Rocks turn into a hard place in Old Shanghai

ANOTHER DAY in Old Shanghai - an action packed one as it turned out - full of fresh incident after incident. And loads of rocks.

We were transported on a luxury bus to Old Suzhou, home of Tiger Hill, although we never got to see that, strangely.

After endless hours traversing trashed old Chinese houses leaving the coast, we finally tipped up in Souzho.

There was a brief stop at the restroom on the way, and where I bought Ashlee Vance from the Rogister and Tony Smith from HardwarreRogister a beer each at five yuan - total 15.

Rupert trumped us by going into the wayside cafe and coming out with a hip-sized flask of something called "Chinese Whisky" which cost three yuan and was at 58 per cent, which compared to rough German schnapps was lower than Cognac on the Armagnac scale.

You're interested in the rocks, obviously. Here are a few pictures, courtesy of, er, my camera.

Pictured here, from left to right, are two Intel Spinners, Ashlee Vance from the Rogister, your own Charlie "Minneapolis" Demerjian, and some lass who we have not yet been introduced to. The Intel spinners commissioned suits made of the purest English Kashmir, it transpired.

You are waiting for the ROCs. One is below the suits, wars have been fought over this, you know.