FASHION & TRAVEL: Halloweeeeen! Shanghai style

monday - Thursday 27-30th october
spent sunday night studying as i had another unit test exam on tuesday for comprehensive class. it was harder, with more chinese characters and the listening part was different. still have to write some pinyin though which im poor at, but the other teacher says pin yin isnt as important as "hanzi" in the real HSK. been mainly learning directions which came in handy for work as i was tracing pattern and trying to decipher whether it was front (qianbian) 前边 or back (houbian) 后边
I was also sent to the accessories market, pricing some bra strap fasteners for a client. I got some cards for myself, finding i could buy awesome studs for .5 quai (i'll be stocking up!) and buying some beautiful embroidered lace pieces.
After class on Tuesday was the international chinese culture fair at univeristy. the opening ceremony had some chinese dancers with fans and then a class traditional costumed girls beating drums, not only with a powerful drum beat but with amazing choreography. there were loads of games to try, such as tai chi with fans, characters matching etc. free street food samples (mainly cake like things so tasty!) and chinese culture activities such as calligraphy, shadow puppet play, mask painting, sugar animal making, moon cake making (a sticky mess but edible straight away and very tasty!) I also got to dress up in chinese opera costume where i stumbled upon some of the guys already getting stuck into the fancy dress by getting their faces painted! would have loved to stay longer but I had to go to work, but it was very fun and interesting.

wednesday in work was spent practising on creating an oragami headpiece from scratch from silk, however it needed to be altered as the other material doesnt go too well with it.
went down a bit in the exam, 74%, due to my pinyin and a couple missing characters, yet i was getting the majority of the rest fo it correct, whereas some of the other students werent, but of course many were getting higher still. Laoshi Xie got pretty angry at Bai Fu ( the french speaking coloured guy in front of me) as he doesnt studying or understand much and messes around and was cheating in his dictation exam. I researched the hsk 3 and its all in characters apart from one section were they give you the pinyin and you have to use it to complete a sentence. not sure about the speaking and listening part of the exam, I'm sure Pan Laohi will be more forthcoming. Linda met me about my Taobao the sewing machine was sent but the message got sent to my mobile which cant read chinese so its getting sent out again and to her phone. the contacts I ordered were also not sent as I never checked the mail and answered the questions abut whether i wanted one or 2. oops!

Friday 31st October - Sunday 2ND November Halloween!

Halloween isnt really celebrated in China, they have a ghost day in July or August, a bit similar to the day of the dead as its ghosts of ancestors.so therefore its mainly internationals who celebrate and the odd chinese student. but because it's a Friday more people were out. I was able to get 100 days mainly black contacts just outside the university for 80rmb. which is cheaper than at home for a one day pair!
everyone came to my room for me to help them with makeup and to get. I did Rebeka's face as half a sugar skull, the white face paint was very good.
using some watered ink i created black tears and also discovered a wet brush and eyeshadow goes darker and spreads better than just normal eyeshadow and a dry brush or applicator. topping off my look with my dark contacts and white face was black eyes, black glitter lips and tears and "blood" dripping in black from my face and neck, along which huge back-combed hair i quite looked freaky. Lots of chinese loved it.

unfortunately most chinese and westerners didnt really dress up, just fake blood and slutty outfits mainly (of course, similar to the West I guess)
Linda came out with us, wearing contacts for the first time and a red riding hood cape, just looked cute and Kat went as a very green witch (hair and face!) we went to Perrys and got a free halloween drink for happy hour (zombie: creme de menthe and milk, delicious!) the place was packed, I had never seen anything like it before! we were signing and dancing and having a great time. nobody went to mansion, some went to Hollywood and we briefly went next door to a chinese place called "Maya" it was awful, packed and all chinese, though outside decor was halloween, inside was far from it, the final straw was when we went to the toilets, unisex and the bathroom doors (inside and out) were not only squat toilets but covered in a large picture of a skimpily clad woman, disgusting. we went back to perrys. there was less there. got a drink and dance and chatted the night away. it was great fun. from winding Linda up and getting halloween photos (finding random flashing devil horns and capes) adding spider webs to liven up the costumes and trying to explain the concept of the breakfast bar to linda. we stayed until closing. exhauted, but worth it. a fun night! exhausted for work the next morning of course. but halloween only once comes once a year!


Sunday was spent with Kat. we tried the Muslim canteen finding it less greasy, visited M18/M on the Bund to see the Yves Saint Laurent Photography exhibit and found the designer a strange man (always smoking, in love with his bulldog and wearing a strange lab coat in the early days)

from here we went to the art place near Hongqiao, full of strange statues outside and the grass and plants slightly overground for a strange free artistic look. there was even a building sloped into and covered in grass. we paid into the "halloween exhibit" there were cute Halloween sugared pieces. but the rest of it was not an exhibit, we paid 25 into a market! thrift and craft! it was interesting but not worth the price. they had exotic pets for sale. crabs in shells. lizards, frogs, a scorpion and tarantulas. very strange! along with odd music. we also got slightly ripped off outside getting some nice smelling cake like things and getting too much and paying 46 in total. we ate that for dinner and didnt even finish it there was so much. we weren't even sure what i was. not sweet nor savory, dry or wet, not very sticky, and we werent at all sure what it was made from. however it tasted ok, and was addictive to eat and not greasy. so a success.
horribly sore dry eye today for no reason which made my squint and gave me a headache along with a huge bite on my arm which is swollen, sore and itchy!

Monday 3rd - Wednesday 5th November
learnt extra vocab over the weekend, which is always a drag but means im prepared for when i seem to get double dictation! so annoying! Monday's are so bad for attendance, at least half the class is missing. one of the black students behind me only went for a total of 2 days, and the other who also sits at the back appears sporadically and gets a telling off from Xie Laoshi, lots of people think they enroll just to get the Visa, however I dont know what good a visa would be, its not like the pay is anything special here? I had the afternoon of work so went shopping in Qipu Lu (the cheap chinese fashion area) getting some clothes and new shoes and trainers (similar to Docs and only £8.50!)
we had our class photo on Tuesday, outside, i had lipstick on, and therefore being a white girl with makeup i was but in the front middle beside the teacher and they kept telling me I was beautiful..

Wednesday in class was horrid, for some reason in Comprehensive chinese we had some listening exercises with tones and picking correct answers, I was terrible, got like 2 right. however not everyone was amazing. i must practice more. thankfully Kat was able to send me the book's cd tracks via dropbox so I can start listening to that to practice and I also found a site with listening for HSK on it.
Was ready for punching chinese ladies the past 2 days trying to get the tickets for Xi'an. Kat and I have been 3 times before this and we kept being told to come back, eventually we asked Shaodi to come help us, and resulted in getting one return ticket and being told to return later/tomorrow for the other. When Kat went that evening after 5 they wouldnt serve her as it was too late? when we went on Wednesday, the woman glanced at the paper with the details and just started saying no, even after we said where in chinese. seeing red we were able to thankfully got Shaodi to help us, our tickets were sold out, she wouldnt look at the sheet at all , he had to translate all in chinese, we had to get a different train and the lazy B***h didnt even put our names on the tickets instead just typing the Initial, eugh! Some people make my blood boil, clearly a racist who didnt want to serve/help white people. not cool at all!!!
thankfully work was much better, doing more patterns, organising stuff for a press shoot and separating toiles. turns out the chinese recycled just about everything, materials, raw materials, papers, plastics etc. A lot of the elderly and poor hoke in bins etc and gather it as they get money for it. explains why so many people just drop their rubbish at their feet as they know someone will always pick it up. if only the west would do something like this, would help the environment immensely, but no-one wants to get their hands dirty and bin hoke, its should be community service for sure! and apparently the chinese work a lot with Africa now, mainly using landfills there. explains why there's so many Africans in my class and the school.

Thursday 6th - Tuesday 11th November
thankfully had a nice last lesson on friday were we watched a chinese video on chinese food, although in chinese it was very interesting seeing how they made noodles from scratch, oil from seeds etc. so much effort and the outcome is so inexpensive, not really fair i guess.
got shown how to set up crepe chiffon for cutting, steaming it flat. I was to cut strips for the sample cape i made a pattern for, being shown by the male sewer, he made it look so easy to cut yet when i did it it was a mess! i would most likely use a rotary blade to cut and not try to cut 14 layers at once!
On saturday I got soaked and frozen in the rain which resulted in a cold. not cool! did however try banana milk tea, very tasty, Haohe! 好喝
felt rotten when i got back on Saturday, but was happy to discover that the sewing machine i ordered off Taobao works perfectly, albeit a bit noisy and plastic'y.
didnt want to waste my Sunday and didnt feel too awful, finally tried vegetable baozi, very tasty! went to K11 art mall, so nice! very beautiful with lots of amazing shops including a Vivienne Westwood store! (unfortunately the Asian workers were following us so close they may as well been breathing down our necks literally as they were that close)
they had some strange art pieces there, including a video of Andy Warhol pop art of Monroe and Jackson but a moving version of them smoking.

The interwoven watch floor piece I will never disappear/forever i will be here : Heidi Violet is made to show the interpretation of everyday objects like cheap digital watches , its a reminder to the audience that although time has an impact of everyone it is also a concept invented for the convenience of human activities. every hour they chime simultaneously making an orchestra fo digital chimes outside

 they also had a huge golden pig with wings that moved up and down like it was going to take into flight. The majority of stuff was weird and modern and didnt seem to have much reason behind them? downstairs was the Nordic fashion exhibition on innovative fabrics and designs that were environmentally friendly. they were mainly fashionable and wearable.

from here we headed to the Bund. unfortunately the exhibition I thought we were going to was not at 3 at the bund, A lovely building but it was spookily empty inside, the exhibit was modern art: red, black and white lines, the centre pieces being suspended painting strips of wood. however near the window in clear plastic had been written a story which was only readable in certain lights. it was quite interesting. A warehouse type space, it would have been perfect for halloween, especially as we were completely alone, no one was even on the door to the entrance!
we tried to go to the graffiti exhibition at M18 however it was still not ready, looking in, it looks fantastic, very earthy and urban, will be exciting to visit once complete.
our last stop was Tianzefeng. originally a crafts area it was now really a tourist place, full of shops and not really any form of crafts, full of cute hip bars and lit up with small lamps and fairy lights it had a great laid back atmosphere. we did find an art gallery with works for sale, some of which was fantastic, one old man (the artist painted in their gallery/shop areas) was unbelievably talented, his knack for light, clothes and facial expressions was perfect, raw and emotional. i was sad to be unable to get a sneaky photograph!
I died a slow death on Monday, skipping first class, i felt horrific and discovered i was very low on painkillers. thankfully it was just characters [practise sheet in class as there's to be a test on friday, however Kat and I will not be there as our train to Xian is on Thursday. we were also informed of an oral test next week. however afterwards we had a baozi making class with the other beginners which should be fun! i forced myself into work being made to wear a mask, I finished the strips and left early. the rest did me good and I felt 100 times better on the tuesday I also reckon the orange and vit c powder I got from tesco may have helped (a juice powder you add to hot water, annoyingly they do not sell any form of medicine in local shops!!) we began the second book in Comprehensive class. so apparently we now know 150 characters from that first book alone, pretty impressive! today is 11/11 which means the massive online sales! needless to say i've got a huge basket and plan on spoiling myself!

wednesday 12th-thursday 13th November
unfortunately for me, due to my increased and foreign spending, along with the proper online banking checking procedures coming up, the police (apparently) reported my bank card as stolen/compromised and i've been labeled with fraud. i was rang at 2am, had to ring back and after a very annoying conversationalist with some Scottish guy my bank card will be left active for 2 weeks before being fully cancelled, one will be sent to my house and then sent to me. so annoying!!! but was able to grab some cash with it from the ATM and pay for some more on my taobao account. I only spent about £150!
did more patterns in work, making them from scratch for a head piece from eye. thankfully feeling a lot better! missing out on my test on Friday, however Xie Laoshi when we told her we were going to Xi'an showed us her blog pictures and told us it was her favorite place and that we should in fact be going longer(she's a funny individual!) after class on thusday I studied a while before Kat and I briefly checked out the fashion and textile museum in the school grounds, unfortunately it was closely in 15 minute but we did look at the exhibit from London that is on until December. photography pieces on futuristic designs and royal styles. the royal styles were my favorite. the models were the most attractive, the main one had a scrawny face and sticky out ears? we then went for a stroll around the school, getting very annoyed wen a chinese lady refused to acknowledge our question in chinese as she was either not bothered talking to westerners or because she knew we didnt really want to buy anything (all we asked was if some green thing was a vegetable or fruit, simple question with a simple answer!) had some dinner before heading for the train and our long journey on hard seat to Xi'an.

FASHION & TRAVEL: October in Shanghai

wednesday 8th- friday 10th October 

up early and back into class. luckily Id studied a chapter in advance character wise, as we headed straight into new material, and were told to read ahead for a practise test at the end of the month that wont have pin yin (extra hard!) was way too exhausted for my first class on Friday morning and skipped it,  but to be fair lots of students havent been in. received my unit test back and scored 87% quite pleased with that. 

back to work on WEdnesday, Gar was away in Hong Kong, so Pauline had me tidying and organising things for the trunk show on the weekend. The trunk show is appointment only, with all the stuff laid out, people can try things on, get orders or buy samples. I was sent to the accessory market at YuGarden (unfortunately loosing the 100 that she had gave me and having to use my own money ffs) its about 4 stories, i was only in the ground floor but it was full of beads, belts, trim etc. I got a whole roll of black ribbon for the skirt i was making for 5 RMB. back home I would pay that for a metre! she also had me making flower corsages from organza and freshening up and changing old ones with the steamer and with fabric manipulation and thread trimming. 

  

 Saturday 11th - Sunday 12th October 

exhausted this morning. the trunk show is later today though they only have 1 client, they got bakery goods and we were able to have some! i was to create packages for accessories that may be bought, cutting cardboard and organza squares.  I ran some basic errands. And helped Gar create labels and attach them to the different products long with creating a lace chart for clients who wanted a different lace for a style of dress. Even had a class of wine while i did it while some upbeat tunes were played as the french clients tried on dresses (they had quite the American accent for french) 

I was in an upbeat mood and would have loved to have settled down with some wine and some good music, but of course I had Chinese to study! By nearly 10 I was at my wits end with the boredom of studying. Everyone was heading to Bar rouge so i decided to join them, to get out of my room. Had a barcardi breezer outside the dorm and headed to the Bund. We had the passcode for Bar rouge and were able to get in for free (usually 100RMB in) there was a "beach theme" so the outside bit was filled with sand. nice place but completely packed. 

At the top of this old landmark building there was a fantastic view of the bund (floor 7 above M18) we tried to go to M18  however some of the guys who were with us were wearing the wrong shoes etc so we left. some grabbing beers from the shop as we sat chatting and admiring the view at the bund. it was fun, well it was, until the street cleaning crew decided to hose the area down, and, when we were slow to move, nearly hosing us down too in the process. We all jumped in taxi's back to the uni, a drunk black most likely gay american student with appalling chinese joined us, along with an annoying asian american who laid claim to having several nationalities in her bloodline. you're american taiwanese, stop adding things! thankfully she sat at the other table when we got to Perrys. it wasnt too busy and we had a go at playing the chinese dice cups guessing game. not the most fun, but perhaps it is when you are drunk. over at the other table, mainly filled with guys, 2 drunk chinese girls started trying it on with them, kissing them all and nearly mouth raping the one guy who really didnt want any attention as he had a girlfriend. by the time we left she had seemed to have tried it on and kissed the majority of guys in Perry's and her friend was videoing her kissing some guy, I later found out they were chinese models from the country only here for 1 day and just going wild...nice. 

I slept in til 1 the next day, very tired! but well rested. it was clear and sunny. I was meant to go to Lupu bridge as it has a 360 panoramic view over the Chinese expo pavilions, but with chatting to the others we missed the stop by 4 and randomly decided to get off at the next one ending up in Pudong. we strolled around chatting before ending up at the "finance City" it had become very window and cold. but sat at the park and tried peach and grape oreos with milk (a little bit similar to iced party rings, they taste very fake) before deciding it was too cold to only be in shorts and heading for dinner at the local Muslim restaurant. A nice chilled Sunday that was much needed!

Monday 13th - Wednesday 15th October 

late to bed last night as I slept so late on sunday. got told I have an oral test on friday, oh the joy! so we have a week to learn unit 10 on top of 5 other units for it, greetings, where you're from, food, shopping, health, time and class. Laoshi Xie was late on the tuesday as she was u most the night with a reaction to an injection. poor thing. Got speaking to the famiy. My brother took part in  Zombie run, loosing only 1 life and getting a medal, pretty cool! met Linda for lunch on wednesday (lunches have been better this week, had some packed lunches of fruit croissants and sweetened walnuts and some nice pockmarked tofu dishes aswell) she leant me her bicycle and says I can borrow it for the semester if I want, I used it to cycle to work, it only took 30 minutes, I got to see so much more, eg metro city all lit up at night, and it only took 30 minutes, rather than the usual 40 minutes walking and metro time! will be using it more to get to work for sure! 

been making flowers in work, organza and manipulating edges along with packaging and labeling, learning a lot about final presentation.  

got to go to a show at Shanghai Fashion week. apparently tickets are expensive and hard to get, but Pauline (my boss) had 2 due to her fashion company. I borrowed heels and met Pauline and some other chinese fashion people (a husband, wife and their very cute small daughter) in Xintandi. went through Xintandi style and xintandi shanghai, full of top end designers and lots of chinese bespoke designers, I plan to go back and have a proper look about.  

outside the entrance (the fashion show is held in Taiping park) I was photographed by many, many different chinese photographers, there were not many westerners at this show as it was a very chinese design, "Siijii" the show lasts half an hour. the ticket along with some "goodies" was in a wax sealed envelope, complete with gold bracelet inside. in the first foyer we signed our names on some clouds for the wall, in the next section, set up as the reception area I had a Hennessey and orange juice, complements of the house (im not a huge champagne fan) while looking at some of the sponsors and some of the designs on display. this year there are some very high end sponsors, like fancy expensive car manufacturers and phones, one of whom want them on the catwalk (?!) therefore some of the usual higher end designers are not showing this year, and instead are doing some private shows, such as a spanish designer tonight who is having a late 11pm show at Bar Rouge. the show had improved vastly from previous years, a lot more organized and on time. 

we got front row seats, in our goody bags we had cloud print festival coats which we were asked to put on (strange) the theme seems to be time and clouds? 

Siijii used all chinese models, many of them, they had  lot of sports styled wear, often with lace or mesh, there were a few dresses and the majority had a repeat print of swirl like clouds.  

I particularly liked some of the designs, many were high end high street ready to wear, which I prefer to bizarre run way looks. I liked how some items had fasteners on the outside and the overall look was sleek sports. There were several looks, some didn’t necessarily fit with the collection, but overall interesting. though perhaps a collection looking more at the now fashion than A/W 15? 

afterwards upon getting a taxi we stopped to get the girl some icecream (for her first show she was very well behaved) both her and the small boy sitting a the next table covered their faces in ice cream (I guess it’s the real way to do it as a child, more fun and enjoyable, and who doesn’t like someone cleaning up after you haha) 

back at the studio I added the finishing touched to the flower head clips,  - the label, before packaging them in organza squares and securing them in a japanese knot (looking a bit like a steamed bun I guess) wrapping in cardboard and securing in twine. I left early having finished all to study having been told that I could get more hands on, watch the pattern cutter Fanny at work (chinese pattern cutting is like japanese pattern cutting very complicated and different to Western with little to n draping, but it will be good to learn and see the differences) along with being told of upcoming buyers fairs that I may be attending and purchasing I may be doing for them.  

Friday - Saturday 17th-18th  October 

What a hideous oral test, it was not as I had thought, asked by Laoshi, we were taken to a computer room and it was done with prerecorded questions in superfast chinese and we had to answer in 10 seconds!!! I got rather confused at the start even though we had a sheet with some of the questions. but at least I was able to do my presentation at the end find, introducing myself: 

wo jiao Kelly. Wo shi Yingguoren. Wo shi Liuxuesheng. wo xuexi Hanyu. wo zai DonghuaDaxue. Hanyu Hen nan. 

我叫 。。。我是英国人。我是留学生。我学习汉语。我子啊东华大学。汉语很难。

I found that for my class after I just couldn’t be bothered. and the game we played, although very competitive was a bit hard. I got asked how to write a character I did not yet know and also a maths questions where I didn’t hear the .50MAO. 

Cycled to work and started doing a pattern from a shawl. its hard. the chinese do it so different. I have a pattern master, they used a ruler doing small lines? 

I continued this the next day, altering it for a better fit and look and then trying some sequin beading, its so hard to get straight! found a huge tesco's on my break and did some shopping, perfect!

Sunday 19th - Monday 20TH October 

mild heart attack this morning as I thought I had slept in, but realized it was sunday, no school or work for me today! had the egg pancake for lunch today along with fruit and a small cake tart before going to the market at Hongqiao. it's not what I expected, I think I've basically the only white person to ever enter, it was more for the older generation and was full of vintage thrift stuff, there was some cool items, but mainly awful. from here .Got on Line 7 to Meilan Lake. A very warm sunny day, what better way than to spend it relaxing somewhere far out from Shanghai, that’s not buzzing with people, and didn’t really seem too Asian, the architecture was quite old town western style to be honest. there were people with their dogs, bridal shoots, hammocks, tents and children playing, also a strange man beating the grass near the lake with a stick to catch crickets - who knows what for! 

but 5 O'clock the "tourist area" was like ghost town, I most definitely did not feel like I was in Shanghai that’s for sure! explored the Century mart and got some vegetable noodles for dinner. it took over and hour and a half to get back as the metro was so slow! for not doing much today, I was pretty tired! 

got my oral test results back, some people were getting spoken to about it and the lady boy seemed to forget to wear anything other than a top today. I need to practice my oral, some people were getting high 90's! today was absolutely roasting, a hot 27' in mid/late October I was too warm in shorts and a tshirt. Went to the Confucius temple as I was off work, paying only a student 5RMB in, it was a small haven in the busy shanghai area! so relaxing, not so many people, beautiful architecture, and a lovely area to sit looking into the water with the many Koi carp. sat for ages relaxing, perfection! I love the ancient chinese architecture, its so beautiful, whereas the usual architecture of the past 50 years is quite horrid, brash and dull and very much in need of updating!

one could light incense for Confucius or write a wish, we had a right laugh reading the different wishes in German, English and French, most were silly and romantic, one from a young teen demanded a girlfriend soon who would love and be with them forever whilst another wanted good grades and christmas presents. the workers selling the cards showed us one wish that came true, a German man wishing for the Germans to win the 2014 world cup - clearly granted by Confucius haha! 

outside is a small array of shops, some pets to buy (everything from rabbits to snakes and tarantulas) and lots of quirky phone covers and bags. its rather easy to get to, taking exit 3 at Laoximen station and the 2 street on the right on past the wooden gate posts with chinese characters and its on the Left. as per usual not easily signposted but worth the effort to go to! 

Tuesday 21st -Friday 24th October 

been told that we have a unit test next Tuesday, oh such fun! and we will be doing 3 chapters next week in Comprehensive class. learnt directions in speaking class and had a strange but hilarious comprehensive class using the words' Danshi" "juede" and "bijiao" 但是，觉得 和 比较 but, think & compared to - and using them to rate famous people - Hot or Not! very funny! 

On Tuesday and Wednesday  went to the Intertextile trade fair in the New Shanghai Pavillion Line 10 Huamu road, finally seeing some Chinese decoration in the "kerry" shopping centre and getting a pass that called me  "garment manufacturer" I felt very official. it was my job to try and find more CDC Silk, heavy satin, new jacquards and fancies for the bridal and evening wear, mainly 100% silk or silk/poly silk/viscose blends. the place was humongous! you could get a caddy ride to the different areas. I focused on the first day in N1 only. filled with silk vendors, mainly Chinese. I had a sheet with some of the samples i was to look for, also to look for similar bridal fancies and jacquards, and to order samples to the store, getting a card and noting down widths, prices, minimum quantity, delivery time, local popularity etc. some were very reasonable in price too! lots of beautiful silks, lots of westerners and lots of english speaking vendors! but i found myself bored of looking at fabrics, and by day 2 I was at a wits end, and i was only doing a few hours at this! 

i visited some of the international traders, mainly Asian, lots and lots of lyrca and lace,, not much silk. often a lot of the textile traders would sell in huge bulk, mainly for factories, I was looking for small batches, maybe 20/30M. I looked in W1-3 and N1-3 these places maybe had 300 stalls per section. yet my second day I only got 10 or so more orders. 

I spent the metro journey back asking Gar, the second in command and fashion accessory designer from manchester all about her career experience and she suggested getting in contact with designers and headhunters for contacts - in fashion, the more contacts the better. 

the next 2 days were spent with yet more fabrics, i went to the 2 fabric markets trying to find CDC silk, Heavy, but in a dark navy. very difficult and i was unsure if the colour was acceptable. i was at the markets at Dongmen and the South Bund market. although my boss said 45rmb approx for a metre, the ones in South bund wanted 140 as its more western! so not fair! however in Dongmen they were all very helpful, at one point 5 vendors were all trying to sort out who could help. 

i went back the next day for samples, practicing my chinese, buying a half metre of lace for only £1.50! and at the accessories market get free sequins near Yuyuan, what a kind lady! I spent the rest of the time writing up the info from the trade fair before cycling home and getting stuck into chinese (I did one homework for 2 hours!) packed for tomorrow for the school trip as I had to meet at 7.30am