If it's Saturday, it must be shopping day!
January 31, 2010
Saturday was AWESOME! We started off early at 9am when Derek picked us up at the hotel. We went over to Starbucks to grab a coffee, then off to the Fabric Market to pick up Cheryl's two suits and her cashmere coat that she had tailor made last weekend. They looked AWESOME! Cheryl decided to also have a rain coat made, Jean also custom made a rain coat, 
I ordered a cashmere coat, and Mike ordered 7 tailored shirts. Mike's shirts were CUSTOM made -- $9 each. You pick the fabric, the color, the collars, the cuffs. If you want a different fabric on the INSIDE of the cuffs, they can do it! Monograms, no monograms -- you want it, you got it. My coat ended up being 580 RMB - tailor made CASHMERE coat for $90 US Jane's rain coat was 500 RMB - $77 US Everything we had custom made will be ready to pick up on Thursday night. The tailor will be BUSY this week! 3 coats and 7 shirts!
Next, we went over to Julie & Ken's condo to pick up Ken & the kids. We were dropped off at the fake market for some souvenir shopping; Ken & Parker went back to the skate park. The traffic was horrible on Saturday. Not sure why so many people were out and about - might be because of the start of the Chinese New Year holiday where many people will go home and visit family for 2-6 weeks. We went to the underground fake market - this place is AMAZING! We barely saw 1/100th of the entire place, but it's like a little mall. Everyone has their own shop and everyone makes their own rules. Thankfully Julie was with us, and she could give us recommendations on how much we should be paying for things. EVERYTHING goes on negotiation. I picked up some silk scarves, a few cashmere pashminas, some UGG's slippers (these are WONDERFUL!!), and a few tea cups. We were only down there for about two hours and Cheryl had a lot of specific things she was looking for for her nephews. She picked up a backpack, some bags (that fold up into very small containers), fake Oakleys, pashminas, slippers and some Pandora beads. The place was just wild. They probably had everything you could imagine down there, but we just didn't have enough time to look.
Next was off to Eyeglass City so Cheryl could pick up some frames. I also ended up getting a new pair of frames (I will have the lenses put in at home). The frames I picked up were 150 RMB - or $27 US. They had EVERY possible frame you could imagine. Three floors of eye glass stores everywhere. It's like 3 floors of Pearl Vision stores! The traffic on the way to Eyeglass city was horrendous - Julie said it normally takes about 40 minutes to get there and it took us almost an hour and a half. We went through some VERY poor parts of town, I wish I could have gotten some pictures! But, very hard to take pictures from the back of a van. Eyeglass City is also right next to the bus and train station. So since it's so close to Chinese New Year, people are starting to travel to visit their families. There were thousands of people walking down the street with luggage - actually causing a traffic jam. Add to that ... the entire road was under construction!
There was an accident on the highway that we saw - someone had rear ended another car. But then we think we know why that might have happened. There was a guy standing on top of a 25ish story building. Just looking over the side ... it looked like he was going to jump!! Not sure if he did or not, because I didn't watch the news in the mornning (who knows if that would even make the news here?) While we were inside, a motorcycle cop got too close to Derek's van and scratched it with his handlebars. Derek stopped him and asked him what was up ... and the cop said "Well, you shouldn't have been parked there" Nice, huh?
We got back to Julie & Ken's apartment an
d Ken made us a great American dinner: wings, potato salad, baked beans and beer. How funny - I feel like we're back in 1975 - check out the pull tabs! Everything was home made and it was DELISH!!! I don't eat wings, so Julie made me a big salad of green and yellow peppers, onions, tomatoes, and chicken. It was SO yummy - the first vegetables that I've eaten since I've gotten here. (they said not to eat any fresh veggies 1) because of the water they're washed in, 2) because of the soil they're grown in). Julie & Ken have a little organic market near their building and she said everything they get there has been great. It was SO good to eat some veggies last night! We got back to the hotel about 10pm and I crashed since we were going shopping again on Sunday.
I ordered a cashmere coat, and Mike ordered 7 tailored shirts. Mike's shirts were CUSTOM made -- $9 each. You pick the fabric, the color, the collars, the cuffs. If you want a different fabric on the INSIDE of the cuffs, they can do it! Monograms, no monograms -- you want it, you got it. My coat ended up being 580 RMB - tailor made CASHMERE coat for $90 US Jane's rain coat was 500 RMB - $77 US Everything we had custom made will be ready to pick up on Thursday night. The tailor will be BUSY this week! 3 coats and 7 shirts! Next, we went over to Julie & Ken's condo to pick up Ken & the kids. We were dropped off at the fake market for some souvenir shopping; Ken & Parker went back to the skate park. The traffic was horrible on Saturday. Not sure why so many people were out and about - might be because of the start of the Chinese New Year holiday where many people will go home and visit family for 2-6 weeks. We went to the underground fake market - this place is AMAZING! We barely saw 1/100th of the entire place, but it's like a little mall. Everyone has their own shop and everyone makes their own rules. Thankfully Julie was with us, and she could give us recommen
dations on how much we should be paying for things. EVERYTHING goes on negotiation. I picked up some silk scarves, a few cashmere pashminas, some UGG's slippers (these are WONDERFUL!!), and a few tea cups. We were only down there for about two hours and Cheryl had a lot of specific things she was looking for for her nephews. She picked up a backpack, some bags (that fold up into very small containers), fake Oakleys, pashminas, slippers and some Pandora beads. The place was just wild. They probably had everything you could imagine down there, but we just didn't have enough time to look. Next was off to Eyeglass City so Cheryl could pick up some frames. I also ended up getting a new pair of frames (I will have the lenses put in at home). The frames I picked up were 150 RMB - or $27 US. They had EVERY possible frame you could imagine. Three floors of eye glass stores everywhere. It's like 3 floors of Pearl Vision stores! The traffic on the way to Eyeglass city was horrendous - Julie said it normally takes about 40 minutes to get there and it took us almost an hour and a half. We went through some VERY poor parts of town, I wish I could have gotten some pictures! But, very hard to take pictures from the back of a van. Eyeglass City is also right next to the bus and train station. So since it's so close to Chinese New Year, people are starting to travel to visit their families. There were thousands of people walking down the street with luggage - actually causing a traffic jam. Add to that ... the entire road was under construction!
There was an accident on the highway that we saw - someone had rear ended another car. But then we think we know why that might have happened. There was a guy standing on top of a 25ish story building. Just looking over the side ... it looked like he was going to jump!! Not sure if he did or not, because I didn't watch the news in the mornning (who knows if that would even make the news here?) While we were inside, a motorcycle cop got too close to Derek's van and scratched it with his handlebars. Derek stopped him and asked him what was up ... and the cop said "Well, you shouldn't have been parked there" Nice, huh?
We got back to Julie & Ken's apartment an
d Ken made us a great American dinner: wings, potato salad, baked beans and beer. How funny - I feel like we're back in 1975 - check out the pull tabs! Everything was home made and it was DELISH!!! I don't eat wings, so Julie made me a big salad of green and yellow peppers, onions, tomatoes, and chicken. It was SO yummy - the first vegetables that I've eaten since I've gotten here. (they said not to eat any fresh veggies 1) because of the water they're washed in, 2) because of the soil they're grown in). Julie & Ken have a little organic market near their building and she said everything they get there has been great. It was SO good to eat some veggies last night! We got back to the hotel about 10pm and I crashed since we were going shopping again on Sunday. 
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