"Hi Mommy! I can't talk long. I have to work on my social studies project."
"What's your social studies project on?"
"Ancient China."
"You know I'm in China right now."
"Oh yeah!"
He was particularly interested in Chinese food and religion, so I told him during my afternoon shopping expedition, I would look for items that might help him.
This was to be my big day out -- work was through! Mission accomplished! Connie was going to pick me up at the hotel. Connie is the colleague of a father at Highlands School, and he was eager for us to meet. Since she was to be in Beijing that same day, she offered to show me around. I had given her my list of things I would like to do...shopping for antiques or just basic "old" stuff, shopping for books for Highlands School's new Chinese program (!), and shopping for a few things to take back to family.
We started our adventures by heading to an "antique mall" and soon found that the items for sale were out of my price range. Connie, fluent in Chinese, asked someone about an outdoor flea market type place. We walked a few blocks and stumbled onto the perfect place for me to find some FUN things and have a great time doing it!
BARGAINING was the word for the day! Vendors were lined up in rows with low, low tables. The wares varied from old plates and pottery to abacuses, jewelry, Buddhas, religious objects, and real tiger paws! Connie, a turtle collector, bargained for a cricket box made of tiny carved wood pieces -- the bars of the cage were the size of toothpicks, and the cage was shaped like a turtle. She also bought a stone figure with a turtle head and a bat body.
I really wanted a box that had an abacus on the lid for my husband, the mathematician. A good strategy, we had heard, is to bargain for a while and then walk away. So, we tried this, but the box seller did not follow us. We were disappointed. We tried to bargain for some glass dolls, sort of flat and about six inches tall, but when we walked away, the tiny woman did not follow us. Frustrated, we continued and found a religious object used by Tibetan monks called a "prayer wheel."
Connie told me all about the prayer wheel, and I immediately thought that this might help Thomas with his report. We bargained, and the price got closer to the range I was willing to pay; The seller knew I was getting ready to walk, and she held up a bracelet I had been admiring and said to Connie in Chinese, "I'll give a bracelet for free." I said to Connie, "Tell her I need two bracelets for my two tall daughters." So the squatting woman handed me the prayer wheel and two bracelets. I opened my money pouch that had been hidden under my shirt. I paid for the the prayer wheel and the "free" bracelets and said "Shi-Shi."
As we began to walk, a man approached us and began a rapid string of Chinese syllables. Connie said, "He's the abacus box man. He says, 'fine.' You can have it for 120 yuen." So we walked back and picked up the big box, paid cash, and continued walking. Suddenly, we were surrounded by an abacus seller and doll sellers, some with delicate faces and one set with faces of rats! They had figured out we had cash and were willing to buy!
We couldn't move because people were pushing against us pointing a variety of objects near our faces. They were yelling, "Lady, lady, good price." Connie interpreted for me, and I bought two more sets of dolls. Somehow the vendors seemed to know exactly what we were looking for.
I said to Connie, "Do they have some sort of wireless network going? How did this happen?"
We headed to her hotel room, dropped off our great deals and washed our hands, arms, and faces. The wind was blowing pollution,sand and dirt that day, plus the items at the flea market were filthy black. We cleaned up and took a taxi to a restaurant famous for Peking Duck. We ate the moist meat between steamed "biscuits" and "pancakes" that were sort of like thin flour tortillas.
After the duck, we headed to a bookstore to find books for Highlands Library and for the Chinese program. We have recently started a global section for the library with books from around the world in a variety of languages.
The bookstore to me was like a candystore to a child! I was in heaven! We quickly found the children's section and found Harry Potter, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Charlotte's Web, some traditional folktales, workbooks to help learn Chinese, flashcards and pictures, posters and puzzles. We had found fantastic resources for our school, and when the four bags of books and other items were added up, the bill was around 40 US dollars. Abolutely amazing!
As we left the store, Connie and I were talking away, and we didn't notice that a security guard was following us. He tapped Connie on the shoulder and said we should come back to the store, that the alarm had sounded, and he needed to check our receipts and bags. He saw all of our children's books, and I am guessing we did not fit the profile for shoplifters. He checked our receipts, counted items, and declared us legal. By this time, he was smiling at all of our learning materials, and he looked like a friendly guy, so I asked Connie to ask him if I could have my picture made with him. Tell him this is my first time to be stopped by a Chinese policeman. She smilingly told him, and he laughed and posed with me for a picture with his hand in one of the bag of books. It was hilarious! I cannot wait to get the picture from Connie.
A few more stops including Starbucks were in order, and then we quickly ran by Connie's hotel room to drop off the motherload!
Then we headed to the silk market for chops (seals), a suitcase to hold all of the books and other purchases, and pearls.
We ordered the chops, chose some tea mugs and tea accessories, ordered chops for my husband, children, and the chair of the board (who has been so encouraging of Highlands' participation in the China Connection and who made a hilarious joke when she heard about some of the candidates' interest in seal cutting. "Won't that be hard for them to do seeing as how the seal population in Birmingham isn't so great?" I couldn't resist having one ordered for her!) I also ordered strands of pearls and pearl earrings, and then we headed to the basement to buy the suitcase. While we were there, the shops began to close, and all of the "up" escalators stopped working. It was 8:45, and the whole building closed at 9:00, but they wanted people to begin leaving at that point! We climbed up the stopped escalators, Connie leading the way with the big, empty suitcase in hand, convincing the security guard at every escalator from the basement to the sixth floor that we had to get back upstairs to pick up items we had already purchased.
We were out of breath and laughing so hard by the time we got to the sixth floor. At the very top, the security guard did not want to let us through. She spoke to him in Chinese and said, "If you don't believe me, come on with us." He smiled and let us through.
We picked up everything, stuffed my suitcase, and saw the vendors heading to the elevator! Ah-hah! An elevator! Wish we had known!
We climbed in with all of the vendors. Connie told the pearl sellers our story of climbing up the stopped escalators and talking the security guards into letting us return to the top floor. The whole elevator was laughing. What a fun evening. Of course we had to take a few pictures! This is a picture of one of the vendors in the elevator with me!
We topped off the night with sushi from the "best sushi place in all of Beijing" according to Connie. It was delicious, fresh, melting-in-my-mouth-good.
After a trip to Connie's hotel to pick up the other purchases, the taxi dropped me off at my hotel. By this time, it was close to midnight. I settled with the hotel, answered email, packed my suitcases, took a shower, and dressed for my flight. I decided I would take an "afternoon nap" since it was Friday afternoon in Birmingham. Three hours later, I met a car Connie had arranged for me and arrived at the airport by 6:00 a.m.
Thirty hours, two layovers, and three airplanes later, I was hugging my sweet family and trying to tell them a few highlights from the trip.
There's no place like home!
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