It is a hot summer in Shanghai. It has been a while since my last installment as I am staying busy with some work and school. The fruit vendors are all over the sidewalks right now with fresh figs, peaches, and other assorted fruits. It seems like there is an army of people carrying fruit in round baskets attached to long poles slung over their shoulders. When a shipment of fruit hits the city, this army spans out to every street corner moving their fresh merchandise before the heat gets to it. Walking from Changshu Rd up to Jiangsu Rd along Huashan Rd (a 20 minute walk), I pass at least a dozen fruit merchants with peaches or figs. Last month it was watermelon, dragon eyes, and plums.

Walking around Shanghai (Puxi at least) is still the best way to see it. As a Westerner, it is very easy to stay cooped up watching CNN, or talking only to other expats and miss the incredible change and culture going on around us. The richness of life is in the details sometimes.

I still think it is interesting seeing more umbrellas out on sunny days carried by women who want to maintain their light complexions and perfect skin.

It fascinates me to think about Carrefour or any of the pseudo-western style supermarkets here, realizing there was nothing like it here 20 years ago. They are all packed day and night, any day of the week, with the kind of business supermarkets in the US would only get if they put everything on sale for 90% off. A people take such a interest in what is in your shopping cart. I do not know if it is because I am a Westerner, but several times on any shopping trip I would pass local folks in the aisle and they would carefully observe the contents of my cart, as if I had some secret information on the best deal. Probably it was just that want to see what a decadent American buys. It still surprises me to have a delicious meal with a few friends in a good restaurant and still walk away paying less that $20 for all of us. I am still awed by the rapidly changing landscape as new buildings go up in every neighborhood. Something indeed is happening in Shanghai.

We are preparing for our move to the new house. In an earlier feature, I described the process we had of going out to buy a new apartment. The remodeling is just about finished. We are due to go in and sign off this weekend and take pocinession. However, we have had to go back a few times and make sure the interior was done. It became obvious to us that, even though the company we hired to do the decor was a pretty good one, the demand for services is HUGE with all the building going on, and I suspect they have had to hire a lot of semi-skilled workers. We had to test everything, have it repainted, have fixtures fixed or reinstalled. Because the company we hired was a good one, they did not argue and went back to work on it.

In the mean time, we had to come up with furniture. Our present rental had just about everything included, so we had to go out and buy just about everything. We had lots of choices to make. Space was an issue since we were moving into a smaller unit. There are a number of furniture "malls" in just about every major section of the city. We visited several and decided the best selection/price ratio was at the YueXing complex (5 floors of furniture) on Ao Man Lu and YueXin Lu. We found the couch, chair, 9 piece bedroom set, entertainment center, and other assorted bits and pieces for less than US$1500.

We wanted a sprinkling of good wood "antiques" to give the place a little character. Margaret and I shopped around for quite a while before finding Mr Zhen at ShanghaiHua Classical Furniture ( Hong Quiao area...6275-9453). It was a good buy. I was amazed at what we got. Margarets mother had given us a good, but old, wood table, and her father gave us an old rolltop desk that turned out to be teak. We had those refurbed here for less than $100. IN addition, we picked 3 old cedar trunks to use as end tables and coffee table, 4 good wood Ming style chairs for the dining room and few other small pieces for less than US$700. Not only were the prices good, but Mr Zhen is a wizard and picking the right furniture for the right taste or decorating need.