Back to Bejing

Jessica and I wanted to sleep in on Saturday morning, but we had many errands to run. We wanted to go to Yashow to complete souvenir/gift shopping, as well as visit the bag man one more time, I wanted to go to Beijing Glasses City again to get new glasses for cheap, and we needed to get a refund on Jess' top-up card from China Mobile. We also planned to have dinner at Morel's one last time.

I got up at 9am and ordered room service--how decadent! The Mariott makes a mean dish of lemon ricotta pancakes! I wanted to get a jin bim for breakfast, but I just didn't have time to run across the street to the hutong. We were on a schedule!

We headed to Yashow first, where I picked up some pretty pearl necklaces for Cheri, who's been watching my cat, as well as a fun coral necklace for her daughter. Jess got a bunch of necklaces for friends of hers as well, in addition to one more pretty translucent blue one that matches her eyes. We used the necklace stall that we always do, and got a good price as per usual. I got one pair of trendy jeans for my brother from my jeans girl (100 RMB per pair). Both the jeans girl and the necklace girl are so funny; they have us pay round the corner because they know they can get higher prices from their other clueless customers. We don't mind because they are just so clever--when we're bargaining they always have very clever counter arguments.

We also visited the bag man one last time. I got a gray leather Louis Vuitton handbag that is absolutely cavernous. It fits my laptop in its case in addition to all manner of things. Jess got a bunch of nice gifts for people, in addition to a gorgeous Hermes wallet. The bag man had gotten a huge new shipment of Hermes Kelly bags as well as a bunch of Ferragamo bags and the Stephen Sprouse graffiti for Louis Vuitton bags too. I was tempted by a pink graffiti bag but figured it was too seasonally dated. While we were in the secret room, there was a commanding sounding knock on the door. Jess and I were worried that the cops were doing a sweep, and that we'd never leave China, but it turned out that it was people looking for the secret room next door (I always wonder what else is up on the 6th floor of Yashow). Regardless, it was a sign for us to finish up our business and get out of there. Better to not tempt fate, you know?

Afterwards we picked up our purchases from the necklace girl and headed south on the 10 subway line to Beijing Glasses City. This is basically a huge market similar to Yashow but the only thing they sell is glasses. You can bargain and try on the millions of frames available, and then have prescription lenses made up in about an hour (much better than Lenscrafters!). The shops can read your existing lenses, so no written prescription or eye exam necessary (although most purchases come with free eye exam should you need it).

The market is a little overwhelming, with 4 floors of all little eyeglass stalls. There's even a 2nd Beijing Glasses City across the street! The first place we tried on glasses refused to bargain, and quoted ridiculously high prices (600RMB for each frame, which is near to US prices). The second shop was much more reasonable, posted 180RMB prices for the kind of frames I wanted (like Buddy Holly) plus 100RMB for the lenses. After some bargaining involving me waving a wad of 400 cash around saying that was all I had, I had my order in for 2 pairs of classes. They told me to come back in one hour.

Jess and I walked around looking for a China Mobile service center, and we found one. After explaining the story, they sent us down the road to another service center a couple of blocks away. They called ahead to warn the service center that we were coming, and I distinctly heard the woman tell them that we wanted a refund, not an exchange, because we were going to the US the next day. Of course, when we got to the 2nd service center, they refused to refund. They said there literally "wasn't a method" to do so. Typical. Jess and I were so sick of fighting that we just took the card. I think she is going to try to sell it at the airport.

The exchange took just the perfect amount of time so we went back to Glasses City (and yes, that's the actual translation of the sign out front) and got my new glasses. I wanted to make sure they were OK before I left, so I asked for a place to remove my contacts. They sent me across the alleyway to the lab where all the lenses were being ground. It was madness in there, people grinding away in the back (and probably plastic dust in the air, too), a hoard of people picking up glasses at the counter, and a tiny sink in the back for hand washing. I couldn't find a contact lens container, so I went back to the shop and had the girl come with me. She had to ask for one from one of the people working at the lens shaping. I removed my contacts and made my way back to the shop, attempting to not appear like I could barely see. Both glasses were great, my vision was clear and now I don't have to look super dorky in 9 year old frames (seriously, I got my old frames my freshman year in college!). Plus, who can complain about $25 glasses?

We took the subway back to the hotel just for kicks. We did some packing and then took a cab to our favorite restaurant in Beijing, Morel's. Monsieur Morel is a Belgian who opened a restaurant that happens to serve the best cheese fondue I've ever had (better than La Fondue Bourginone in LA). Monsieur Morel also likes Jessica and I, probably because he is a mildly lecherous old man who enjoys it when pretty young things come into his restaurant and praise his fondue vigorously. He also caught Jessica scraping the fondue pot last time, and told her that it's the best part of the fondue and sometimes he does it himself in the back, which explains his rotund stature.

The fondue was delicious, as expected, and we cabbed it back to the hotel to finish packing. Luckily we were mostly packed from before our little trip around China, so it wasn't a massive operation.

We woke up later than intended so there was a little bit of crazy running around in the morning. We got a cab to the airport, which of course tried to take the long way (I set him straight) and tried to charge us 50 extra yuan for the bags, which is complete horse$hit illegal and he knew it because he backed off when I laid into him in Chinese. We gave him 10 yuan for the return toll and I told him not to let the door hit his a$$ on the way out. Good times.

My Priority Pass card let me into the Air China 1st class lounge, where I finally watched Slumdog Millionaire, which was really great. I boarded my flight (emergency exit row, woohoo!) and am now in San Francisco waiting for my connection to Phoenix. Stay tuned for entries from Africa this summer!