The city, which grips this pastime with a passion, teems with malls that offer something for everyone and, in some places, it is taken as a must to haggle to get the best deals
As the saying goes, in Beijing, people are obsessed with politics; in Guangdong, they are obsessed with food; and in Shanghai, the most common obsession (next to real estate and money in general) is shopping.
It is indeed delightfully ironic for proponents of a free market economic system that the city that hosted the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party turned out to be the most ardently pro-capitalist of all Chinese cities.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Shanghai people love to shop and take great pride in the fact that theirs is the city in which shopping is not merely a pastime but a passion.
As in our own fair city, Shanghai will present you with abundant opportunities to part with your cash. We hope the following guide will aid you in finding what you want, or at least in having a bit more fun shopping in Shanghai.
For the high class, jet-setters, and those who are (or hope to be) in Shanghai?s upper-income brackets, Nanjing Road West is the place to dispose of serious cash. Without a doubt, NJRW is Shanghai?s most upmarket shopping street, filled with the newest and priciest indoor malls.
If your tastes run to Prada, Gucci, or Louis Vuitton (and here we mean the genuine articles, not the millions of knockoffs you find in more downmarket areas), then this is the place for you.