I had an incredibly fun adventure today. A friend from the Community Center invited me to go with her to the back streets of Shanghai where they sell fabrics and other sewing supplies. This street is where the locals buy fabrics. My friend Shirley is Chinese American and speaks Mandarin very well. She said that the locals recognize that she is an expat because she has an accent. She said to them it is like having a southern or eastern accent in the US. She however can still "blend in" to the local crowds unlike me with blond hair and long legs. This is the street where we shopped. Notice the bike rider....that is the street. The vendors have stores on the ground floor of their homes and extend their shop floors out into the street. I think most of the shop owners live above their stores. They put tarps up to protect the fabric from the sun.
We found cotton, linen, silk, wool, zippers, buttons, Velcro, thread, interfacing, quilt batting, and pillow stuffing. We also found several stores that sold clothing.

This shop sells blankets, sheets, pillows, and they also had stuffing for pillows. We found several shops that sold pillow stuffing.....this may not seem like a big deal but I have been looking all over Shanghai for this type of batting. It is sold by the kilo and did you know that it takes about 2 kilos to fill a bed pillow? I am sure you are interested in that little factoid. Ask me why I know this.....They asked me how many kilos I wanted to buy and I had no idea. Thankfully they showed me a pillow and said it was filled with 2 kilos. I love visuals!!!
This is a picture of the main street in the fabric area. The "fabric road" is a small alley off this street.

In front of this house was a small fruit and vegetable stand.

This is a local restaurant. This is a busy place during wufan (lunch time).

This is the local butcher.

This is a bakery. The glass case is full of things that look like cookies and breads.

The first fabric shop we found was on the main street. It was about 12' x 10' and stuffed full of interesting things including some traditional Chinese clothing. The shop owner was a really cute old man and he was wearing shorts that were made with some of the fabric he sold. They were a patchwork of several different blue plaid fabrics. The fabric is "old Chinese" and it is very thick and stiff. Some of them are hand woven and are very old. I fell in love with the shorts and decided that Tim and Tucker each needed a pair. You should have heard Tim and Abi laughing as I showed them my priceless find. I actually bought three pair just in case we wanted to give one pair as a gift. Tim asked which pair was his and I said the one you like best.....he said (as he was still laughing) I don't like any of them.

Now don't you just love these shorts? They will be great pajama pants and I know Tim and Tucker will be begging me for more of these fashion jewels.

Tim modeling his new shorts. Now all he needs is a pair of sandals to wear with the white socks and he will be one of the locals.

Speaking of the locals.....while we were shopping today I saw many people walking around in their pajamas....at 3:30 in the afternoon. They were out doing their shopping, visiting with their neighbors, and conducting their daily business....in their pajamas. This is a sight that is very common but it still surprises me. In the winter they wore quilted pajamas and now that the weather is warmer their pajamas are lightweight cotton. Wearing your pajamas during the day is a perfectly acceptable behavior in this culture. Maybe we should adopt this behavior in the US. I bet Tim will be wearing his new pajama shorts to the office tomorrow......NOT!!!!