Often, we need to get something very specific in the way of professional photographic gear when we are a long way from home. Something related to a particular flash head, or gaffers tape of a specific width, perhaps a spare battery for a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Need any of those things ? go here:
The store above is located at the intersection of Xeitu Road and Lu Ban Road (spelled LuWan on some maps). Lu Ban is an elevated major thoroughfare so a taxi driver with some good local knowledge will have to get you there. I’ve linked the Lat/Long map coordinates to this post so you can get to it in google maps.
So it was on this trip arriving in Shanghai, on my way to a conference in Dunhuang, Gansu, having left the battery for my Canon EOS 5D Mark II on the charger back in Chicago. Best laid plans and all that. So the search was on – first to find a pro-photography store then to get there, get the battery and return. It was a bit difficult with out the Chinese language skills but I managed to get the information about this place from a small camera boutique selling point and shoots on the Bund. The camera sales person drew the location on a tourist map of the Shanghai Expo for me. I don’t have an international data plan so I downloaded via Wifi to my iPhone app MotionX-GPS the tiled maps for the whole downtown area of Shanghai. I could now navigate to the store – and back again.
The map – in Chinese, got the location communicated to the taxi driver, got me there for my battery, and got me back. The store is not a single shop, but many small shops all specializing in different equipment. On the ground floor there are pro shops for new Canon’s, Nikons, all of the major manufacturers. Up above on the higher floors many types of lighting and support manufacturers represented. As good a stock on hand as our pro shops in the U.S.
The shop – and my battery.
