Sleepy in Beijing

It's late, but I wanted to post a few pictures of a fun day. Today we ate a late breakfast at our hutong guest house (Red Lantern House, West Yard) and then headed out to do the last exploration/shopping excursion in Beijing. We headed out on the subway to the Silk Market. It was not exactly what I expected. It was just like the market in Baguio, except the vendors, shall I say, are intimidatingly aggressive if you are not accustomed to ignoring sales people. You could say they are somewhat like multi-level marketers on speed. If you dare mention a word (chopsticks, scarf, underwear), someone will yell at you and then get very close to you, "You buy chop-a-sticka? I have! You come looka-looka. What color you want? Wood? Metal?" and it doesn't stop there. It's like they send a memo down the aisle and they keep getting louder and closer to you. I thought it was quite humorous that Jonathan started through a monstrous fit in the purse section. Jonathan and Kimmer now share a common sentiment, "Get me OUT of the purse section! And, NO, I do not want a man-bag!" I found the harassment more like an adventure race of weaving through crowds in search of finding the ONE salesperson who will actually give you a decent deal on some junk (OK, some of it is good stuff, but there are a LOT of fakes, too). We were able to find Kathleen and Jonathan's Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) outfits for the next few years. Of course, I just had to buy Kathleen a bigger sized "Burberry" dress to replace the one she has and loves. And Jonathan got his first suit. He even looked through the shirts to see what he could find. We actually got to the SILK section of the market and the hounding was so intense I decided to jump up and do a karate kick saying, "I want karate outfit!" The sales girls jumped back, laughed and said, "You a Bruce Lee!" (If they only knew!)

From the market, we had lunch and headed down the street to find a bookstore the Lonely Planet said had great children's books and best selection of foreign fiction. Unfortunately, it seems they had to downsize terribly - maybe a result of the bad economy. Books are not inexpensive commodities in China. If I can, I always like to pick up a book on where we have been, especially if it is related to children or written for children. Last time, we bought the coffee table book, China, a photo essay on the great country and it's beauty. We didn't find anything as good as that one this time, but we did get a photo book called, Children of China. Kimmer was able to find a book for the plane trip home and I knew I would be on duty on the airplane, so I opt to use any free time to sleep! The Place, the mall where the bookstore was located, was actually a fabulous mall with some great shops. We strolled around a bit and then found a Chinese restaurant where we were able to eat an early dinner. I have discovered that in pretty much every mall in Asia you can find a place where your kids can play for free or a nominal charge. We found Gymboree in Nanchang. And here we found three different options: sand play area (with structures and sand toys), electronic zone (video games and kid-related electronic items), or a scaled down amusement park setting. Knowing our children we went with SAND! And they loved it! Kathleen made friends with some of the girls. And Jonathan demonstrated his brute strength as he scaled up the climbing area and slid down slide without any help! I was pretty impressed with how he found finger holds without any help. Rock climbing may be a good thing for him!!! Kimmer was kind enough to get me a Starbucks while I played in the sand with the kids. What a good husband! He knows the way to my heart!

We get much fewer stares in Beijing and it was nice for Kathleen to be out of the market where all the Chinese would touch her and say how beautiful she was. It's beginning to ware on her and frustrate her. The subway, though, she still gets a lot of attention. As much as I don't want her to be touched and stared at, I feel so proud that the Chinese find her so beautiful. One mother at the sand area said, "Your daughter is so beautiful. She has big eyes and beautiful smile." It made me proud and then I responded, "That's because she is Chinese. Her beauty comes from China!" We had to ride back to our hutong at the tail end of rush hour and the first subway was PACKED. At one point, a man in a nice suit knelt down to talk with Kathleen and Kimmer got a little nervous. The man took out his ID card and he was a government official. He put Kimmer at ease and the gentleman was very impressed with Kathleen. Jonathan and I were at the other end of the car because of the crowds.

We meet nice, gentle and helpful people everywhere we go in China. Kimmer and I were sitting talking this evening in the courtyard of what Kathleen calls our Chinese house and we both agreed that right now...we don't want to leave. The only reason we want to get home is to give the children routine and a schedule that will help both of them in so many ways.