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.

There are carts of knock off DVDs all over Shanghai but the best place I’ve come across is a little store on the east side of Gao’an Lu just below Yongjia Lu.

They’ve got pretty much everything from obscure movies to series boxsets… including all the BBC documentaries. Of course, I only get the movies we own already but don’t want to take the originals out of their boxes in case they get scratched! We also have them by the toilet in-case there’s a knock at the door.

This place also got some bluerays – although they are a little bit pricey at 10RMB (£1) instead of the standard 6RMB. I’m particularly fond of my looping HD aquarium.

Here’s a cover I just had to scan:

The outline on the back reads:

This cod mockney melodrama from the director of Bridget Jones Diary fails at every level. It’s clearly a film involving working class characters made by middle class people with both characters and plot lacking any authenticity and credibility whatsoever. In fact, the basic premise of Bridget Jones is transposed to this disastrous attempt at making a serious Drama. Instead of writing a diary she writes letters to Osama Bin Laden.

Lu Xun, founder of China’s New Literary Movement has many places to his name around the Hongkou area, non more visited than the one-of-a-kind Lu Xun park – next to the Football Stadium.

Sure, there are parks all over Shanghai where you’ll catch a game of checkers, spot some Tai Chi or enjoy a sonata but Lu Xun is bristling with odd-bod activity. In a walk from one end to the other we saw a string quartet, shogun marching, ballroom dancing, grasshopper catcher, opera singer, mah jong tournament, skateboarding and a kung fu sword master.

Then there’s the exercise area with some incredibly ripped grandpas pushing out 100 dip sets and grannies doing the splits. All of this to piped music throughout; mostly traditional Chinese with an occasional The Godfather theme tune tossed in.

All of this paled into insignificance as we rounded the corner to find a Takeshi’s Castle style boating pond where for 30RMB  we waged a 20min war on the high seas.