Shanghai Book City

I am feeling much better today.  I don't have the sinus pressure that was bothering me yesterday, I do however have a runny nose and I've gone through a ridiculous amount of tissues today.  The good news is that the sun has finally shown itself.  The bad news is that it is still mostly cloudy and was completely overcast for most of the day.  With the cloudy weather we decided to pass on the Jin Mao Tower and instead we checked out a book store in Puxi that was recommended by another expat. 

We took a short walk to the local Metro station and after a few minutes figured out how to buy tickets.  Lucky for us there were directions in English.  We want to get a Metro card that you can put money on but there didn't seem to be a kiosk for that so we will have to ask others how to get one.  It is great how helpful everyone is but a bit annoying that we have to rely so heavily on help for almost everything.  Anyway, the Metro was clean and seemed to move faster than the metros we've taken back in the US.  I think the kids really enjoyed it though and, it was a lot cheaper than a taxi ride into Puxi would have cost us. 

It was only four stops to our destination and then a quick walk through the Nanjin Pedestrian Road to get to the book store.  This place could have put Barnes and Noble to shame.  It was seven levels (no elevators) with a decent selection of imported books for kids and adults, which is why we came of course.  Can you guess which floor has the imported books?  Yep, the seventh!  We slowly made our way up seven escalators with Charlie strapped into his stroller, we are getting quite good at it, and found our way to the import section. 

Lily found a book on animals for about $13 and although I did see plenty of interesting books they are more money and I think for now I will stick to buying my e-books from Amazon.  They also had a huge children's area one floor down and a large DVD section.  A girl who spoke very good English showed me some Disney DVD's that came in huge box sets with 20 movies or more depending on the set.  These were, wait for it, $26!  Since Lily already has most of the Disney movies I decided to pass and instead we got Mulan, which seemed totally appropriate.  I was told it was in both English and Mandarin and since it is in the vault back home I figured why not splurge and spend the $2.50.  ;-)

After the book store we walked back to the Nanjin Pedestrian street and grabbed a bite to eat at a place called Yoshinoya.  Lucas had a pork dish while the kids and I had chicken, plus an order of fried dumplings and two drinks.  It was a bargain at 80RMB or $12.50.  I'm really liking this type of fast food.  Much healthier than McDonald's or Burger King.   The kids liked it for the most part.  I'm determined to get them to try new foods while we are here.  It's home for a nap now and hopefully a quiet evening.