A couple of weekends before we left for the UK I went in search of some Chinese silk to be made into blouses.  I had brought a couple of one-sized silk blouses out with me to Shanghai as a general cover-up in the hot weather, but my swollen lymphoedemic arm had stretched the seams of the left arm of each one and I was in desperate need of some substitutes.  There are a number of places where one can buy silk, but I’d been warned that sometimes the sellers aren’t selling the real McCoy.  Now the test for real silk is to burn it.  Well a thread of it at least, but I didn’t have the confidence to go round setting fire to the stuff in the local markets, so I opted instead for a branch of the Silk King, which was recommended in a couple of guidebooks and which turned out to be a government owned chain.

Just in case you are wondering natural silk is a fibre that burns like hair, with the same smell as burnt hair and it leaves a black residue of ash once burnt.  Artificial silk will melt on burning if it is made of polyester or some other manmade fibre, or if it is rayon which is made of wood pulp it will smell of paper as it burns and leaves a white ash behind.

Mr Harrys

Tables at Mr Harrys

Beer, Ketchup and Vinegar

We went up to West Nanjing Road where I had walked past a branch of Silk King several weeks before and we stopped off at Mr. Harry, at Richard’s suggestion, for some lunch.  (His work takes us to all sorts of places!) This establishment on the second floor of a tower block is a cross between a Harry Ramsdens, a British pub and a sort of tea shop.  There was even tomato ketchup and vinegar on the tables and we had British beer in traditional beer glasses.  Richard had fish and chips, complete with pureed peas (not mushy) and

Mr Harry’s Fish and Chips

Mr Harry’s lasagne

Tomorrow Square

tartare sauce.  The cod was excellent and he was convinced that it had been bought in frozen from the Marks and Spencer’s store down below.  I had lasagne, which came with chips, a salad and some garlic bread, but it didn’t quite pass muster as the sauce in the lasagne had carrot in it, but it wasn’t a bad attempt.

After lunch we headed along the road a 100 meters or so, overlooked by the Tomorrow Square Tower, home to the JW Marriott Hotel, but looking as if it belongs more to The Lord of the Rings (Sauron Tower) than Shanghai, to the West Nanjing Road branch of Silk King.

Silk King West Nanjing Road

Silk Garments

Five Lengths of Silk

Here the government sells silk on the roll in various weights – the heavier the silk, the more expensive it is per metre.  They also sell silk scarves and silk garments and they will also make up clothes to your own specifications.  I ended up buying five lengths of silk to be made up into over-size blouses. However the quote that I was given for making-up was far more expensive than I would pay a dressmaker in the UK to do them for me (and indeed they were made up for me for less than half the price they asked for in China when I brought the fabric back to the UK).  As I could have also made them up myself if I had had access to my sewing machine and the time, I certainly wasn’t going to pay over the odds for someone in China to do it for me.

Across the street from the silk shop was one of a number of green walls we have seen around the city.  This one was multi-textured and multi-coloured and included some flowering plants.  All the plants are in pots set at a slight angle to the vertical and set into a frame.  I peered inside to see if I could see the watering system, but there was nothing obvious.

Marks & Spencer West Nanjing Road

We walked back along the West Nanjing Road and continued on beyond Marks and Spencers until we reached the Jing’an Metro station much further down the street.  However we were struck by how much of a mess the Mark and Spencer shop front looked compared with the H&M store right next door to it, where the models were uniform and had a blank background and looked attractive.

The M&S storefront by way of contrast was bitty, messy and had a completely confusing look. We both felt that the British iconic retailer needed to up its game somewhat. 

Silk Blouse

The five blouses were indeed made up for me when we were back in the UK for a fortnight – each with slightly larger sleeves to be able to cope with my swollen left arm.  I’m wearing one of them today……