lemon meringue pie

Tuesday 9th April
Up by 7am and down to Nanjing Lee outside the Peace Hotel, wander up and down waiting for 'change money' to be whispered in my ear. Walkabout for at least an hour, must be too early. Ignore the first swarthy looking character, as he will not shift from 160. The money changers look more Turkish and Chinese. The second one won’t either, but I fall for his winning grin and wink. Change 100 foreign exchange certificates. Buy a spring loaded sun hat for Deborah at 2.50Y
Buy ticket for this SS Shanghai cruise ship to Hong Kong, departing 19th, 145 FEC. Have a tremendous haircut, scalp massage, and cut throat razor smooth shave in a busy old-fashioned barbers near the Park hotel. Feel like one million dollars.
Buy blue peaked cotton cap with red star, 2 yuan, in a massive tatty department store. An American in the department store asks advice about his urethral discharge acquired in Thailand. It seems we had met before in Chongquing. I tell him to return to Hong Kong for his test results.
Coffee, sticky bun and large wedge of lemon meringue pie, One yuan. Eaten with chopsticks! Hilarious spectacle, as lemon meringue pie is the shops speciality, and everybody is struggling.
Bowl of red soup and a thin fried pork escalope. Delicious. Spend the day window shopping and wearing out my legs. Take a liking to Shanghai. Go to four theatres as directed by the tourist office, looking for Chinese opera. Surprise surprise no opera found. However tout outside one sells me ticket for the acrobat show. This was excellent, and very cheap.