Quality Movie DVD shopping in Pudong

The other day, my friend who can speak Shanghainese took me to the shop where he usually picks up his stash of DVDs. I have always heard about DVD's being cheaper in Pudong but was always too lazy to go over the water and stuck with my Dagu Rd shop.

We went to a non-descript building near the Yaohan 八佰伴 at 1271 Pudong Nan Lu called "Rong Fu Deparment Store" 融富百货商场. The entire building is full of little shop/stalls peddling all kinds of wares. We went straight to the 3rd floor, stall B15, where Lady Pan's shop is. It's dinky shop, much like an old record shop, with rows and rows and DVD's not organized in any particular order. Everyone there was intently flipping through the DVD jackets, looking for those hidden treasures to bring home.

My friend claims that he goes through 20 movies per week, so always picks out a ton of stuff and is a favorite customer there. He's also a walking IMDB and served as a movie title translator for Lady Pan. I found Qatsi Trilogy, Baraka/Chronos, and an Ang Lee collection, which even contains "Xiao Yu" 少女小渔, a movie he co-produced but not directed. Most of the discs were DVD 9 format, the higher quality one, and it worked to be around $7-8RMB/movie.

Gulistan - when Turkish meets Xinjiang Uyghur

I found this surprising authentic and atmospheric muslim restaurant after taking my visitors to shop for the fake stuff at the Tech Museum subway underground shopping street.  It's tucked in amidst a row of fastfood eats.  We ordered some lamb over rice and noodle dishes (standard Xinjiang fares) and also some yogurt dip with our doner kabop.  Everything was so tasty that even my ABC cousins who've had food trouble ever since they got to China had a smile on their faces.  We also got a free Uyghur guitar singing session from the waiter, who had just arrived in Shanghai from Xinjiang a week before.  I will definitely recommend this place to anyone who takes the trouble to go all the way out there to shop.  In Kurdish, Gulistan means the "Land of Roses" -- I had to look that one up...