Tuesday July 29th-Sensory Overload

I have to admit that Shanghai is a bit overwhelming. I think my tolerance per day of it is about 5 or 6 hours, and then I just have to retreat to the safety of my hotel, where I feel ok being a tourist again.
It is loud first of all. The horns never stop. And there are people everywhere. As an american, and perhaps as an American traveling alone, there are many offers of watches and t-shirts, and women who start shining your shoes before you even realize what they are doing. "No" doesnt matter. They follow you down the street. One guy I am pretty sure made overtures of hitting me on the head with my own water bottle, or at least thats what I gathered when he grabbed my waterbottle and had his arm around me.
I was worried at first that I would fall into the tourist routine here and would be surrounded by other westerners. Well, for two reasons I am no longer worried about that.
-I am pretty sure most of Shanghai is geared to tourists, albeit the chinese kind. Most of the stores seem to sell tourist knick knacks and all of it looks bad.
-Secondly, I was pretty much the only westerner anywhere I went. In fact, when I went back to the Bund this morning to explore more, I had people whispering and laughing, and a few taking pictures of me. Even better, I had a young boy and girl come up to me and ask to take their picture with me. Its like I am a celebrity.
After walking for a few hours and several miles, I am not sure I found that many areas that were authentic Shanghai and not just created for the tourist. I did see a bunch of americans near the Yu Yuan gardens, which essentially seems to be a tea house and a bunch of stalls selling souveniers. They were with a Disney Adventure cruise apparently. Weird.
There were a few alleys though were one could glimpse the real shanghai and it wasnt pretty. It was dirty and crowded and veyr poor. But on a bright spot, its smelled just as bad as the rest of city.
Well I am off to explore the city some more. Today I am taking the easy way out and going to the Shanghai museum. It will get me out of the heat and away from the starring eyes and the people asking if i want to buy a watch. I am having a great time and enjoying the experience, so dont get confused. Its just overwhelming to say the least. Chongqing, where I am sure there are less westerns and less English spoken, will be even more overwhelming I am sure.
On the plus side, finding good and different food does not seem to be a problem. There are a lot of restuarants selling food that I am sure I can not get at the Chinese food place in Richmod for sure. Right now, before the Musuem, I am going to a place I saw down the road that serves dumplings, to give that a shot. Until later, Goodbye!