N Tangfang Road near Lujiabang Road

Trent and I have been going to the South Bund Soft Spun Fabric Market pretty much once a week since I got here to have clothes custom made. It has been really fun, the haggling can get old really quickly so we try to visit the same tailors, set our prices and build a relationship so the haggling is kept to a minimum. I have been looking for places to buy fabric for crafting and read online that the neighborhood surrounding the market sometimes sells fabric. We have also been on the hunt for a commuter bike for me to ride from our apartment to the train station on Middle Yanggao Road. So we asked the people at our favorite stall, Jackson's and they told us about a Giant bike shop in the area so we wandered through with a map on a sticky note in Chinese and somehow managed to find the shop. Unfortunately, since I'm a good 6 inches taller than the average Chinese person, there was literally one bike that fit me but they wouldn't deliver it for a reasonable price and we just aren't willing to splurge on a brand new bike that will sit in the elements and stands a good chance of being stolen. The neighborhood was really neat though, and as we were walking along a guard pointed out the post office that you see photos of and there was a sign saying something about it being one of the original post offices in Shanghai, we didn't really pay too close attention but it was neat to see! Along with all of the other little home improvement shops in the back alleys behind the market. Its nice to just wander sometimes and see where we end up, it is definitely more enjoyable when the entire country is not on holiday, more recently some of the crowds we've been experiencing have been so completely overwhelming. We're learning where to go and not to go though sometimes we just have to learn it the hard way!