Shenzhen in Review-Fake Market Madness, Strolls Along Rivers, and MUN

Hellllllo again my reader friends,

For those of you who have been keeping up, you know that I'm currently on National Holiday Break, meaning I'm getting the chance to travel a bit. As I mentioned, Alex and I have been in Shenzhen (southern China) for the past 5 days teaching Chinese students about Model UN, International Affairs, and various workshops. We've had a bit of cabin fever cause of being in a hotel most of the time, but last night and today we broke out a bit.

We finally went into downtown/bar area of Shenzhen, which turned out to be gorgeous! With a square/"garden" of outdoor bars and clubs, a group of us "teachers"sauntered our way over to one of quieter locations for a round of drinks. Each of the bars was really nice and sort of bled into each other. With fairylights strung from each overhang, sleek chairs, and a sea of people holding pina coladas, daiquiris, and margaritas, it was hard to tell whether we were in the Caribbean or China. I guess that's what happens when you hit southern China; everything becomes more tropical!





Today was a really nice break from teaching lessons too. We finished up classes with our kids at about 11am and headed back to Luohu, which is a massive MASSIVE shopping center. With less than 3 hours to browse, bargain, walk away multiple times, and finally pay, we knew we'd have to be strategic about our shopping trip. Thank goodness we only brought a portion of our salary, otherwise we probably would have spent it all in one go. If you've never been to a fake market, let's just put it this way, it's like a maze of twisting stalls filled with shoes! purses! jeans! coats! dresses! watches! makeup! jewelry! so on forever and ever until the end of time....plus, you have dozens of Chinese shopkeepers swarming you and dragging your arm toward their store. All in all....it's EPIC!

Anyway, we head to Beijing tonight to meet up with some other friends from our program

Hello Shenzhen!

Flying into Shenzhen

Nimen hao!

After spending the night celebrating the start of our break at the Apartment, we managed to survive making our 8:45am flight to Shenzhen on Friday morning. Alex and I flew Air China out of Hongqiao International Airport, which surprisingly wasn't a mob scene! As many of you either know or are able to guess, crowds in China are about as common random people on the street trying to sell you a "Rolex" watch. The ticket counter line moved fast, security was a breeze, and we made it to our gate in time to take a 30minute nap and grab breakfast, which was a egg mcmuffin...yes, I know, why support the global domination of mickey d's? I'll tell you why, 1. it was either that or KFC, 2. real cheese! (none of that random sweet stuff they produce here)...also, there may have been a cup of coffee and hashbrown involved.

Shenzhen

Our flight was pretty normal, except for a random 20minute layover in a city called Jingdezhen. We had no idea that this layover existed, so as the plane descended almost 2 hours ahead of schedule, we were a bit confused. Luckily we finally got the message that we were supposed to disembark for our odd 20 minute layover and then quickly return.

Shenzhen is gorgeous! It's apparently like a smaller version of Singapore; with palm trees, tropical flowers, and temperatures that are currently around 86/90 (which is going to make going to Harbin where it's 30deg a be a traumatizing experience). We're only here for 5 days, but the hotel is really nice and the food is pretty great; so even though we're technically working for GMUNC, it's like a mini vacation.

Shenzhen

Yesterday, after a team meeting, a group of us went to Luohu Shopping center. Now, if you didn't already know, China's like the bargaining/fake capital of the world; and since we're so close to Hong Kong, the quality, variety, and overall craziness of shopping in a knock off market is pretty much incomparable to anything else. We went with the intent of spending 2-3hours, and somehow managed to stay from about 3:30pm-11pm! Let me say though, it was epic. From shoes, to bags, to trench coats, to iphones, to 3hrs massages for 100rmb, and 10rmb pedicures, it's madness!! 

We also grabbed dinner at said knock off superstore. A Chinese man who had been stalking us screaming "missies! gucci! prada! shoes! purses!" for the past five minutes showed us to a restaurant and then proceeded to drag us to his boss's shop while we waiting for a table. The shop was pretty nice. It's amazing how much detail/organization goes into the fake market operation. There are the people to lure you in, the sales people who try to sell you everything, the runners who go to the warehouses to get the best fake stuff (because, yes, there are different levels/qualities of fake everything), and then the owners who you struggle to negotiate with! But anyway, the dinner was pretty amazing too! We had cauliflaouer with corn and this clay pot rice dish with meat and veggies :)

Claypot Rice

Hope everyone's enjoying the start of fall! I'm sort of sad I'm missing the start of Pumpkin Spice season haha.
 <3 from china,

Peking Duck in Shenzhen

e

。。。I'm getting bad at this blogging thing

Hello everyone...

Long time no blog? I think yes...does that mean I've been eaten alive by Chinese words and captivated by the intensity of Shanghai's culture and nightlife: most definitely. Anyway, these past two weeks have been pretty epic (and random as usual). With classes picking up and Chinese words fogging our brains, we're managing to assimilate to the crazy culture of learning Chinese. They've sort of indoctrinated us into speaking Chinese nonstop. Like, we had to sign language pledges, so in certain places we MUST speak in Chinese (there are signs up everywhere that say "language cop on duty"), I know...super scary. But,  with all of this forced language usage, the group of us are starting to really embrace the nuances of "Chinglish." An example, if you will: "You're so mafan!" Or, on one particular night when we got locked out of the back gate because it was passed 12am, a scream of "I've got the HouMen floor on me!"

In addition to the quirkiness of Chinglish, we've taken to using our nights for walking around the area near the Houmen (back gate). There are storefronts ranging from dumpling houses, to stuffed animal bazaars, to random racks of sweaters, dresses, and pantyhose. Chinese fashion is one of those things you just can't quite put a finger on. On one hand, some of the cutesy frills and bright colors can actually enhance a person's appearance. On another, giant bows and lacy puff sleeves a
Therefore, as we were walking into the 6th shop to look at clothes, we determined that "Chinese stores are strange, you see the clothing and you think 'oh! that looks like a good shop, let's go in' and then next thing you know they've ruined the clothes by putting sequins in the armpit or something!" As of now, Alex and I have dubbed stores that boast traditional Chinese styles as "Sequins under the armpit" stores.

Tomorrow is the start of our October break (National Holiday), which means we get a week off of classes to travel. Alex and I are first heading to Shenzhen (south China) to work/relax at GMUNC (similar to WEMUN for all of you MUN people out there). After that we're meeting up with Meagan, Amay, and Nate in Beijing and then heading up to Harbin. Per usual, spontinaity is the theme of our vacation considering the original plan was for GMUNC to be held in Beijing, but then to "political tension" it was moved 1000+miles south to a more "western environment." Go China! Either way, we'll get to see some pretty awesome areas. Although, I think our Chinese teachers think we're "silly Americans" who don't know geography since Alex and I are literally hitting up about as far south as we can go to then fly up to almost Russian territory.

I'll try to be more renzhen (serious) about posting!



-e