Testing the senses in Shanghai to find China's best antitourism and off-beat secrets. Dry and sometimes funny observations from a fixed gear roller, food eater and photograph taker.

When the repetitious beauty of shelf-after-shelf of household items in Ikea has begun to feel like wandering through any old warehouse, the “Hotel Equipment Corporation” has just the fix.

Up near the creek on Aomen Lu (West of Changhua) are four floors of enough kitchenware to cook one million shepherd’s pies… with gravy!!!

There’s an aisle dedicated to Korean beef bulgogi, one to the world’s largest woks and a extensive range of doner kebab rotisseries. Funny to see, just like in Carrefour, there’s a team of incredibly pushy sales guys hovering around the appliances. I was being sold a £400 blender based on it having a flashing green light on the front and suckers for feet.

It was honestly inspirational and we left the place starving in a way only Pavlov’s dogs would understand. We splashed out on a couple squeezy ketchup bottles and a particularly svelte set of kitchen scales. I wasn’t allowed to buy the sushi boat or the bellhop trolley. Totally unreasonable – the trolleys are a steal at £600.

Ps. Thanks again to K&J for another tip-off.

I have never been so overwhelmed by clothes before. Oxford street, Bangkok Suann Lumm, TK Maxx and Belz all put together have nothing on Qufu Lu.

Here at least a half-dozen huge buildings, each with 4 football pitch sized floors are crammed with ’boutiques’ selling to the weekend shopper what they are normally churning out in bulk to the department stores.

Some could be in a high street mall Diesel, Miss Sixty, Gaultier all could be mistaken for high-end retail. Others look more like a dumper trucked tipped 8000 tshirts onto the floor… which is probably what happened.

Of course, everything is fake, you can’t touch anything without being heckled, nothing will fit and there’s nowhere to try it on anyway. Which of course is half the fun.

Come here for the experience, then relish spending a little more somewhere else where the choices are fewer, crowds thinner and you don’t need to deal with the “upset baby” act when you offer 50% of the asking price and they’re still making a good markup.

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