Top Marques (luxury expo)

My friend invited me to the Top Marques expo which is "The Most Exclusive Luxury Show in Asia". It was at the Shanghai Exhibition hall which I'd seen from the flyover but didn't know what it was until today! It is a very Western styled building with tall spires, like a church.

Security was very tight and scalpers were constantly getting chased out of the place. There was mostly cars, watches and jewellery and a whole section for property and even a stand for private jets! All very expensive and fancy but an experience I wouldn't have again so thought I'd just visit anyway.

It didn't take more than an hour to walk the two floors and so afterwards me and my friends walked over to the Shanghai Centre to eat at Crepes & Co. We then stole the wifi from Starbucks to buy cinema tickets for 44RMB to see some shark movie in 3D.

We walked along West Nanjing Road and spent some time in the Japanese department store before taking the metro towards Zhongshan Park. The cinema was located in a place a bit further than here so we took a taxi and found the reason for cheap tickets was the cinema was very old and in an awkward location. This brand of cinema is called 17.5 and is very run-down.

The movie was called Shark Bait or something and was very predictable. The 3D though was pretty good, not like a lot of movies where the 3D is added in and feels out of place.

Another fun-packed weekend!

The weekend kicked off with Jorge, Joseph and I going to Dongchang Lu to the cinema to watch Prometheus. Joseph managed to book our tickets online for 50RMB (not the usual 120RMB). I didn't realise it was in 3D and that it was a scary movie! Ok, so people told me it wasn't scary but it isn't the usual thing I would watch. It was rather dark... Also the atmosphere was so different from the VIP screen and people munching away so noisily I guess it made the movie a little less scary.

Afterwards we popped into Hagan Daaz to see what these ice cream mooncakes looked like. Wow the price was incredible - for 6 small cakes cost around 700RMB! That is almost £70! For 6 ice cream cakes?! Insane... As me and Jorge were in shock the waitress asked Joseph where we were from so he explained. As usual I hear the same old "but she doesn't look English", so Joseph explains my background. Obviously we left without ice cream and went to the metro.

We were supposed to change lines but we were so occupied talking we missed out station, had to exit the train at the next station, cross the platform, go back one station and change lines. We got to Shanghai Library station and called a taxi to Zapata's which is a Mexican restaurant (where Jorge wanted to go for his birthday). Berlinda was there already and got us a table outside. It was really nice to eat outside in this courtyard which is for these 4 restaurants. There is a bar outside, tables with umbrellas, people outside smoking sheesha and a kitchen outside where chefs are cooking pizza for Sasha's (one of the other restaurants).

Unfortunately the service was so very slow and we were rushed to order drinks because happy hour was ending in 5 minutes. The food took over 40 minutes to arrive. It is a little expensive but as I'd mentioned before, non-Chinese food is more expensive out here in China. Just as we were finishing up it was raining a little so we quickly paid the bill and left to get a taxi. In that 5 minute taxi ride it started pouring! That night there was a huge thunder storm and I was so glad I got back home just in time as there was a massive downpour.

Sunday

On Sunday we were meant to go to the Sunscreen event at Geisha Bar where they were showing an international movie and then playing board games. As this wasn't until 3.30pm we met up at Manabes for lunch. I met Berlinda and Karen there and then Jorge came, late as usual. Joseph we assumed was sleeping. After lunch it was pouring with rain so we waited a little until it stopped and Jorge came with me to buy a lightbulb. I was too short to change it in my room so he helped me out and we grabbed some DVDs from mine and went to Berlinda's to watch them.

We didn't make it to the movie screening and instead watched Men in Black 3 followed by some episodes of Lost, during which Joseph turns up and we continue to watch until we are hungry.

We go downstairs to Koala Bar to have burgers and enjoy a drink. We played some pool in teams and a man came in with his pet dog who was so cute and friendly! It was really chilled there and I really like it. We then went back to Berlinda's and watched Snow White and the Huntsman. The special effects were really good but I'd agree with most people, Kirsten Stewert isn't very good at acting...

Quanjude, famous Beijing roast duck

I met up with Jorge and Joseph and we went to Dongchang Lu which is over in Pudong to go to the cinema to watch Batman, The Dark Knight Rises. When we arrived we were told we would have to wait 4 hours for the next showing which cost 120RMB or we could wait 30 minutes and pay 140RMB for a VIP showing. Since we had dinner plans to go to Quanjude we decided to go for VIP.

It was a small private screen with about 10 other people. The seats fully reclined and were really comfy!

I saw the movie in England already but I really enjoyed it and wanted to see it again. It's also interesting to watch with Chinese subtitles.

Afterwards we walked to the ferry and saw the Shanghai Tower getting windows put in. I have been seeing it for the past year and it's progressing really fast and expected to be completed in 2014.

We then took the bus to Shanghai Railway Station where Quanjude is located.

The roast duck is really lovely, much better than any roast duck I had before and I highly recommend it! The service was pretty good too compared to another duck restaurant I'd been to (Duck King). The duck gets carved at the table and they serve the chest meat which is apparently very important and recommend it is dipped in sugar and garlic. I actually didn't like it much as it is quite fatty but the manager stood over us to see our reaction at eating it so we had to enjoy it!

The rest of the duck on the bones they ask how you would like it served and we had ours put into soup. The duck meat we ate with pancakes and we also ordered a few other dishes. In total for 3 people it came to around 300RMB.

After dinner we headed to The Bund as it was such a beautiful clear night it was perfect for some photos. We also managed to stop by and see the World's biggest sofa...