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How does that Arcade Fire song go? "I woke up with the power out, not really something to shout about." Well, that is our theme song for the day. The power is out on a large chunk of Nanjing Xi Lu -- no street lights during the middle of the day on one of the city's busiest streets ... beautiful -- and we live on Nanjing Xi Lu. So our power is out. A sign in the window of Zara says power should be back on by 2 pm. Yes, businesses on one of the main shopping streets had to close for this. Doesn't seem like an accident, either. Looks more like a planned work day. Couldn't they have chosen a better time of day (or night) to do this work? Anyway, with no internet at home, we headed to Element Fresh for what we thought was free WiFi. But there they told us to get the "free" WiFi we had to buy some kind of Shanghai Center card. So now we are at Blue Frog on Tongren, where the internet is indeed free ... but a little bit dicey. Things may be quiet here for a little while. Sorry.
UPDATE: It is 3:33 pm and the power is still out. Still no street lights and the police have gone home and stopped directing traffic. Oddly, it all seems about as safe as it does when the lights are working. Not that you care, but we are back at Element Fresh now. They sell the China Telecom wireless cards -- 50 kuai for four hours. Kind of a racket, but it was the most reliable option.
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Probably, someone switched on the lights in the 857th Lui Beton shop on NJ Lu, so the fuses blew.
For free internet that's working, head to one of the Coffee bean and tea leaf coffee shops. There's one next to Burger King in Jingan, it's like 10 minutes by feet from Shanghai Center...
Thanks for the tip. I used to go to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Xintiandi when I lived near there. Guess I didn't realize there was one in my new 'hood.
your image got me all excited about a tour stop in shanghai :(
On the Nanjing Lu aerea there are plenty of bars with free wireless (and fast) internet access. Apart from the ones already mention above, I recall Starbucks and Valley Gourmet (both the exi 2 of Shimen Yi Lu metro station), Coffee beanery (or something like that, not the real one in any case) on Qinghai lu...