. Separate scripts, I should say. But this brand is a Chinese brand, not a Japanese one. So it's just part of their marketing to make them look Japanese. And the products are based on Japanese stores and what Japanese stores do offer. That is not meant to criticize Miniso at all. I actually like their products fine, and buy them fairly often. I just think it is interesting that they deliberately choose to look
Japanese, though they are a Chinese brand. Another McDonald's. And Adidas. And Coca-Cola. Truly foreign brands are everywhere here too! This place looks so much like a cinema to me. I don't know why, given that the sign clearly says it's a Cantonese restaurant. I'm a bit amused by the, um, juxtaposition here. Pandora. m&ms. Sephora. One of these things seems a bit unlike the others to me.
More cool signs jutting out over the— over the walkway. And a tourist train here! Big shopping center here! With a lego store! How fun. Here at Xizang Road Middle— and by the way, Xizang is the Chinese word for Tibet; streets here are generally named for other parts of China— Nanjing Road changes. Over there is the pedestrian street we were just at, but from here on out, Nanjing Road is a normal street with automobile traffic. Still got some of the same cool signage.
But we got taxis, buses, stuff like that. And it's now signed Nanjing Road West. Earlier on, it was Nanjing Road East. Over to the left is People's Square, which is another place that'd be fun to get to one of these days, but I don't have time today. Some nice hotels here. A Radisson Blu. And a Pacific Hotel up here. Here's a view from the other side of the road. A bit obscured by the trees, though.
Here's a cool old brick building. With some traffic lights! We're not gonna be seeing as many old buildings now, though, as we're getting further from the Bund. Still plenty of shopping to be had in these new buildings, though. Along with banking, dining, hotels, all the good stuff you might want.
Plenty of really fancy buildings here. Got a Porsche dealership down the bottom of this big building. Marriott Hotel over there. And this really tall building over here!
And over here: an old concession era clock tower. Go figure! Some of the buses on this part of Nanjing Road have rods to get power from overhead wires, so that's kind of fun. Hope you've enjoyed this little trip down Nanjing Road, one of the best beloved shopping areas in Shanghai! If you did and you want to see more about my life here in China, this would be a great time to like this video and subscribe to my channel! Thanks so much for watching! See you next time! Bye!
2021-08-26 13:56
