Zheng Zhou Shopping Trip

On Saturday we were able to head into the capital city of Henan Province, Zheng Zhou for a shopping trip.  They have a few western things there, like Wal-Mart, Metro (a foreign goods import store in bulk, kind of like Costco), and Dairy Queen (real ice cream!).  They also have a huge technology market, outdoor fashion market, and fabric market.  So many things to do, and so little time.

The bus ride took 1.5 hours and I got to sit with one of the Chinese culture students named Jessica.  We've been hanging out quite a bit during the cultural activities, and I like her a lot.  So, we talked and folded cranes, and she volunteers at an orphanage on fridays and I want to go with her.  One of the other foreign teachers leads the program and I'm excited to start volunteering there.

We made it to Zheng Zhou and went en masse to the technology market.  Since I will be teaching an academic class, I need a USB flash drive to take my power point files to class.  I also wanted to get a wireless router so I can use my iPad and computer anywhere in my appartment.  I was able to find both, the first costing me 50 RMB ($7) for a 4 GB drive and 120 RMB ($18) for the wireless router.  Sure, the instructions are all in Chinese, but we figured it out and now its up and running. 

Note: RMB is the shorthand for the offical Chinese term for their currency, which is yuan.  On the street, yuan are called kuai.  RMB = yuan = kuai.  Just in case I use all three terms, I don't want you to be confused.

We took the bus in the city, which only cost 1 RMB ($0.14) and it was cramped.  Top row left to right: Winston, Seth, Nick.  Bottom three: Erin, Michael, Jessica (who I sat next to on the bus).

Then we headed back to the shopping mall for Indian food for lunch.  Most of the Chinese students had never had Indian food before, so I ordered some things that I liked (paneer naan and chicken tikka masala) and found out that our Chinese students really just like Chinese food the best.  There were mixed reactions to the curry (more for me!) and we had a discussion about American food and international food.  They were surprised that I ate Indian food so often (once a week with Mom in the U District during school) and we tried to hash out what was really American food and what was food brought in by other countries.  I decided that pie was really a truly American food (thanks to pioneer women) as well as hamburgers.  We have a lot of American style foods, but few that didn't originate from somewhere else.

Anyway, we did see some interesting street food (I will do a whole post of street food later) but I had never seen this before, and certainly not near Sias.  I think its a pretty cool way of serving melon, it almost makes me wish I like eating it.

After lunch we went to Wal-Mart so I could buy butter to bake some stuff (which I won't do for a while, but its more of a security blanket than anything because I feel better just knowing that it's in the freezer section of my mini-fridge.)  However, I was shocked how much butter was compared to other Chinese things.  To give you a comparison:  a bottle of water costs 1 RMB ($0.14) and a bag of chips is 3 RMB ($0.42) and 20 pork dumplings are 6 RMB ($0.85) and a really nice meal cost 20 RMB ($2.85) and one block of butter costs 25 RMB ($3.50).  That is the normal American price for butter, but in China it's shockingly expensive.  I bought coffee too, which was also expensive (50 RMB) and GUINESS!!!! which was 10 RMB a bottle compared to the Chinese brand Tsing Tao which was 3.5 RMB a bottle.  So for the most part I'm sticking to Chinese things, but I'll splurge every once in a while on coffee, real stout, and butter.

After Wal-Mart and a quick stop at Dairy Queen for real ice cream (Chinese ice cream has a weird taste and texture, its not made with real dairy and doesn't taste as good) we came to this open market to look for things like sunglasses and earrings and fake purses, etc.  I got a pretty swanky pair of white aviators for 15 RMB ($2.14) and resolved to come back for a purse that I really liked. 

The only thing that I haven't really found is a foam pad for my almost rock-hard bed.  Maybe I'll buy a whole bunch of pillows and sew them together (puts a whole new meaning on the term "pillow top").  We'll see.

More to come!