One yuan, thirty seven seconds, and twenty one minutes

Shanghai was awesome. The four of us are all big fans of the affectionately dubbed 'XLB' (xiaolongbao for the unitiated), so we hit up a bunch of different places, from OG street style to fancy hotels. Sustaining plenty of mild tongue burns in the process.

Quick Only in China moment:

We were at a touristy street food area near the Yu Gardens and Cheng Huang Miao (City God Temple?) and I stopped to use the public toilet. When I got to the entrance, they were charging a fee: 1rmb! That's freaking highway robbery here. But I had to pee, so I paid it. I'm glad I did, because once I got inside, I noticed this:


They have timers on the stalls (有人 means Occupied)! At first I thought they were counting down, like 1rmb only bought like 5 minutes on the squatter, but they're actually counting up. Which kind of sucks for the dude on this particular squatting pan...

Not really sure why they do this, but I think it's because here in the Motherland, they don't line up in one line, but line up in front of individual stalls, so this way, you're well informed on which stall to start your stakeout.

Glad to see my entrance fees are being put to good use.