Pipe dream

Visitors to the Life Art Center, also known as that place on Maoming Lu with lots of bad art and Southern Barbarian, may have noticed something a little out of the ordinary lately: Shanghai's first head shop (that we know of at least).

They aren't even trying to hide it, either. It's literally the first thing you see at the end of the hall when you step in through the Jinxian Lu entrance. Bongs, pipes, and bubblers... oh my! The name, "High Times," is equally indiscreet and not to mention a little mundane from the normally creative stoner community. The shop appeared to be closed when we visited at around 3:00pm on a Sunday, which even for a head shop is pushing it. With so much pot paraphernalia so brazenly placed behind its glass windows, the whole thing felt a bit like, well, a sting. But, we're probably just being paranoid.

This sort of thing might not raise as many eyebrows back home, but we question the wisdom of such a move in this particular country. Given China's particular stance on this position and last summer's theatrics particular position on the issue, however, the whole idea seems, for lack of a better term, a little half-baked.

But hey, they've certainly got a built-in customer base in the expat community and we even have a restaurant called Munchies now, so maybe there's hope after all. We wish them luck while they last and would like to be the first to suggest a possible Southern Barbarian fried goat cheese crossover promotion.

More pictures after the jump: