On to the Hong Qiao District to visit antique furniture workshops/stores/warehouses. A disappointment for us. Primarily big pieces with many reproductions. It was more fun shopping on Dong Tai Lu, searching out interesting objects, whether new or old, and bargaining with the vendors. Dong Tai Lu consists of six-block area several streets populated with vendors selling off their makeshift displays on the street but is also surrounded by shops. You can bargain in the shops. Don't be afraid to try...the worst that could happen is they'll refuse to budge on the prices or look insulted. This trip we found a little chest of narrow drawers, a "counting chest." The dealer (with Billy interpreting) said this chest held money used for buying and selling goods and the merchant would carry it on his back while making his rounds. Interesting and unique.

By far, one of the most unusual and informative visits we've ever made was to Master Yang Shao Rong and his private Shanghai (Bai Li Tang) Ancient Shoe Museum featuring 100's of pairs of tiny 3-5 inch shoes used by women with bound feet and collected over many years.

I was familiar with the practice of foot binding but never really understood it until then. Foot binding began in the Sung dynasty (960-976 BC), supposedly to imitate an imperial concubine who was required to dance with her feet bound. By the 12th century, the practice was widespread since big feet were considered ugly, and girls’ feet were bound so tightly and early in life that they were unable to dance and had difficulty walking.

When a little girl turned three, all her toes but the first were broken and her feet bound tightly with cloth strips to keep her feet from growing larger than 3.9 inches. This caused the soles of her feet to bend under, or become concave. I can't even imagine the pain. Master Yang had some photographs showing what a foot looked like unbound, truly mind-boggling and nauseating to think of undergoing that.

Foot binding stopped in the 20th century and some feet were unbound, leaving less severe deformities, but it has been estimated that approximately 4.5 billion Chinese women were subjected foot binding over the past 1,000 years.

The beautifully made tiny shoes, also known as "lotus shoes," were made in China for women with bound feet. The sole is made of layers of cotton and cloth pasted onto a wooden board and the uppers made of embroidered silk.

They were absolutely exquisite - silver and gold embroidery on some - different size heels - hundreds of ancient shoes in Master Yang's collection. A very eye-opening visit into this ancient practice of foot binding. When you really stop to think that my size 6-1/2 shoe feet would have been half that size, it's no wonder that these women couldn't do anything but sit around all day looking pretty. How could anyone possibly function without excruciating pain on 3-4 inch feet.

The next morning, one last walking tour. This time to the east area of Shanghai to visit Ohel Moishe Synagogue built in 1927. The First Wave of Jews immigrated to Shanghai around 1848 from Baghdad and Bombay, and the most successful among them build some landmark buildings that are still standing: Sassoon House, the Metropole Hotel, The Embankment Building and Cathay Mansions to name a few.

Billy introduced us to this older gentlemen, not Jewish, who had lived and worked in the Jewish Quarter during World War II. He was absolutely thrilled to show anyone around and tell his stories about World War II in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation.

The Second Wave was marked by the migration of Russian Jews fleeing pograms through Northeast China, and then to Shanghai. If you don't know what a "pogrom" is: An organized, often officially encouraged massacre or persecution of a minority group, especially one conducted against Jews. The American Heritage Dictionary.

From 1938 on, over 20,000 Jewish refugees from Germany, Poland and Austria escaped to Shanghai, the only place in the world that did not require a visa to enter. Among them was Michael Blumenthal, who later became U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in the Carter Administration. When the Japanese invaded China, they interned the population of Shanghai Jews and some "Stateless refugees" into this Ghetto-like area.

Shi Ming (Cindy) of Shanghai Far East Expeditions (or e-mail her at: fareast@shfareast.com) can always come up with new and interesting sights both in Shanghai and all over China. She has already arranged four completely unique trips to China for us: Guizhou, Yunnan Province, the Silk Road and the Mt. Khawarkarpo Trek. The next trip to China? Into the Khampa Szechuan area (known as China's "Wild West" with heavily Tibetan influence). Every one of these trips have been paid for by ex-Marine and myself, are not "FAM" (familiarization trips for Travel Agents) AND are not "comp'd." Please don't misunderstand, Cindy can arrange everything from a so-called "normal" trip using Ritz-Carlton's and Four Seasons to trekking around China and I would never use or recommend her company if they didn't do a wonderful job.

China is so HUGE that I feel we haven't even touched the surface. Go with a group, arrange a private tour, or backpack across China, but go now before everyone wears blue jeans and has an iPod stuck in their ear.