Tailoring
The tailoring was a big feature of this trip. The women were prepared either by bringing clothes they liked and wanted copied, or clothes to repair or alter (which when you're having clothes made the tailor will do for free), or with fabric they’d purchased in Melbourne ready to make up into their favourite piece of clothing. We visited two fabric markets, one we went back to 3-4 times as we thought of other things we wanted made, or wanted to check on progress with the tailoring. The stand outs were the fully lined cashmere coats which cost about $160 AUD, and three women brought home short wool jackets which cost about $60. The tailoring is exceptional. A visit to the Shanghai Museum and in particular their section on ethnic minorities put this into perspective – their costumes are glorious, and gives an idea of the history of tailoring in China.Food
We explored local eateries far more widely on this trip. The food is divine, cheap, and sometimes a bit weird. We all miss it and are hunting down authentic Shanghai eateries in Melbourne.Foot massages
Every night, that’s right, every night there was a foot massage which after a big day of walking was divine and set us up well for the next day of walking. However the women all agreed after having a whole body blind massage (that is, a massage administered by person with limited or no vision) that this should have come earlier in the trip, with a second one toward the end to prepare us for the flight home. It’s on the itinerary for next year!Sight seeing
Otherwise the women enjoyed exploring the Shanghai Museum, Nanjing Road, there was a special dinner at M on the Bund with drinks at the Hyatt to follow and the whole day trip to a local Canal Village. The weather was fantastic, it was hard coming back to cold wintry Melbourne!Shanghai is a truly amazing city, with a population of 24 million people and being the biggest city in China it never stops. We worry that it is changing and the tour has a limited life span, this trip saw our last visit to Dongtai Antique Market as the developers have finally encroached and the stall holders were forced to shut. By chance we were there on the Tuesday, the last stall shut on the Wednesday. There is plenty more to explore, but for how long …
