A sybaritic day in Shanghai

Yunnan folk cuisine at Lost Heaven in Shanghai, China

Yesterday was our first exposure to the Lu Jia Bang Fabric & Tailor Market where we logged several enthusiastic hours pawing through thousands of bolts of silk, velvet, wool, cashmere and linen. Once we selected favorite fabrics, we began working with vendors and tailors to design made-to-order custom dress shirts and blazers and slacks and dresses and coats. If you've never built your own clothes before, it's a little hard to imagine how much fun this can be. And the prices in China (my experience is limited to Beijing and Shanghai) are unbelievably inexpensive. For example, a pair of dapper wool/silk blend dress slacks, cuffed and lined with silk, custome fitted in less than three days ran about $28.00. The same pair of pants purchased off the rack (not custom tailored) from a designer back in New York would have easily cost ten times as much, or about twenty times as much if made to order. So, if you haven't ever built your own clothing, and you happen to be in Shanghai, swing by the Lu Jia Bang Fabric & Tailor Market.

Afterward, we headed off to the Everlasting Spa for 70 minute foot massages. My wife, brother, sister-in-law and I sat side-by-side in a dimly lit room on velvet lounge chairs while sipping tea to candle light. After a foot soak in water just a degree or two below scalding while enduring a powerful back massage, we stretched out and experience the most attentive foot pampering I've ever experienced. Health restored, we headed off to Lost Heaven where we met up with a group of my brother's friends for a delicious Yunnan folk cuisine dinner. I must have sampled almost two dozen exotic dishes with plenty of feisty, fermented grape juice to lubricate the evening. What a day in Shanghai, China!