I have a new found appreciation for hats. I never understood before why women were really into hats, but I get it now. On really sunny days, it's really nice to have one, and a good hat is really worth the money. I remember seeing advice somewhere that "one 20 dollar umbrella will last longer than four five dollar umbrellas." I think this is true for hats too. My mother bought me a 40 dollar sun hat, which I thought was a lot, since I had bought other woven straw hats for five or ten dollars. This hat however, is amazing. It's now one of my favorite items. It folds without the straw getting messed up, and retains its shape, even after having been scrunched up in my bag for so long. It also just looks a lot nicer, it's a bit heavier so stays on my head better. Supposedly it's also spf 50. The sun in Beijing is very strong, though it does not always appear to be since there is quite a bit of pollution and the sky usually looks a bit hazy. Wearing a hat has been really helpful here.
Today I went to the Pearl Market. We have gone to a lot of markets since my American friend leaves China tonight. Pearl Market sells a lot of stuff targeted to tourists, but also is famous for wholesale for freshwater pearls. The pearls are separated based on categories, with the cheapest strands going for about 100 Rmb, or 17 USD. They are still pretty, but have small deformities, such a little dents, irregular shaping, or discoloration. The high end pearls can go into the thousands easily. They are kept under a glass case, and they are perfectly round and they gleam as though they are emitting a light of their own. Shades range from pure white to black that shines with violet and green. My favorite are the pink, yellow and purple ones. There are gray pearls too.
I bought a simple strand of pearls from a man who is clearly quite cynical about his own countrymen. "Are you Korean?" He asked me. I said no, and he said, "oh, I figured you were probably Korean because you are pretty, or Japanese because you are so polite, not Chinese." Anyhow, he made a necklace for me on the spot with the pearls that I had bought. I am considering buying some more, because the prices here are vey good, but I rarely wear necklaces so maybe I shouldn't.
For a long time, my iPhone had no case. I had just bought one, thankfully, because today I dropped my phone somewhere really gross in the bathroom. It was a fairly clean bathroom, but still. Luckily it landed right on the case, so I just took the case off and threw it away. Cases here are pretty cheap, so I will get another.
After the Pearl Market, we went back to silk street. On the third floor, you can buy fabric! And there is a lot of gorgeous, gorgeous Chinese fabric. I was overwhelmed so I actually bought nothing, but I plan to go back and clean house. You can also have a qipao or suit custom made. I am a bit sad because I have come to accept that I don't really look good in qipaos. The cut and the neckline simple are not very flattering on me. It's okay because there are other things that I do look good in, but I've always wanted to look good in qipaos. Maybe I need to check out other types of Chinese traditional clothing.
For dinner, we went to a Yunnan restaurant, and had a flat fish called turbot, mushrooms, loofah, and pork belly. My friends ordered something with durian, which I hate, and lied to me and said it was mango. One of them thought I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but mango and durian have very different flavors. For those who have not had durian, imagine if you managed to capture the stench of rotting garbage and put it into a squishy yellow fruit. That is durian. It's so bad that it is banned from hotels in Singapore. Those who love it probably enjoy the faces that people who hate it make when they are tricked into eating it. I took a bite and immediately thought that this mango had gone rancid, or the milk they used was rotten. "How is the ice cream??" They asked me eagerly.
"There is durian in here," I said, disgusted. Even though I had my own dessert, rose with aloe, later I could still taste the durian whenever I burped. Gross.
I bought a pair of sunglasses today, green ones to match my earrings. They were trying to sell them a lot because apparently they are a very good fake pair of ray bans (not even sure if I spelled that right), and from their new catalogue. I don't really care that they are ray bans, I just wanted a pair of green sunglasses, so I was able to negotiate the price down by a lot because I was willing to walk away. They said, "I'm giving you a better price because you speak Chinese, if you were white I would have charged you double." Notably however, my Chinese friend said that they actually charge Chinese people more at these markets because Chinese people are used to paying a lot for stuff now. Foreigners come here and expect everything to be cheap, so they are not willing to pay that much supposedly. It depends on the market. She warned me not to go to the antiques market by myself because I would "definitely get ripped off."
Shopping in China is really nice though, because they actually do use really good materials now, and it is still a lot cheaper. In particular, they have some very high quality leather goods and textiles. "Real leather!" A shop owner would say, taking a lighter and running the flame along the bag. "If plastic it would burn, but it doesn't!"
Also, lots of jewelry and precious stones too.
On our way home, we almost ran out of gas, because traffic was so bad that we were stuck longer than we thought. "Your gas light is on!" I said.
"Don't worry, I do this all the time," said my friend.
We managed to make it, and now are on our way to the airport to drop off my other friend.
I can still taste the durian in my mouth.
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