Postcard from Shanghai

Shanghai… a city bursting with kinetic energy where it feels like modern life is accelerating at such a pace that the concept of time may be left behind altogether.

However, on an evening stroll off the beaten track we were reassured to come across this modest shop where a gentleman is doing a roaring trade selling and repairing old clocks. The illuminated sign roughly translates as ‘master clock and watch’ and the man moves methodically around the busy shop almost in keeping with the rhythm of his ticking timepieces. As we lingered for a few moments to observe him at work it felt as if we too were becoming immersed into the same soothing tempo, detached from the fast pace of the city streets.

During the trip to China we took great pleasure tasting our vodka with hundreds of intrigued people and it was very clear that the Broken Clock philosophy of escaping the mechanical grind and taking time for slow pleasures is certainly not something which is lost in translation.