Road Trip East Day 1: Phoenix, AZ to Ft. Stockton, TX

Day one of my road trip odyssey did not start all that fortuitously--I received an email on my Blackberry while I was gassing up in Phoenix about the death of one of my good college friends, Tristan Campbell. Tristan and I met in Prof. William Chester Jordan's European History class freshman year and we took another class of his together. He also attended Episcopal services with me and I always looked forward to his passage readings. Tristan was from NYC by way of Jamaica, but he was an Anglophile through and through. I will always remember his kindness, his intelligence and sharp wit and his beautiful soul. Once he told me that my nose was "mathematically perfect" and sometimes he would just send me Facebook messages that said, "Ginger, you are awesome. I love you." They were meant in the most non-creepy way and I always smiled when I saw them. We'll miss you terribly, Tristan, and I hope you are somewhere finding all the answers to the questions you had in Prof. Jordan's history class. The email mentioned there may be a memorial service during reunions, so if I can make it I will try to get to NJ for it.

My route today was very easy: I-17 South to I-10 West towards Tucson. Driving through Tucson was surprisingly fast. After two years in the Phoenix metro area I forget what normal towns are like. I saw a sign for the Saguaro National Monuments and I wished I had time to stop. I wanted to get to Ft. Stockton, TX, however, as it's the best stopping point between El Paso and San Antonio. After Tucson, all the signs on I-10 point to El Paso, which is pretty exciting.

The interstate past Tucson takes you through some pretty rugged country. This part of the state was used as Cochise's hideout when he was fighting the US Army, guerrilla style. Once I hit the New Mexico border, however, the road got very straight and very flat. There's not much in New Mexico until Las Cruces, which is only 50 miles from El Paso. Surprisingly the scenery in west Texas was much more interesting than New Mexico.

El Paso is the US city equivalent to the famous Ciudad Juarez, which is currently in the news due to the drug violence plaguing the city. If I had time I would have tried to go to Mexico, but New Orleans calls.

I stopped at the Lucchese outlet in El Paso to get some cowboy boots, I got a fabulous chocolate patent leather pair for $139, bargained down from $269, original retail price $600. I love shopping!

After El Paso the scenery continued to be pretty, but boy, is it empty! All I hit was a US Border Patrol checkpoint outside of Sierra Blanca. They were stopping all trucks and cars. I got asked if I were a US citizen which got me thinking if that was legal or not (since they don't have a suspicion that I am an illegal alien). I guess in Texas driving while half-Asian is not a problem.

I ate dinner in Van Horn at a restaurant called Chuy's, which advertised good Mexican food and free wi-fi. My enchiladas were very tasty and they did in fact have wi-fi! I got back on the road and kept going, but I forgot that most of Texas is on central time so suddenly it was 9pm instead of what I thought was 8pm. I did make Fort Stockton eventually, rolling in around 10:30pm. The last part of the drive there was a gorgeous lightning display next to me. It never rained on the road but there were huge streaks across the sky and from clouds to ground. I'm in a suite at the Holiday Inn, since all the other rooms were full. The guy gave me a good deal on it, though, and there's free wi-fi here and free breakfast, which is all I care about. Oh yeah, and a king size bed. Party in room 219!

Tomorrow: I plan to remember the Alamo in San Antonio and will hopefully make it to Lake Charles, Louisiana.

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!

天壇 - Most Auspicious Harvest Prayers at Temple of Heaven

Today dawned fair and sunny, so Jess and I decided to go to the Temple of Heaven with Ben Malki. Because of the Labor Day weekend, we were worried that it would be crazy packed with people, but it was pleasantly spacious inside the temple park.

Jess and I took the subway, because the temple was pretty close to our hotel and Ben was coming from Haidian (pretty far away). Jess and I saw that the pearl market was right next to the temple, so we went in to browse around while we were waiting for Ben. I had been wanting to get a big, long strand of black pearls for a long time, so I was able to find a stall with some pearls I liked. They sell them on these pre-strung strands, and then when you pick the ones you want they knot them for you. The girls are so fast at knotting, it's really impressive. Jessica makes her own jewelry, so she got the girl to teach her how to knot the pearls. Knotted pearl necklaces are preferred because if the strand breaks, you'll only lose one pearl instead of the whole lot.

I got what I consider to be a good deal on the necklace, 225 yuan. For a giant long strand of 11 mm baroque pearls that's a pretty good price (divide by 6.8). Jess and I will likely go back to get gifts for friends, and Jess wants to get some loose pearls for herself.

Ben arrived just when my necklace was finished, so we went into the temple. We thought it would be nutty crowded, but it was actually not. I guess everyone decided to leave Beijing for the weekend--the better for us!

There were lots of people just hanging out in the park doing all kinds of stuff, chess playing, singing songs, dancing, etc. It was really interesting to see what people were getting up to on their days off.

The temple is kind of interesting, not as spectacular as the Forbidden City I would say. I'm glad I went, as I didn't see it the last time I was in Beijing. It has an interesting style of architecture. We enjoyed just being outside in the park, which didn't feel polluted as the rest of Beijing, plus it was a nice clear day.

After wandering around the temple grounds, we exited from a different gate than where we entered. We saw a little hutong (a REALLY little one--only wide enough for bikes to pass) and Ben wanted to check it out. We found a niu rou mian dealer, who was making the noodles fresh and cooking them right there. I knew I wanted a bowl right away, I love niu rou mian! The noodles were predictably delicious. The cook would take the dough and swing it up and down like a jumprope, and then twist it up. He would keep doing that until the noodles were skinny enough (like spaghetti). The broth was really good, too, almost minty, with lots of fresh parsley on top along with dried beef on top. Delicious! Ben had a kind of meat sandwich thing that he enjoyed. Jessica tried these deep fried sweet potato balls that she loved, so everyone got something good.

We went back to the hotel and Jess and I went swimming in our FABULOUS 25m lap pool. It's very posh, of course. The pool is more like a fancy spa, with a gorgeous locker room, separate sex jacuzzi, sauna, etc. The pool was empty, like the rest of the hotel. The jacuzzi even has a big screen TV in it so you can surf channels while you soak. Over the top!

My Fake Bag Guanxi Continues to Grow

After Finance class this morning a group of people, including Jessica, decided to visit Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City, which they had missed because the group went during RBE, before they arrived in China. I stayed behind because it was a particularly chilly but humid, gray day. Panos asked me if I would be up for heading back to Yashow market to visit the bag man to see if he had gotten another black Gucci bag (Panos is on a mission to purchase many handbags for his girlfriend). In order to ascertain the availability of Gucci bags, I needed to call the bag man first. I was nervous because I don't make many Chinese phone calls and I was hoping that he would remember me. Luckily, he did (my explanation went, "I hope you remember me, my friends and I bought many bags from you, including Gucci and LV..")! He said I was very lucky because the black bag had come in this morning; if I had called yesterday he wouldn't have had it.

Panos and I hopped the subway to Tuanjiehu and got off for the short walk to Yashow in Sanlituan. The Yashow ladies have all gotten new summer uniforms, pink polo shirts instead of their purple dragon print vests. The shops have new summer clothes as well so I look forward to picking up some fun stuff.

I told the bag man that we would be there at 3pm, and we were there on the dot. He complimented us on our timeliness and then once again took us up to the 6th floor secret room of bag fakery (or off the truckery). True to word, the Gucci bag was literally wrapped up in a giant sealed box on the floor with a bunch of new deerskin Prada bags. Panos and I poked around quite a bit to see if there was anything else we wanted to add, and he got a not-quite-best quality LV wallet and I got a very best quality gold Gucci clutch (what can I say, I'm a Gucci girl).

We then went to our jeans girl and Panos went wild, purchasing 4 pairs of True Religion jeans. At 100 yuan a pop, you can acquire them like candy. I got one pair of jeans, also True Religion (Frue Religion? Fake Religion?) brand.

I was going to stay and look at more clothes, but going out the night before had made me very tired so we got the subway home, napped and then got ready for the great big birthday event that evening.

Laverne & Shirley, Beijing Style [Jessica & Ginger's Adventures in Chaoyang]

Part I: My Tax Dollars At Work!

I plan to travel to Cambodia and Vietnam after the Beijing program ends, so I knew I would need to get more visa pages because both those countries use full page visa stickers. Luckily, getting new visa pages at the US Embassy in Beijing is incredibly easy! You can make a reservation online, so Jess and I signed up for 3PM and 3:30PM respectively. The embassy is located convenient to Liangmaqiao Station on the 10 line, which is the same one that is near our hotel. We hopped on after finishing up some accounting work, and made our way to the embassy. The embassy is located in a cluster pod of many other embassies; we saw South Korea, Germany, Brunei Darussalam and Israel. The US Embassy is a brand new modern glass and concrete monstrosity, not a shocker there. To reconfirm my print out map, I asked a policeman for directions and he gave me very clear and helpful ones--I'm glad that Mike and I went over a directional dialogue last week! It's been very helpful in cabs and in walking around the city.

Getting into the US embassy was surprisingly pleasant and easy. You do have to go through a metal detector and surrender your cell phone, but the staff are helpful and friendly and the process is very smooth. It's very different from the US consulate in Cape Town where you get the nth degree of inspection and questioning. The x-ray revealed a USB flash drive in my wallet which I had forgotten, but it was politely pointed out and I put it in my little tray along with my cell phone.

There was no line at American Consular Services, again a total surprise how easy and friendly this whole process was. I had to fill out a form (typical US Gov't, the form is two pages long, the first page is instructions and is removed and thrown away afterwards--seems like you could take one set of instructions, laminate it, and hand it out! Oh well...) which required my local address and my US address. I wrote out my hotel address in Chinese, thinking I was being helpful, but then was told by the consular services lady that I couldn't write it in Chinese. She went through a lot of rigamarole whiting it out with the little tape white-out thingy, which ran out so she had to find more! While she was looking, another woman came over to investigate the delay and crossed out the remaining Chinese characters, but my lady came back and insisted on whiting out the rest! Bureaucracy!

Jessica also needed new visa pages, but her passport is so old and tattered that they refused her request! Her passport is one of the old ones with the laminated photo page, and the lamination is separating and you can access the photo at one point. No wonder they didn't want to add more pages. The consular services lady suggested that Jessica apply for a renewal passport right here in Beijing. Here's the secret, people, renew all your passports overseas! It costs less ($75) and takes way less time, only 7-10 days. You keep your old passport, and then when you get the new one you just take it to a local office and request a visa transfer. No big deal! Jess opted to get the renewal, so she had to run over to a conveniently located photo shop across the street from the embassy.

Sidebar: Jessica wore her Obama YES WE CAN shirt to the embassy. This morning she asked me, "Do you think it will be weird if I wear my Obama shirt to the embassy?" I responded with, "Uh, I can't think of a more appropriate place to wear your Obama shirt!" So, her passport picture has an Obama shirt and the consular ladies really appreciated it.

So, new passport applied for Jess and I got my visa pages (the super tacky new pages that are FUGGGGGGG-LY!) all for just a 2 Yuan subway ride from our hotel! Bonus!

Outside the embassy we ran into a bīngtáng húlù (冰糖葫芦) vendor and finally decided to dive into this springtime Chinese candy delicacy. Bingtang hulu is candied hawthorn on a stick, often combined with strawberries or baby oranges. It's coated in sugar syrup so it's not good for your teeth, but MAN it tastes good! A full hawthorn one is only 1 yuan, the hawthorn/clementine one is 2.50. Hawthorn is sort of like a crab apple, but sweeter, and a little bit squashier. It's the primary ingredient in Haw Flakes, my favorite Chinese flake candy, as well as the more mysteriously named "Haw Soup", which is like fruit leather, individually wrapped (mysteriouser and mysteriouser). I want to eat one every day, which I would if it weren't sugar central. Jess and I hopped on the train to Sanlituan, to go back to Yashow market to get some faux jeans.

Part II: Down the Rabbit Hole of Bag Fakery

Yashow, if you recall, is the enormous 6 floor market next to Sanlituan Village (check out the real goods there, then head to Yashow for the knockoffs) that Jessica and I visited last week. We didn't buy anything because we were completely overwhelmed, but we felt prepared and better equipped this time. We first looked at some jeans stalls, and I found a nice pair of True Religion brand that were long enough and looked decently real. My problem in China is that there aren't any dryers so my jeans in particular are getting stretched out. I wanted to get some crappy knock-offs here so that I can beat them up and not worry about wearing out my good ones. I bargained down the lady to 250 Yuan, which is a huge savings on the US cost, which is about $250 and up!

We were tired and needed a pickmeup, so we went to a Mexican restaurant and ate some delicious burritos. Food was surprisingly authentic and tasty, although they did not give you endless chips and salsa, which I felt was sort of stingy. This is China after all! I guess I can't complain about the Mexican food. We were just pleased they allowed Jessica to order a bean quesidilla instead of a meat one.

After eating our fill at the Mexican place, we went back to Yashow to find more jeans. Jess wanted to go downstairs to look at sneakers, however, because she wanted to get some comfortable ones for the Great Wall hike the next day. The bottom floor of Yashow is all shoes and bags, so we were kind of browsing around when this very energetic shopgirl called us in and started showing us these really fake looking Prada bags. She was irrepressibly cute, but totally giving the hard sell "You like, you like, I give you best price!" She showed us that the Prada bags were real leather by waving a lighter over the surface of the bag--it didn't catch! She then took a fake leather bag and actually lit it on fire (melting and smoking!). She was really funny. Jessica asked her if she had any LV or Louis Vuitton bags, because she has been looking for the Neverfull bag for a long time. The shopgirl promised that she did have LV, and showed us one bag that wasn't actually the Neverfull, and it looked OK, not amazing. Her boss came over in the middle of our discussion, and after listening to use go on about better quality, he gave her the key to a storage room and told her to take us there. We got very excited, as we knew that the better quality fakes would be in the storage room.

She took us to the basement of the market, and opened the door to a room full of fake bags! LV, Prada, Chanel, Coach, Bally, everything was in there. She showed Jessica the large size Neverfull, but Jessica wanted the small one. While we were poking around and kind of dithering, the boss showed up with a black trash bag and pulled out a really spectacularly real-looking medium Neverfull. When compared to the fake large we were looking at, it had many differences. The lining was correct, the leather details were right, the printed monogram canvas was a better color, this was totally either "off the back of a truck" or "extra production runs at night" quality stuff. We bargained quite a bit and settled on 1500 yuan for the bag. Expensive yes, but the real one costs $700.

I had asked the boss if he had a specific Gucci bag that I've had my eye on for a couple of years, ever since I went to a tour of the Gucci store in LA. When I asked him about the Gucci again, he said, "OK, you come with me." He took us to a different secret room on the 6th floor of the market, this one was crammed full with more of the "fake" (yet real??) bags like Jessica's. He showed me the Gucci bag and it was impressive. Real black leather, correct lining, metal and bamboo accents all authentic looking. Having handled the bag in the store myself, I know what the real one looks like and this one was essentially the same thing. After a lot more bargaining (all this was done in Chinese, by the way), we settled on 1700 yuan. Spendy, yes, but I figured I deserved it, especially after landing an internship in January as well as getting a 3.875 GPA last module. I was even able to put it on my credit card (which I pay off every month, duh).

Jessica and I were high on our success, so I told the man that we had many friends who wanted to also buy bags. He gave me his number and told me to call him anytime for bags. I will likely go back in a few days with another classmate who wants to buy a bag for his girlfriend.

Jessica did manage to pick up a pair of shoes for the Great Wall (fake Converse sneakers, very cute) and used the old "I only have this much money" trick, but this time it was real! We were exhausted at this point, and decided to go back to the hotel.

Part III: A Light at the End of the Supermarket Tunnel

On the way back (lugging our illicit loot in a huge black plastic trash bag) we remembered that we needed to bring breakfast and lunch for the Great Wall tomorrow. We toyed with the idea of going to Carrefour, but that was too painful to contemplate. Instead, we opted to check out the Wal-Mart Supercenter three stops before our hotel stop. That station is where we change trains to go to Wudaokou, so we had seen the English language signs for Wal-Mart. Luckily the store is right next to the station, and there is a handy exit marked "Wal-Mart Supercenter".

Wal-Mart in China is fabulous. It's large, spacious, has helpful and friendly staff and very low prices. The food section in particular is very Chinese style, with all manner of dried and fresh odd vegetables, meats and other produce for sale (giant dried carp, sliced in half and hanging as well as turtles and deep fried baby ducklings). We stocked up on some bread, apples, kiwis, cheese and peanut butter. We made it to the checkout line but got in trouble with the checkout lady because we hadn't weighed our fruit downstairs in the produce section so as to get the sticker (they don't do it at the cashier like in the US--I should have remembered this from Croatian supermarkets). Luckily, the cashier told me I could cut the line once I got back with the fruit, so I ran off, let the fruit ladies weigh my fruits and put a little sticker on them (Job creation! This is China!) and then made it back to the cashier.

Jess and I FINALLY made it back to the hotel after a very long day. We let Hunter Kim inspect our illicit merchandise, since he's very in to luxury goods, and he gave them the thumbs up, said they looked really good. Also on the way back on the subway, we sat next to a girl with a large Neverfull that was either real or Jessica's quality fake. We also looked on the Gucci and LV websites and couldn't see anything on our bags that were a tipoff of fakery. All in all it was a day that started out crappy thanks to Accounting, and then got much, much better!

Beijing Glasses City Leads Us to Restaurant #9

In our awesome Insider's Guide to Beijing Guidebook Mike and I read about this magical place called "Beijing Glasses City", in which shoppers can peruse 4 floors of glasses frames at bargain prices. Seeing as how the last time I got new frames was freshman year in college, I was really excited to get some new glasses up in here. Mike, Jessica and I hopped the gold #10 train line to the other end. Unfortunately, we did not check the guidebook and realized upon arrival around 5:55pm that Beijing Glasses City closes at 6pm. :( We hopped across the street and looked at a few glasses shops that had some frames that appealed to me, however at US$50 they were a little pricey compared to what the guidebook promised. I did find out that slightly cat-eye type frames actually look really good on me. We decided to return to Glasses City tomorrow after the group tour of the 798 Art District.

We decided to check out another glasses store listed in the guidebook, which promised "superfly frames". The store was on a street that was next to the CBD (Central Business District). The street was actually this really funky and cute neighborhood, with hutongs off the side and trendy clothing shops that cater to Beijing's fashionable. We never found the eyeglass store, but we did find the most awesome restaurant.

We found a little hutong and wandered down it, and noticed a neat little restaurant called #9. We asked to see a menu, and it had plenty of vegetarian options for Jessica so we decided to eat there. The owner was quite solicitous and was very attentive. We ordered an incredible amount of food, including a tofu dish that mimicked scallops, a huge fried shrimp dish, pork ribs, fried potatoes and Chinese bacon, scallion pancake and fried green beans. The food was AMAZING, and we got the owner to share a beer with us. We had a nice chat about Mike's and my Chinese moms and how we were studying at Beijing Daxue. The total was so incredibly cheap and the food was so delicious that we absolutely plan to return!

We also were celebrating the fact that we got our Accounting problem set done this morning about 13 hours early. All the other fools in our class are cranking away right now and Jess, Mike and I are free and clear. Tomorrow we are off for a tour of the 798 Art District, which is supposed to be amazing.

Shopping in Sanlituan

My roommate Jessica arrived very late on Monday night, so she went right to bed and slept for about 10 hours. We had a bit of a lazy morning on Tuesday, given that it was her first morning I did not want to push. When we did get out of the hotel we decided to take the subway to Sanlituan area, which is a trendy fun area where many of the embassies are located. We had investigated the Insider's Guide to Beijing guidebook, which I have come to know and love, and read up on all the markets in Beijing. The Russian market sounded intriguing, with its promise of "larger size underwear, bras and stockings" (Jessica is quite busty and neither of us are Chinese sized, which appears to be essentially cultivating a look where people's legs are the diameter of my arms), but the Nali Market and Patio area in Sanlituan won out with its description of "cute 'designer' clothes at decent prices". The Yashow market (not to be confused with the Yueshow Market in CBD) was also nearby so we had many choices.

Sanlituan is on the same line as our Suzhoujie station, so it just takes about 40 minutes and 15 stops. It's a cute area, with a big, brand new mall area called The Village. Just across from that on the east side is the Nali Market and Nali Patio area, which is this adorable little culdesac with a tile floor and outdoor cafe chairs. We almost missed the market area, but found it because I was looking for a bathroom. The clothes WERE really cute, but mostly ready for spring, and it's cold here in China right now so we didn't buy anything. I was tempted by some "wrist socks", which are like knitted wrist cuffs with little holes by the end for your thumbs. I probably could have got them down to US$5 but do I really need wrist socks? Not really.

Afterward we went to the Yashow Market, which is your standard indoor Chinese market with lots of fakes, doo-dads, gew-gaws and the like. Lots of aggressive sellers saying "Hello, lady, hello, lady you want t-shirt? I give you good price!" and the like. We were using it as a basis for future purchases, so we didn't buy anything. We were very tempted by some Longchamp Pliage bags as well as some funny (and cheap) wigs so we'll probably be back to get some of those.

When we got back to the hotel it was really cold, so I bought a winter coat at the coat store next to the McDonalds. It's a nice black wool/poly blend and very chic. The sleeves are a leetle short, but I've been keeping warm in it!

Factory Girl: A Visit to Snow Lotus Chinese Cashmere Co., Ltd.

We had our second company visit on Monday, this time to a state-owned company. Snow Lotus cashmere was the old communist brand back in the day, and was used as gifts for visiting dignitaries (including Ronald Regan!). Now it's still a state-owned enterprise, but it's one of the profitable ones (according to their chairman) and is a surprisingly clean and well run factory that even has a green water recycling system.

The factory was about an hour and a half bus ride from Beijing, so we were all asleep when we arrived. We were first given a tour, which was fascinating. Far from the structured, sheep-herd event I imagined, the tour was very informal, and we were able to wander around the factory floor and poke around into bins, stand close to moving machinery and interact with the workers.

The raw wool is sourced from Inner Mongolia, and comes from a special breed of goat that has soft, long, fuzzy neck and stomach hair. Apparently China produces 10,000 metric tonnes of cashmere per year, but their production is capped because one cashmere goat requires as much food as five sheep. Snow Lotus owns their own wool processing plants that source the wool from sheep farming cooperatives. The processed wool arrives in its natural color state, ready to be dyed. It is placed in a big oven and then dyed whatever color of the rainbow is being produced that day. The large masses of fluffy, dyed wool are then taken to the spinning area to be spun into cloth. The dyed wool is the softest thing I have ever felt. We were able to sink our hands into a big bin of wool and I seriously wanted to climb inside and make a large nest. I took a small piece and put it in my purse because it was just too soft to leave behind.

The wool is spun by these huge machines that are made in England. They are spun onto huge 2 ft. long spools and put onto another machine that strengthens the yarn and makes it multiple ply. The ply machine puts the wool onto more recognizable industrial sized spools. Once the spools are spun they are sent to the production area where they are knit by machine into pieces of sweaters.

The knitting machines are fascinating, they are large and look like they are from the 1950's. They have little codes on the side that determine the number of rows, stitches, etc. They output little pattern pieces of sweaters that are then sewn together with sergers. Some pattern pieces cannot be produced on the machine, so hand operated knitting machines are used for these. The machines have little teeth that must be adjusted by hand, and then a kind of loom thing is passed back and forth by hand.

The workers are all sourced from far away provinces, like Anhui and Sichuan. The local governments send the workers to the factory where they live in dormitories and eat at the local cafeteria. The factory employs 1000 people. The workers weren't exactly energetic at their jobs, but did not seem particularly unhappy or lazy. I'm sure that they were putting on a good show for us foreigners, however.

After the tour we had about an hour to hear from the chairman of Snow Lotus and ask questions. He said that Snow Lotus has a 6% ROA and he restructured the company to make it profitable. However, since it's a state-owned enterprise, it seems like they have less incentive than a normal company to achieve profitability. The chairman also emphasized that their plant is very green; they have a state of the art water treatment facility that recycles the water used for dying, after several cycles it is used for watering plants and for toilets. He also said that approximately 45% of their product goes for export, and 55% is sold in the Chinese market. They export their cashmere to Europe, the US and Japan.

After the meeting we had a chance to browse the company store, which was delightful, albeit depressing because the prices were still pretty high. I tried on a FABULOUS cashmere winter jacket, but the sleeves were built for Asians, so they were like 3/4 length sleeves on me. The styles were not very fashionable either, more like basics. I did not buy anything.

Overall it was a fun visit, it was fascinating to see the inside of the factory and have a chance to talk directly to the chairman of a state-owned enterprise.

家乐福 : The 10th Circle of Hell

I helped Mike move into his new apartment on Sunday afternoon, which was an interesting adventure. It took him almost an hour and a half to exchange his travelers checks into RMB at the bank, and then the lease signing took another hour and a half. Finally he was done and I offered to go to Carrefour (家乐福 in Chinese) with him to find stuff like sheets, a pillow, soap, etc. The Carrefour is located near the hotel (and his apartment) in the big underground mall by the Sinosteel building in Zhangguancun. I had read a case in Competing Through Strategy about how Carrefour has been a huge success in China because they really cater to the Chinese market, so I was excited to see it in person. It turns out by catering to the Chinese market they have made it a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad place that is miserable.

First of all, the place is packed with so many people. Everywhere. They are pushy, shoving and in the way. Secondly, nothing is arranged in a logical manner. We found sponges, dishwashing gloves and trash bags together, but no dishwashing soap or laundry detergent. There are no staff anywhere to ask for help. The store is crowded with narrow aisles. It's also kept at a much higher ambient temperature than the rest of the mall and the outside temps. It was so miserable that Mike wanted to just leave without buying anything, but then I pointed out he'd have no toilet paper or sheets, so we waited in the line. The checkouts have 3 cashiers next to each other in a row, and each cashier has her own separate line, so it is a complete madhouse, of course, with everyone milling around confusingly. We had such an awful time in Carrefour that we stopped at Bellagio (this cute, modern Taiwanese style place nearby) to have a pick-me-up snack of passion fruit tea and mango rice balls. We found shampoo and detergent at the fake 7-11 next to Mike's apartment building, so I think I will just stick to Watson's and 7-11 from now own for toiletries and the like. Neat trivia, the detergent works for both hand wash and machine wash, I guess because not everyone has a clothes washer in their apartment. Dryers are non-existent here.

Also funny, we went out that night in Wudaokou and came back around 12:30am. I got a phone call from Mike telling me that his apartment complex locks the entrance gate with a PADLOCK at night! He had to jump the fence to get in. Talk about a fire hazard!

Where Few White People Tread

On Friday night Mike Logan and I decided to get the heck out of dodge and avoid the T-bird crew, who were planning a Karaoke night. Before anyone starts busting out the kindergarten rhymes (i.e., Mike and Ginger sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G), let me just point out that he is married and we joke that we are "older brother, younger sister" since he is half Asian as well (Taiwanese to be exact). We are both here trying to practice our Chinese so we can pass Thunderbird's language requirement, so we figured that a night out with the locals would help with that.

Mike has this great guide book to Beijing, called the Beijing Insider's Guide. It listed a couple of cool clothing stores that we decided to check out. The first one was called simply The Thing, or Dongxi in Chinese. It was in the Xidong district, which is south of where we are living in Haidian. It is located in a brand spanking new mall, called Joy City. Since it is full of every kind of shop you could ever imagine, Joy City is an appropriate name! Each floor has a funny name, like Youth, Anarchy, etc. The Thing was interesting, but had US style prices so we did not buy anything--they carry unique t-shirts, hats and sweatshirts all with urban modern graphic design styles on them. Very similar to www.threadless.com type stuff. We wandered around Joy City just taking fun pictures of the stores, all of which were shiny, new and brightly colored/lit.











Afterwards we decided to check out the Huayuandonglu area, which Mike had been to already with a local friend. He promised me that there would be delicious food, and no white people, which was music to my ears. We had a fun adventure asking where the subway is, but we didn't know how to say subway. First we asked where the "huoche" was, as that means train, but the man we asked didn't know. Then we showed him the subway map that Mike had and he said "Oohhhh, ditie", which means subway. Great, now I'll never forget it. The subway ride took about an hour, because we had to go around a slightly long way and change trains twice. We exited the subway and then had to walk a ways down a dark side street to get to this little area where there definitely were no white people--heaven! Even though it was about 10:30 at night many restaurants were open and had a few tables of patrons. We bought a stick of "beef" from a guy grilling it on the street (he added this local chili spice and it was yummy) for 1 Yuan. It turned out to be mostly fat, but it was still yummy since we were very hungry. We picked a restaurant that was pretty crowded and were amazed to find they had an English menu, with decent translations and nice pictures. We ordered a bunch of vegetarian food plus some pork congee and two bottles of beer. The total came to only US$10. The standout dish was fried string beans with Sichuan peppercorns, which make your mouth go numb in a lemon spicy kind of way--really unique!





After the eating adventure we went to a cafe for some green tea, which was served in a nifty little glass teapot with as many refills as desired. We caught a cab back ($15 spent on cabs--the whole night, what a bargain!) and went to bed around 1:45am. It was later than I wanted, but I was excited to try new foods in new areas of Beijing. While we were walking around the place we saw a lot of barbershops, but I suspect they were brothels, because there were only chairs and no hairstyling equipment, and just a few bored looking girls in heavy makeup looking outside at passers by. Interestingly there were also real barbershops next to the fake ones, which was funny (you could tell the real ones because there were people in there actually getting haircuts). We also saw some tents on the street with people inside eating what appeared to be dumplings, so they must have been some kind of illicit restaurant. We definitely want to come back to try those places, which we have termed "Expert Level Chinese Dining Only". That will likely be in a few weeks!

I'm Now Fully Invested in Arsenal

Yesterday's class transitioned from talking about China to discussing Japan and Korea. Goddard emphasized the isolationist nature of Japan, which was pretty much old hat to me, being an East Asian Studies major and all. For lunch we tried "Franklin's House of Dumplings" as Panos calls it, which is basically the dumpling-themed cafeteria. In typical confusing style, they have a lovely menu on the wall with many delicious sounding jiaozi listed, but only serve a fraction of the available dumplings every day. Tragically they did not have the "pork and pumpkin" flavored ones I wanted to try, so I made do with pork and cabbage (which were still good, and at 4 Yuan for a large plate, a steal!).

After class Ben Malki and I went to the electronics superstore to buy him a new charger for his computer. I was blathering on in Chinese about how "this object does not work and he would like to buy a new one" and then the salesman busted out with perfect English, saying "Yes, your charger is not functioning and you would like to purchase a new one!" Oh well! We chatted with him for a while and it turns out he is from Urumqi, which is in far western China, Xinjiang Province. Ben and I also swung by the Off Price Mart (doesn't it just sound full of bargains?) which appears to be a sort of super ghetto department store, which is full of racks of clothes, shoes, appliances, etc., all on sale. Some group members had purchased some fly football [soccer] jackets at Off Price and we wanted to scope out the selection. The authentic Adidas section was somewhat paltry, only having one Bahamas jacket, which Panos already owned, and a Rio de Janeiro one that Ben rejected on account of it having a silkscreen of Jesus. Ben being a Jew but one inherently suspicious of all religions (including his own), he did not feel comfortable wearing Jesus around. Apparently he is not a Jew for Jesus.

We decided to try the fake Adidas section, and found two options that intrigued us, a bright orange jacket with the name Robben on the back and a mysterious man's face on the front. We called Panos and learned that Robben is a Dutch player who is currently on Real Madrid. I rejected it on the basis of Robben's Dutch-ness and checked out the other option, a white and red number mimicking a retro jacket from the Egyptian soccer team Zamalek. Ben rejected it on account of funny construction ("Your shoulder pads look like Star Trek" was his reasoning). I finally found a jacket I liked in the Arsenal section (English premier league fans will be intrigued to know that there was no Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur, just Arsenal) and got it for 180 Yuan. I have no idea if it's real or fake, but it's sharp looking and appears well constructed. Finally I have bought something in China!!! (yay) Ben was joking that now I'm fully invested as a (long suffering) Arsenal fan and I'd better get cracking on their statistics. Looks like their next match is today (Saturday) vs. Newcastle United, but due to the magic of China being ahead of Europe, it will take place at like 1am Beijing time.



After shopping we met up for a dinner/lecture at the hotel restaurant so that Goddard could give us a breakdown of how to behave at a fancy Chinese banquet. It was an interesting and informative lecture, some of the more useful tips were to just push things around on your plate if you don't like it, no one will notice, and to claim you are on medication if you don't want to drink. There is much importance given to the retention and potential loss of face, and how the guest must ensure that the host does not lose face in front of his/her peers. We have a fair number of Mormons at Thunderbird, most of which are cool, but some insist on rubbing in EVERY TIME that they can't drink and it gets very tiresome. Hopefully Goddard's little lecture will make some impact on them. The food was pretty good, too, not too oily and fresh vegetables. I found this surprising, especially given the fact that this was a hotel restaurant.

Today was the last class of RBE: Asia, hallelujah! The focus shifted to India, which was interesting as I know a lot less about the country than I probably should. Some of our Indian students (who not surprisingly are all from the top echelons of Indian society both caste-wise and income wise; we have all Brahmins except one Sikh) got quite argumentative about some topics, such as the issues with poverty in India. One student tried to claim that the poor people are happy in their situation, which sounded rather fishy. I kept thinking of my friend Christy's work rescuing prostitutes in Calcutta, where they had some girls whose villages were so poor that the life of a prostitute was preferable than living in the village--the girls had 3 full meals a day, new clothes, their own room and didn't have to work. If there are people in your country who would rather sell themselves than live in their hometowns, there is a serious problem with poverty! Compared to China, India has a much lower GDP per capital and a higher percentage of people living below the poverty line. Additionally, even though very high quality education is available to those who can pay for it, the literacy rate is not that high (60% compared to China's 90%). India still has a lot of growth potential in the world economy. The government's protectionist policies and perceived corruption have been retarding the countries growth, so Goddard emphasized those factors as a reason why India has not grown as quickly as China.

We finished up class FINALLY and broke for the weekend (what's left of it). Tonight I plan to hit up the Wudaokou area with Mike Logan and maybe some karaoke later. Tomorrow we have an arranged tour of the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square. I figure since they are providing transportation and I paid for it, I will be going. More updates to come later!

Here are some photos to tide you over:



The crepe master outside my hotel.



Beijing biker gang! Nikhil and I show off our student bikes. Dig my pink Chuck Taylors!