Saturday’s are always busy run around days for us. Today we took some clothes over to the seamstress/laundress on the old campus to be repaired and or taken in. She was able to take care of my skirt while we waited this morning and Chuck’s pants and shirt will be done by the time I go back this afternoon and get them. We also have a quilt that we need to get washed, it was way to big for our machines and I wouldn't hang it on our lines for fear that the lines would snap and then we’d be out of a place to dry our clothing. After we dropped our things off we headed of the campus, I got into a minor accident with a motor scooter on campus, no one was hurt though I was concerned for his little ones safety in the incident. I was shaken up but not hurt.
Across the street from the old campus there was a Grand Opening. I have a flyer from it and will use that to help with reading Chinese. What got our attention is the song ‘Gangnam Style’ for which there is a YouTube and YouKu video for, played. We went over and as best I can tell, the store that was having the grand opening sells candied jujubes. These are a fruit similar to a date in taste, and are in fact called Chinese dates, they are very popular here. We spent about 45 minutes at the Grand Opening, they had models come out in evening gowns and show what the store sells and they had some entertainment from a two dance groups and a talk show/game show kind of thing. After that, they had members from the audience to come up and try to read something in Chinese for a prize. We did not volunteer to read aloud Chinese. We did get lots of free jujubes that we have been giving away to people that we meet. As we were getting ready to go into the store they started to play ‘Gangnam Style’ again and Nate started to do the dance moves from the video. The Chinese around us were all laughing and cheering him on, then two Chinese guys started doing other dance sequences from the video and on even did break dancing to the very end of the song. Once in the store we saw the “promotions”. Everything here is all about getting something for free for spending a large amount of Yuan’s in a store. There was a girl who was taking pictures of the American’s in the store so I got my camera out and took a picture of her, she then had her friend take a picture of us together and I passed my camera to Chuck and had him take the picture too. After all that we started to go and as I left the store one of the sales clerks gave me lots of free jujubes, the ones we have been giving away today.
After our stop at the Grand Opening, we started on our bike tour. Chuck had seen a market on Tongbai Lu across from one of the stops the bus makes on the way from the New Campus back to this part of town. We made a large loop down Songshan Nanlu making a left on Zhongyuan Zhonglu, then a right on an unnamed street¸ down two blocks and a left onto Youbai Lu past the Gongren Lu Market turning right on another unnamed street and turning left on Jianshe Lu, the another left on Tongbai Lu to check out the market Chuck had seen. I have pictures but it was more food stalls and some clothes not much else. After checking out the market we rode down Tongbai to the intersection of Longhai Xilu and Tongbai Lu. Chuck got lunch for us at a food cart there. It is amazing to me that the Chinese are so small with the large portions of food that you get at the food carts. What was meant for one person was enough for Chuck and I to eat, Nate wasn't hungry, but we did get another serving so you moms out there won’t think we are bad parents. After we got the food we hit the road and started back to the apartment. We will chill here until later today and then go and get the things at the seamstress’s.
Across the street from the old campus there was a Grand Opening. I have a flyer from it and will use that to help with reading Chinese. What got our attention is the song ‘Gangnam Style’ for which there is a YouTube and YouKu video for, played. We went over and as best I can tell, the store that was having the grand opening sells candied jujubes. These are a fruit similar to a date in taste, and are in fact called Chinese dates, they are very popular here. We spent about 45 minutes at the Grand Opening, they had models come out in evening gowns and show what the store sells and they had some entertainment from a two dance groups and a talk show/game show kind of thing. After that, they had members from the audience to come up and try to read something in Chinese for a prize. We did not volunteer to read aloud Chinese. We did get lots of free jujubes that we have been giving away to people that we meet. As we were getting ready to go into the store they started to play ‘Gangnam Style’ again and Nate started to do the dance moves from the video. The Chinese around us were all laughing and cheering him on, then two Chinese guys started doing other dance sequences from the video and on even did break dancing to the very end of the song. Once in the store we saw the “promotions”. Everything here is all about getting something for free for spending a large amount of Yuan’s in a store. There was a girl who was taking pictures of the American’s in the store so I got my camera out and took a picture of her, she then had her friend take a picture of us together and I passed my camera to Chuck and had him take the picture too. After all that we started to go and as I left the store one of the sales clerks gave me lots of free jujubes, the ones we have been giving away today.
After our stop at the Grand Opening, we started on our bike tour. Chuck had seen a market on Tongbai Lu across from one of the stops the bus makes on the way from the New Campus back to this part of town. We made a large loop down Songshan Nanlu making a left on Zhongyuan Zhonglu, then a right on an unnamed street¸ down two blocks and a left onto Youbai Lu past the Gongren Lu Market turning right on another unnamed street and turning left on Jianshe Lu, the another left on Tongbai Lu to check out the market Chuck had seen. I have pictures but it was more food stalls and some clothes not much else. After checking out the market we rode down Tongbai to the intersection of Longhai Xilu and Tongbai Lu. Chuck got lunch for us at a food cart there. It is amazing to me that the Chinese are so small with the large portions of food that you get at the food carts. What was meant for one person was enough for Chuck and I to eat, Nate wasn't hungry, but we did get another serving so you moms out there won’t think we are bad parents. After we got the food we hit the road and started back to the apartment. We will chill here until later today and then go and get the things at the seamstress’s.