A lesson in entrepreneurship

I hadn't been on an Asian tour in a long time before Shanghai and I had forgotten exactly how much stuff they try to sell you. You don't get taken to see historical sites if there's nothing they can't sell you in relation to them, which, fortunately for the enterpreneurial skills of the Chinese, are few and far between.

During the course of the seven days, we were sold:

1. Painted crystal balls
2. Silk - duvets, clothing, and other products
3. Chrysanthemum tea
4. Green tea
5. Teapots
6. Jade at the Heritage Museum
7. Jade at a jade processing factory
8. Embroidery pieces
   
9. Quartz and other precious stones
10. Pearls and pearl-derived products (as outlined in pidgin below)
11. Wuxi pork ribs
12. Herbal miracle creams/ointments/oils
13. Umbrellas - but only because it rained five out of seven days
14. Lucky stone figurines
    

We were constantly being ushered into room after room where a someone would spend hours trying to sell us things. It was marketing stunt after marketing stunt as the Chinese tried to prey on unsuspecting Malaysians.

And those were the organised bits. Every night, we were aso left in the downtown shopping district for a couple of hours to defend ourselves against the extremely persistent vendors that have made China what it is today. The shopping portion of the trip culminated in Shanghai's Petaling Street - a market that's taken piracy to a whole new level. The sightseeing part almost slipped by completely unnoticed.

I swear that the Chinese economy is growing on the backs of tourists and its bicycle/scooter industry.