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!

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!