南京路步行街 is right where my hotel is and 新天地 is one of the places recommended by friends and locals.

南京路步行街 gives me the feeling of being in Orchard Road with a Chinese feel, except without all those stupid cars choking up the road. This is where you can see the ‘darker side’ of Shanghai, or perhaps China itself. This is the place that made me called Shanghai the city of paradox.

There are pimps who would harass anyone foreign looking and invite you to their premises for sex services. Unlike in Singapore where they won’t bother you further when you walk away, they might follow you for some distances before they give up. They might even offer to help you take photographs, just so you will go to their premises to take a look. According to them, the prostitutes are RMB $100 for one session, or RMB $200 if you take the girl back to your hotel for overnight. The pimp will say anything to entice you, like telling you that the girls are university students trying to make a few quick bucks. It is almost funny to hear them say, “Ma-sa-ge? Sex Ma-sa-ge?”

My personal recommendation is that you don’t take up the offer at all, unless you can’t control your pecker. After all, god knows what they’ll do to you when you get there. While it is not difficult to find the police [公安] on 南京路步行街 itself, the multitude of people there almost ensure that any criminal would have gotten away before they can do anything. I was harassed by one such pimp but I couldn’t take a photo of him, as I didn’t want to get beaten up.

Along with the sex trade also comes ‘beggar syndicates’. Some of these operates in pairs and there are certainly more than one pair operating on that stretch and they would plead with you to buy them a meal claiming that they came from some other provinces and had not eaten for days. Don’t be taken it and just walk on with a poker face. Alternatively, if you can speak Chinese, just look at them in the face and say, “怎么又是这招 ?” [Translation: “Oh, this trick again?”]

Then there are the other kind of ‘beggar syndicates’ – the kind who carries a child around and tries very hard to look pitiable. My friend from Beijing told me not to be taken in and just ignore them as I would ignore those who begs for meals. In her words, just ignore this kind as some might actually be quite well off, and the child might possibly be kidnapped from other provinces.

At night, when the shops are closed, there’s a ‘pasar malam’ being set up. There are people selling all sorts of stuff – including the Muslim minorities from the northwest selling barbecued mutton. They are like satay, except that the meet comes in bigger pieces and are at RMB $2 a piece, if I remembered correctly. Unfortunately, it was very cold at night (roughly about 7 deg. C), and I was too tired and too lazy to take photos. Not to mention that the pimps are also still out at that time.

新天地 is very much like well, Clarke Quay. There’s a lot of Western style restaurants, pubs etc there. In one of the pubs I went into there’s even a Filipino band. My friend working there calls it the Mohammed Sultan of Shanghai, except that it’s just much more successful. And of course, it’s a tourist attraction as you can see tour groups from Hong Kong and Japan every now and then at the place. So well, I got really not very much to say about it.

As usual, here are some photos…

* Click on the picture to view the album
And it doesn’t work in Opera so give up…