Shopping in Shanghai with a baby is a singular experience: I have seldom experienced so much attention. We quickly got used to people being very curious and supermarket workers calling their colleagues to take a look at the baby. But sometimes, there are still situations that leave us speechless: Seven, eight supposedly grown-up women swarming around the pram, shouting and cheering… well, that's China :-).

My personal theory is that zebra crossings in China are mostly meant to let pedestrians disturb cars only in certain areas. Because in China, in practice, cars very clearly have the right of way (but not by law, I think). In addition to that, cars are allowed to turn right even when facing a red traffic light. That makes crossing a road much more interesting experience than in Germany.

There is a online shopping heaven, and it has a Chinese name: Taobao.com (淘宝网). You can buy almost everything there: Kitchen appliances, clothing, nespresso capsules. I think Taobao offers at least as much as Amazon and eBay together.

But what makes shopping at Taobao really unique is the fact that in Shanghai it is cheap to deliver anything. Much cheaper than parcel fees in German, much faster (many things are delivered on the next day), and it also saves going down to the post office.

But compared to online shopping in Germany, you have to be even more careful who you buy from. There are the usual tricks (photo shows the complete package, the offer refers only to one piece), and then there's the basic rule: Basically everything you can buy on Taobao can be fake. If you want to be careful, better only buy from traders with many, many good ratings. Which still won't keep you from seeing comments such as: “No idea whether that thing is fake or real, but it works nicely.”