When I just arrived in Shanghai in late 2009, I wanted to buy some DVDs because TV was predominantly in Chinese and there was nothing in English in the TV. I loved movies and the kids always needed something to watch. So my family and I took a cab to the shopping street called Hongmei Lu (Hongmei Road) about 10 minutes from my residential compound. There were three DVD stores selling a huge collection of DVDs and CDs in Hongmei Lu (not originals though…). Anyways, I had never seen such large DVD stores in my life. Plus it was cheap, about RMB15 (USD2.2) per DVD and you even get a discount when you buy 10 DVDs. You can find many foreigners buying 10-20 DVDs easily at any time. Plus they were selling entire collection of all the seasons of popular television series, entire collection of all the albums of famous singers etc. For example they were selling the entire “Friends” seasons in a boxed set. I have to say that this was one of my most favorite past times when I was in Shanghai those days: visiting the DVD shop.
