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Shanghai boasts China's best department store. Called Number One, the stark, cavernous but well-stocked emporium attracts 100,000 shoppers a day. There are always eager crowds, but no lines, around the toy counter, which offers such items as a huge stuffed panda for $47, a solidly built dump truck for about $4.75, and a battery-powered submachine gun for $6.25. A Shanghai-made black-and-white TV set costs around $428, a solid-state radio $33. A nice chess set goes for $8.50, good basketball shoes for $5.25. The high-collared Chung-shan chuang, the so-called Mao jacket, made of heavy blue or gray cotton and well stitched, is a bargain at $11; a matching Mao cap costs $1.50. Friendship Stores in each city, catering to foreigners, offer more exotic but in many cases bargains-priced goods such as embroideries, porcelain, jade jewelry, furs, silks, scroll paintings and antique furniture. The attendants seem scrupulously honest. At some of the antique stores, though, the young comrades behind the counter are apt to be woefully ignorant of the objets d'art they are selling. In Wusih, a customer reasonably well versed in Chinese asks a salesgirl the exact meaning of the calligraphy on a 200-year-old wall scroll. Her hesitant reply: "Aim high to build our country," which is purest Mao. The scroll actually reproduces a philosophical poem by the Ch'ing dynasty's Tsu Shao-tseng.
Some of the most attractive handicraft objects are to be found at small stores off the tourist track: lacquered woven bamboo handbags, hand-painted nesting boxes in all shapes, ceramic poudriers that could be used as cigarette boxes, silken parasols, cloisonne bangles. Many of these eyecatching, easily stowed artifacts are sold in the U.S. for ten times the going price in China.
Hotels range from shabby-chic to seedy, the best being reserved for Western visitors. Kweilin's three-year-old, 300-room Li River hostelry is about average. The rooms are furnished in Grand Rapids style. The beds have pallets, but no springs, no Western-style mattresses, no top sheets; maid service consists of dumping a clean sheet and a blanket on the bed, to be made up by the guest. There is a plentiful supply of mineral water, beer, soft drinks and cigarettes, and a thermos of hot water and a package of tea leaves. There are also small red ants in the bed, but they are not predatory. The Kweil-inese are trying, however. A paper strip across the toilet seat announces, in Chinese and English: DISINFECTED. There are two differently scented bars of soap, both pink; the toilet paper, also pink, is labeled (in English) Kapok, The Most Luxurious Toilet Tissue.