Shanghai: 10 Things to Do
5. Dongtai Road
There's a store on Dongtai Road, a chockablock stretch of antiques and curio shops off Xizang Road, that proudly displays a milk-bottle delivery box from the 1920s. I once tried to buy it from the couple who owns the shop. The husband laughed. The wife told me that several museum curators had already offered big money, but she wasn't selling. Amongst all of Dongtai Road's tourist tat and, trust me, there is plenty of it are treasures. Some, like the milk box, aren't for sale. But plenty else is, including lovely art-deco pieces and lots of Cultural Revolution memorabilia. About halfway up the street is my favorite book-dealer. Collectors of tiny antique metal teapots are also in luck there's an entire store devoted to that esoteric object. Just east of Dongtai Road is a plant-and-animal market, where you can pick up a championship cricket for the next time you need an insect to enter in a prizefight. Doesn't everybody?
Connect to this TIME Story
Time.com Best & Worst Lists
Most Popular »
- TIME Exclusive: President Obama's 1979 Prom Photos
- Fears of Google Glass are Unfounded
- Staying Power: ’90s Supermodels Are (Still) Having a Moment
- Peeping Sergeant 1st Class (First Class, Indeed)
- Boy Scouts of America Has A Lot To Learn From the Girl Scouts
- London Man Hacked to Death in Suspected Terrorist Attack
- Staying Power: 90s Supermodels Are (Still) Having a Moment
- Holder: Obama's New Drone-Strike 'Playbook' Has Arrived
- Man Shot to Death While Questioned in Boston Probe
- Xbox One Raises the Burden of Privacy Safeguards: 5 Questions for Microsoft
- TIME Exclusive: President Obama's 1979 Prom Photos
- Happy 114th Birthday to Jeralean Talley, The Oldest Living American!
- Boy Scouts of America Has A Lot To Learn From the Girl Scouts
- Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation
- Forget Paris: Stymied by Socialist Policies, the French Start to Quit France
- Timelapse
- The Belgian Teen Who Went to Fight in Syria: The Brian De Mulder Story
- Marijuana: The Next Diabetes Drug?
- Iran's Supreme Leader Tightens Grip After Disqualifying Two Top Presidential Candidates
- Summer of Safe Browsing: 5 Ways to Keep Online Searching Secure for Kids





