China Day Six & Seven.
Potty training a toddler in China must be interesting.
Toddlers here dont, generally, wear nappies. They have slits in the back of their clothes, and when the toddler needs to go, mum or dad, just gets them to squat down in the gutter and just...well, go. Naturally this could be hazardous in places where there are no gutters, but in the hot sunshine the smell of piss is still the smell of piss. I dread to think what happens to more solid waste. My only experience so far has been being crammed in the subway to Tiananmen square with a rather....fragrant little boy who obviously hadn't got him bum clear of the slit and had let rip. It was a hot subway and it wasn't dreadfully pleasent.
Speaking of the loo, the toilets here are strange. As has already been explained the typical toilet is a hole in the ground over which one is expected to squat (how one does this in stiettos is a mystery I don't plan to explore). They vary hugely - some stink, others are very plesent. Normally a hunt for the flush is involved, and generally the ones that don't smell, don't have a flush but rather a big long tube which connects down to some sort of sewer system. Interestingly though (and this is a contrast that baffles me), you nearly always get a little box of tissues on the table in a resturant, coffee house, etc. But no loo roll in the cubical. None. Ok - some toilets do, but lots don't so you always need to take a little packet of tissues just in case. It's...kinda confounding, really.
Anyway! Enough about loos and onto Tiananmen square. I have to say, now it seems like a nice place, but at the time it was incredibly exhausting. Since it is the holidays, everyone and their dog was out at the square. Seriously - the subway journey was hell, being squished in, and the streets were literally rivers of people travelling to and from the subways. It was a bit like a stampeed - you had to keep moving less you be trampled. If you stopped - someone would get lost and Lewis and John were running ahead at a hundred miles an hour, ducking and weaving between people as gaps formed and dissapeared - Tina and I failed miserably. But after about 20minutes of this torturous frog marching, we made it to the opera house. Which isn't far. Here we were allowed to have a breather.
It's rather impressive, and as you can see parts of the glass roof are covered by water. It must be really cool to see inside - but we didn't. While resting against the wall (which you can't see, but was leant on to take the photo) Lewis and I were accosted by a lovely man and wife, who spoke very little english, but were so excited to see us they wanted their photo taken with us. What else can you do but smile? Then, seeing we were obliging a woman got her daughter to posewith us and took her photo with us. :) And then, in Tianaman Square, Tina and I were asked to be photographed with someone else's daughter - I feel special. ^_^ It's proabably the blond hair and pasty complexion mind you. There's an awful lot of Chinese people who have never seen a westener, so really we're not that special. They just liked the look of us. (Which you can only take as a compliment.)
This is in the square - it can hold about 2,000,000 people if we all stood still. There was roughly 100,000-200,000 folk there that day alone, but generally outside national holidays it's general playing host to about 10,000 visitors a day. That building there in the background is their parliment building. The screen isn't usually there either, but it was there for the national day parade.
As were the floats.
This is a picture of...someone I don't know, and the momnument which is the equivelent of the "Tomb of the Lost/Forgotten Solider."
The Gates of Heavenly peace. This is as close as we wanted to get - mostly because, as you can see it was mobbed, and there is nbothing else to do there apart from stand in the pavement and take pictures of Mao's portrait. The censorship in this country has led him to being remembered as an awesome hero and not for instilling the many massacres he invoked - but I'm not here to dwell on politics.
A photo of Lewis and I being touristy. =D
After the square we went shopping to Wangfujing Street - the equivalent of Oxford street. Lots of Malls. A whole shope devoted to chopsticks. I bought myself a set and a pair for a friend as a gift - yay, I finally spent money!
So, after Tianaman, Lewis went off to collect his suit from the silk market - I was knackered and went home to have a sit down and rub my poor tired feet. I have to say, the suit looks fantastic and is really rather lovely. Now he just needs decent shoes, that he'll keep decent.
Suits you Sir!
That evening we went to another indoor market type place, and I bought a nice knitware coat and fell out with Lewis because he laughed at my fail at bargining skills. I got the mostly acrylic coat for 210 yuan - he claimed I should've got it for about 150. I was happy because I would've bought that coat at £20 in the UK, but his argument was we should be going for super cheap stuff. Fine, I agreed, you can haggle from now on. Ok he said, you're crap at it anyway. ¬.¬ Meanie.
We then went on to an Italian resturant. The food was...well, the food was ok. The most interesting thing that happened was Tina ordered a spagetti with clams, chilli and tomato in it. It was rubbish - the clam were tiny, the tomatos seemed to have been put into my dish instead of hers, and there was no chilli. So after eating a few clams and disliking it, se sent it back. About 15 minutes later(we had all finshed our meals) another dish came - it was colourful with chillis and tomatos! And Tina was really happy and said it was delicious. We could only conclude that the shock of customers (the place was empty apart from us) confused the chef. Either that or he was drunk. Possibly both.
In addition to this, John ordered one bottle of wine, which was fine, and then a second (exact same) that turned out to be fizzy. ?! Yes. And when we asked for stickies at the end, there was no sambuca, and only enough amaretto for one. (I was generous and let John have it. Instead opting for a baileys.) But, to make up for it we were all given a free shot of some...sort of...rice...liquour. The head waiter/owner/bloke who spoke english joined us, and with a happy cry of "Gambei!" we all threw it back. Euch. It was odd- like super sweet flavoured paint stripper. I'm sure it gets better the more you drink.
Then the exciting part! Ever since we walked into the establishment we noticed the walls...(and ceiling)
Covered in graffiti. What we wondered, must one do to be entilted to scribble on the walls?
apparently justeat there. After dinner we were given a big marker, and a nice fresh piece of wall.
Hee hee.
So we stumbled home, and I actually fell asleep at a sensible hour. Yay!
We had already resolved to get up early and do a bit of shopping (with Lewis Haggling) at the silk Market. So we did, and I came home with a pair of purple genuine ugg boots, an authentic ed hardy t-shirt, a nice wee other t-shirt, and nice pair of sheepskin leather purple gloves, lined with fleece, all for about £40. =D Lewis managed to get two "armarni" belts, two silk ties, 20 (?!) pairs of chopsticks for about £20. All through haggling we'd have spend well over £200 if we hadn't haggled at all. xD Awesome.
Lewis had been contimplating getting a hair cut for a while, and so we found somewhere that spoke a reasonable amount of english, a picture of what he wanted, and got a hair cut.
Before.
After!
First haircut in a decade, and for only £26. Not bad, eh? He's still complaining that the front bangs are too floppy, so I foresee a trip back to see David (he gave Lewis a business card) to get them chopped a bit shorter. He also shaved his sideburns, much to Lewis' dismay, but I think they look better.
And with Lewis' fantastic new hair cut, we ventured out in search of the doll shops a second time. Hopefully they would all be open, hopefully someone there would speak english, hopefully, hopefully, hopefully!
First impressions? Well, we trundled into the Angell Studio Doll shop first, and I have to say I was a weensy bit dissapointed. I've become so used to walking into a shop here and being followed around by an assistant that what happened was rather surprising. First of all, it was pretty clear there was some sort of doll meet going on in the middle of the floor. There was the shop owner, (I think) on a computer in the corner, and there was about three or four girls taking up pretty much all the shop floor space playing with the dolls. (Taking heads off, changing clothes, etc.) The dolls even had those portable hiking chairs to sit on - very cute, but not so cute when you're trying to peruse the clothes racks and the dolls in the glass cabinets!
There was a cecile the scarface. There was a couple of other volks dolls, a chiwoo, sleeping chiwoo, dreaming moon, a soo - all in the cabinets. I guessed, rightly that these ones weren't for sale. Most were for display. There were drawers of eyes, drawers of boots and racks of clothes. There was a fantastic jacket - I full intend to go back and buy it.
The Dollzone store wasn't much better - same sort of deal as AS, a doll meet going on in the middle but one girl was painting a head. I was jealous of her skills. There was the same mind boggling amount of doll clothes and things in the one place and lots of Dollzones for sale. They had a pretty nice price list, but most of it was in chinese so I can't properly decifer it.
The best store, was definatly the Spirit Doll store. While she had a resiner, and a couple of CP dolls, not to mention a hound and what I think was two bermanns all in glass cabinets to be admired (I asked if the hound was for sale, there was an admant no. I told her I was jealous and she laughed. xD) but the spirit doll girls are rather lovely in person. I didn't hold anything - very much the "not going to touch other folks dolls" kinda person here, but I desperatly wanted to paw. I think I may cave and buy myself a big girlie from Spirit doll. Tide me over until I've saved up for a Luna =D
Anyway, I priced a couple of dolls (with the help of the girl painting the face ups, she was the only one who spoke english! In the spirit doll store had to resort to asking to see the dolls online to point in the end. I guess it was my accent? As AS instantly knew who I meant when I said Cinderella, another mold I was pricing for a friend.)
I was too overwhelmed by the meets in the stores to havea good proper paw through wig and clothes racks - but will most definatly be doing so when I go back to actually buy things. Lewis and I have already decided to buy a few dolls to sell on with a mark up - after all, the price is too good not to! Even if I mark up a fair bit, they will still be cheaper than ordering from the company online.
Anyway, here are the few photos - I plan to take more when I go back. :)
Toddlers here dont, generally, wear nappies. They have slits in the back of their clothes, and when the toddler needs to go, mum or dad, just gets them to squat down in the gutter and just...well, go. Naturally this could be hazardous in places where there are no gutters, but in the hot sunshine the smell of piss is still the smell of piss. I dread to think what happens to more solid waste. My only experience so far has been being crammed in the subway to Tiananmen square with a rather....fragrant little boy who obviously hadn't got him bum clear of the slit and had let rip. It was a hot subway and it wasn't dreadfully pleasent.
Speaking of the loo, the toilets here are strange. As has already been explained the typical toilet is a hole in the ground over which one is expected to squat (how one does this in stiettos is a mystery I don't plan to explore). They vary hugely - some stink, others are very plesent. Normally a hunt for the flush is involved, and generally the ones that don't smell, don't have a flush but rather a big long tube which connects down to some sort of sewer system. Interestingly though (and this is a contrast that baffles me), you nearly always get a little box of tissues on the table in a resturant, coffee house, etc. But no loo roll in the cubical. None. Ok - some toilets do, but lots don't so you always need to take a little packet of tissues just in case. It's...kinda confounding, really.
Anyway! Enough about loos and onto Tiananmen square. I have to say, now it seems like a nice place, but at the time it was incredibly exhausting. Since it is the holidays, everyone and their dog was out at the square. Seriously - the subway journey was hell, being squished in, and the streets were literally rivers of people travelling to and from the subways. It was a bit like a stampeed - you had to keep moving less you be trampled. If you stopped - someone would get lost and Lewis and John were running ahead at a hundred miles an hour, ducking and weaving between people as gaps formed and dissapeared - Tina and I failed miserably. But after about 20minutes of this torturous frog marching, we made it to the opera house. Which isn't far. Here we were allowed to have a breather.
It's rather impressive, and as you can see parts of the glass roof are covered by water. It must be really cool to see inside - but we didn't. While resting against the wall (which you can't see, but was leant on to take the photo) Lewis and I were accosted by a lovely man and wife, who spoke very little english, but were so excited to see us they wanted their photo taken with us. What else can you do but smile? Then, seeing we were obliging a woman got her daughter to posewith us and took her photo with us. :) And then, in Tianaman Square, Tina and I were asked to be photographed with someone else's daughter - I feel special. ^_^ It's proabably the blond hair and pasty complexion mind you. There's an awful lot of Chinese people who have never seen a westener, so really we're not that special. They just liked the look of us. (Which you can only take as a compliment.)
This is in the square - it can hold about 2,000,000 people if we all stood still. There was roughly 100,000-200,000 folk there that day alone, but generally outside national holidays it's general playing host to about 10,000 visitors a day. That building there in the background is their parliment building. The screen isn't usually there either, but it was there for the national day parade.
As were the floats.
This is a picture of...someone I don't know, and the momnument which is the equivelent of the "Tomb of the Lost/Forgotten Solider."
The Gates of Heavenly peace. This is as close as we wanted to get - mostly because, as you can see it was mobbed, and there is nbothing else to do there apart from stand in the pavement and take pictures of Mao's portrait. The censorship in this country has led him to being remembered as an awesome hero and not for instilling the many massacres he invoked - but I'm not here to dwell on politics.
A photo of Lewis and I being touristy. =D
After the square we went shopping to Wangfujing Street - the equivalent of Oxford street. Lots of Malls. A whole shope devoted to chopsticks. I bought myself a set and a pair for a friend as a gift - yay, I finally spent money!
So, after Tianaman, Lewis went off to collect his suit from the silk market - I was knackered and went home to have a sit down and rub my poor tired feet. I have to say, the suit looks fantastic and is really rather lovely. Now he just needs decent shoes, that he'll keep decent.
Suits you Sir!
That evening we went to another indoor market type place, and I bought a nice knitware coat and fell out with Lewis because he laughed at my fail at bargining skills. I got the mostly acrylic coat for 210 yuan - he claimed I should've got it for about 150. I was happy because I would've bought that coat at £20 in the UK, but his argument was we should be going for super cheap stuff. Fine, I agreed, you can haggle from now on. Ok he said, you're crap at it anyway. ¬.¬ Meanie.
We then went on to an Italian resturant. The food was...well, the food was ok. The most interesting thing that happened was Tina ordered a spagetti with clams, chilli and tomato in it. It was rubbish - the clam were tiny, the tomatos seemed to have been put into my dish instead of hers, and there was no chilli. So after eating a few clams and disliking it, se sent it back. About 15 minutes later(we had all finshed our meals) another dish came - it was colourful with chillis and tomatos! And Tina was really happy and said it was delicious. We could only conclude that the shock of customers (the place was empty apart from us) confused the chef. Either that or he was drunk. Possibly both.
In addition to this, John ordered one bottle of wine, which was fine, and then a second (exact same) that turned out to be fizzy. ?! Yes. And when we asked for stickies at the end, there was no sambuca, and only enough amaretto for one. (I was generous and let John have it. Instead opting for a baileys.) But, to make up for it we were all given a free shot of some...sort of...rice...liquour. The head waiter/owner/bloke who spoke english joined us, and with a happy cry of "Gambei!" we all threw it back. Euch. It was odd- like super sweet flavoured paint stripper. I'm sure it gets better the more you drink.
Then the exciting part! Ever since we walked into the establishment we noticed the walls...(and ceiling)
Covered in graffiti. What we wondered, must one do to be entilted to scribble on the walls?
apparently justeat there. After dinner we were given a big marker, and a nice fresh piece of wall.
Hee hee.
So we stumbled home, and I actually fell asleep at a sensible hour. Yay!
We had already resolved to get up early and do a bit of shopping (with Lewis Haggling) at the silk Market. So we did, and I came home with a pair of purple genuine ugg boots, an authentic ed hardy t-shirt, a nice wee other t-shirt, and nice pair of sheepskin leather purple gloves, lined with fleece, all for about £40. =D Lewis managed to get two "armarni" belts, two silk ties, 20 (?!) pairs of chopsticks for about £20. All through haggling we'd have spend well over £200 if we hadn't haggled at all. xD Awesome.
Lewis had been contimplating getting a hair cut for a while, and so we found somewhere that spoke a reasonable amount of english, a picture of what he wanted, and got a hair cut.
Before.
After!
First haircut in a decade, and for only £26. Not bad, eh? He's still complaining that the front bangs are too floppy, so I foresee a trip back to see David (he gave Lewis a business card) to get them chopped a bit shorter. He also shaved his sideburns, much to Lewis' dismay, but I think they look better.
And with Lewis' fantastic new hair cut, we ventured out in search of the doll shops a second time. Hopefully they would all be open, hopefully someone there would speak english, hopefully, hopefully, hopefully!
First impressions? Well, we trundled into the Angell Studio Doll shop first, and I have to say I was a weensy bit dissapointed. I've become so used to walking into a shop here and being followed around by an assistant that what happened was rather surprising. First of all, it was pretty clear there was some sort of doll meet going on in the middle of the floor. There was the shop owner, (I think) on a computer in the corner, and there was about three or four girls taking up pretty much all the shop floor space playing with the dolls. (Taking heads off, changing clothes, etc.) The dolls even had those portable hiking chairs to sit on - very cute, but not so cute when you're trying to peruse the clothes racks and the dolls in the glass cabinets!
There was a cecile the scarface. There was a couple of other volks dolls, a chiwoo, sleeping chiwoo, dreaming moon, a soo - all in the cabinets. I guessed, rightly that these ones weren't for sale. Most were for display. There were drawers of eyes, drawers of boots and racks of clothes. There was a fantastic jacket - I full intend to go back and buy it.
The Dollzone store wasn't much better - same sort of deal as AS, a doll meet going on in the middle but one girl was painting a head. I was jealous of her skills. There was the same mind boggling amount of doll clothes and things in the one place and lots of Dollzones for sale. They had a pretty nice price list, but most of it was in chinese so I can't properly decifer it.
The best store, was definatly the Spirit Doll store. While she had a resiner, and a couple of CP dolls, not to mention a hound and what I think was two bermanns all in glass cabinets to be admired (I asked if the hound was for sale, there was an admant no. I told her I was jealous and she laughed. xD) but the spirit doll girls are rather lovely in person. I didn't hold anything - very much the "not going to touch other folks dolls" kinda person here, but I desperatly wanted to paw. I think I may cave and buy myself a big girlie from Spirit doll. Tide me over until I've saved up for a Luna =D
Anyway, I priced a couple of dolls (with the help of the girl painting the face ups, she was the only one who spoke english! In the spirit doll store had to resort to asking to see the dolls online to point in the end. I guess it was my accent? As AS instantly knew who I meant when I said Cinderella, another mold I was pricing for a friend.)
I was too overwhelmed by the meets in the stores to havea good proper paw through wig and clothes racks - but will most definatly be doing so when I go back to actually buy things. Lewis and I have already decided to buy a few dolls to sell on with a mark up - after all, the price is too good not to! Even if I mark up a fair bit, they will still be cheaper than ordering from the company online.
Anyway, here are the few photos - I plan to take more when I go back. :)