So, we have been here for less than 24 hours and we have all already developed a cough. Want to see why?
No, our windows are not dirty, it is not a foggy day and there is not a massive dust storm happening. THAT IS THE AIR. There a lot of factories here and China doesn't have environmental regulations like the United States. So basically, this is why the EPA is a good thing, people. So if I sound like a chain smoker when I get back, you all know why.
Remember how I said this city didn't feel like a city? Yeah that was because I didn't see all of it/understand that it is a super hidden secret huge city. I will explain this later. For now, let's talk about some awesome Chinese Christmas Decorations. This, is in our hotel lobby:
Yep, it's a castle with an ice ramp that turns into a stuffed animal information highway that ends in a satellite. And next to this towering structure are Winnie the Pooh and friends, and a rocket ship. Um. What.
I really enjoy that Winnie's face is colored on with a marker. Also please take a moment to notice the Santa with angel wings in the background.
Our group today was Dad, Mom, Olivia, Angela, Andy, Wong Fei (His American name is Louis), and myself. We all piled into a van/bus and were off to shop.
How adorable is Andy? SO ADORABLE This is probably the most he sat still all day...
Louis took us to a very fancy shopping mall, called FutureMall, which was cool to see, but too fancy. It was all Burberry, Coach, Louis Vuitton and other fancy brand names that are actually cheaper in the states. We walked around for a bit and then Louis decided to take us to "The Biggest Wholesale Market in China". On our way out I discovered this gem:
A lot of American Celebrities choose to "sell out" in Asia because the advertisements aren't seen in the US so no one really finds out about them. Nicolas Cage is the king of this.
Have you ever seen that many bikes parked? It's absurd. Now imagine all of them driving in traffic with you.
All the little kids here have stupidly adorable animals on their coats. Check out this little guy's mouse hood. Too cute. As you may have noticed, bicycle and motorbike transportation is very popular here. They have even more variations:
This is a motorbike with a van-like shell over it. There is room for two people behind the driver. I think this one is a taxi because it is has advertising on the side, but a lot of them appear to be personal vehicles as well.
This is the motorbike with a trailer approach. This is a pretty normal one but you see these guys with 20 feet of hay or dead pigs stacked behind them as well.
After driving a bit we got to the wholesale market. Which was basically like a mall with a lot of whole sale traditional Chinese goods in it. I mean, it was a large mall by American standards, but I couldn't see it being the biggest in all of China. We bought some presents for people and wandered about for a bit.
Look at this little guy. Also the lovely broken exit sign behind him. The shop owners in the wholesale market just let their kids roam freely throughout their floor. The other shop owners will entertain them and look after them. This guy was just toddling about on his own, when he saw us he just stopped and stared. Foreign people are definitely not as common here as they are in Beijing.
This is a freaking huge live cricket. The lady in the store just had this jar chilling on her desk. She tried to pull him out of there so my dad could hold him, but I'm glad he wouldn't come out. If this thing jumped on me I might have a heart attack. After we were done shopping here Louis said he would take us to a toy store. We walked down several blocks of shops and eventually came to this:
So when I saw this I was basically like "Um, why would we ever go in there, clearly only fish heads or murder could lie beyond that plastic curtain?" Then we walked through the curtain and down an equally sketchy hallway, where we came to this:
WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM??? Okay, now I believe that this is the largest wholesale market in China. Because, remember how I said we walked several blocks to get here? Those "little shops" on those blocks weren't little shops. They lead to more of these CRAZY STUPID HUGE MALL THINGS. You think this picture looks big? This isn't even half of this toy mall. It is probably larger than the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, it snakes on forever down millions of hallways. And this is just the toy mart, there are blocks and blocks of these for teapots, chopsticks, clothes and god only knows what else. After marveling at the sheer size of this we went into a stuffed toy shop. Which looked like this:
Literally every inch of this place is covered with merchandise. And it's not just a little square store, it has its own hallways and separate rooms.
I don't even comprehend the sheer amount of merchandise that is in this place.
After shopping we drove in traffic for an hour to go to a hotel that had a "western style" restaurant. Meaning that it had pizza for my mom and sister to eat. They did have Chinese dishes as well so I had some delicious fried rice with eel. Now, I apologize for the bad photo quality but I had to show you this Chinese Pizza:
That red thing is a cherry on top. All of the pizza that was ordered had a cherry on top O_o
And that was our first day in Shijiazhuang! For now I will leave you with this exercise safety sign that is in our hotel room:
OH BY THE BY: So as you may know, China has censored internet. This means I can't go on Twitter, Facebook or even this blog while I am here, because lots of websites are illegal and blocked here. So if you are trying to get in touch with me via those things, it's just not going to work. Sorry! If you would like to get in contact with me send me an email to emily@sproots.net
And if you are wondering how I am updating this blog while I don't have access to Blogger, everyone say thank you to Chad who is letting me email him these posts and then he is putting them up for me!
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