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Jay Chou's favorite bubble tea shop opened its pop-up yesterday on the Bund and it’s a biiiig deal! How big? Wanghong big. Jay Chou big. People apparently started queueing at 5am yesterday, seven hours before it opened. Daigou were quoting 350rmb to stand in line for you, including 20rmb for the drink. We heard some saying that shop staff were making customers drink the drink at the counter, to prove they weren't scalpers buying it for someone else. 1 drink per person, 200 drinks sold per day. By 10am yesterday, there were 400 people in line, two hours ahead of opening. All because it featured in Jay's latest music video, and it’s reportedly his favorite bubble tea. So naturally we went this morning to try and get our hands on the hottest naicha in Shanghai! And failed miserably.

We overheard a girl saying: "I took a day off from work to queue for this." Apparently the ones at the head of the queue got there as early as 9pm last night. We didn't see any tents or bedrolls but there were a couple camp chairs in view.

The shop started giving out number slips at noon, and they ran out in six minutes. We'd gotten there a little after 10am, so we were given a stamp on the hand instead, indicating our right to join the queue. They shoved us into what looked like Les Suite Orient’s garage to wait for space to free up on the actual line. We spent 45 minutes inside that hole and nothing happened. We gave up. Walking the line, I estimated that around 250 people would have to either quit or die of exposure before we even had a chance of nabbing Jay Chou's milk tea.

What a waste of life!

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The pop-up shop will be open at 12 Zhongshan Dong Er Lu for at least two months, according to the shop. A more permanent Machi Machi is said to open on Huaihai Lu sometime soon.