Bucci is an outdoor art gallery, with all kinds of different artist's shops that go for blocks and blocks. We didn't buy anything, but it was fascinating to look around. Some of those artists were phenomenal! Some of the wives take family photos there and have an artist paint the photo, and I saw some of the finished products, and it was absolutely amazing. They truly look almost exactly like a photograph. I also heard that some women in the branch have had the paintings of Christ holding children 'copied' with their children's faces inserted. That's definitely on my list of things to get when Jayden is a little older/we have more kids.
Yes, that is a painting of a naked lady that I blurred out.
We ate at this noodle place that was like $2 a person, and it was really quite tasty!
You know you're dining in luxury when your napkins turn out to really be a toilet paper roll disguised in this super fancy plastic container!
Luohu is a shopping center that's basically a 6 or so story mall that's full of little swap meet type stores that sell all kinds of things. It's quite overwhelming at first, because a lot of the stores sell the same types of things, and it's all negotiating. I had a specific list of things, probably only went to 7 different stores, went with two hard core shoppers who knew what they were doing, and we were still there for over 5 hours! It was a LONG day, and was exhausting. But I did get some good bargains!
This is a jewelry store, and yes, those are pearls covering the walls and in those bags on the floor. And yes, they are real. You pick out the pearls you want, tell or show them a picture of what you want, how long of a strand, style, etc., and they make it for you right there. I'd post pictures of what I bought, but with Mother's Day, birthdays and whatnot coming up, I can't.
This is just one section of the jewelry floor.
This is one of the hallways. That's Monica in the brown shirt. She's from Spain. She's one of the pilot's wives; her husband Doug has been with the company ever since I've known Brian. She is a lot of fun-a hard core shopper and negotiator. She got me a Coach purse for $20! Of course, as I was looking at the purses (you pick a few out of a catalog that you'd like to look at, and then they go get them, and you go behind the counter to decide which one you want) the police came by and all the shopkeepers were amazingly fast at hiding certain things. I guess the police come looking for certain things at different times; this time it was Louis Vuitton.
Carrie also has a favorite DVD shop. It's in a mall like this one, but you go down a deserted hallway to a door that looks like a door to a grungy closet or something. Anyway, you knock, and they let you in to a Blockbuster store of DVDs and series sets that cost about $1 a disk. It's one of those places that you'd never know it was there unless someone shows you. There are tons of DVD stores, and people even sell DVDs from their bikes on the street, but apparently this place has really good quality.
Now that I'm going into such detail about the shady dealings in China, I'm grateful my Laurels don't read my blog...
Oh well...going on...some of the Chinese are more aggressive than others. They'd call out to you as you walked by, saying "What you looking for?" "What you need?" "I have what you need!", and my favorite, "Missy! Missy! Come see!" It was like walking the strip in Vegas-look straight ahead, don't make eye contact, and keep your hands to yourself.
Some of them would follow us onto the escalators asking us what we were looking for and what they could help us find. Carrie's response was that she was looking for her husband.
Here's a pic of the swarm of Chinese women watching Carrie feed Jayden. One thing I definitely noticed about the Chinese culture is that there are no boundaries when it comes to a blonde American baby boy. So many people came up to us, scolding me for not dressing him warm enough (they bundle their babies in snowsuits, it's a wonder the babies don't get dehydrated in that humid weather) and wanting to hold him. Even though I understood them, not speaking the language made it easier for me to ignore them and say no. Jayden liked all the attention, he's such a flirt, but I got tired of it.
I couldn't pass up this photo of Moni trying on this dress. Nice look!
Yay for shopping in China!
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