Nov 30 2013: Repeat Qingyan

Last day of November! Holy cow, time has been flying by. It’s been ridiculous.

At least we’re using our time mostly well!

Anyways, my alarm went off a little after six in the morning, as did Katie’s alarm. Soon we were up and running around, trying to get out the door before seven. We did, and realized Magi was late as well. Luckily we caught up a minute later and made it onto the bus in time!

It was so cute, Magi was dressed up in a huge winter puffy jacket with a big backpack, and Katie and I were in our casual jackets and smaller bags. But still, it was well. There wasn’t too much traffic being early that morning [the sun wasn’t up by the time we got on the bus], so we got to our destination fairly quickly [we almost forgot which one it was, but the announcement on the bus said Hubin Park which was perfect]. So we got off, and got the fried spicy patty things- well, Magi and I did. Then Katie got a big dumpling, and we reached the 210 bus for Ancient Town just in time to leave at 8 AM.

We couldn’t see the sky or sun when we reached our destination forty minutes later. Still cloudy unfortunately- and very early!

America would be rarin’ to go at 9 on a Saturday. And then we remembered we’re not in America. The grocery store doesn’t open until after 8, I believe, on our street. So most of it was still closed!

To be noted, I wanted to get some cheap art- Abby had read the sign or talked to the lady at one of the small art shops there that they sell pieces at 20 RMB earlier in the day. We’d been there about 12, so I had wanted to make sure we’d be there early enough. Reasonable, right?

It took us a while to actually get there, because it was Magi’s first time and she wanted to go through just about every shop… and though most of them weren’t open, there were still quite a few to run into on the way. More than plenty, actually. Finally she understood we had a point, and we walked in that direction. I didn’t even recognize the stop I wanted- because the shop wasn’t open!

Closed. We figured maybe it really was too early. Trying not to be disappointed, we brightly turned back around and back to the main street with the shops to enjoy. The art wasn’t the only thing I wanted to buy, after all. Onward we walked, enjoying the very cold morning and lots of fun shopping possibilities.

As we soon came to find- Magi is very pushy about a few things, but it really helps when bargain hunting! She’s awesome.

And man she pushes for a bargain. We ended up finding a shop- we went back again at one point because the shop owner wasn’t even around [seriously? Leaving a shop open without anyone there?], but when we came around again, she soon realized she had customers. We asked the prices for a skirt and dress. 

Together they would have been up to 180 together, I think the asking price was- but Magi pushed until she got it down to 110 for us girls, which was pretty awesome! So I got this skirt/dress in green with a gold peacock! Very awesome! And Katie got a long green and black dress. I also found a bag and it was to be 25, which was twice as cheap as I was thinking it would be. I asked Magi to push it down to 20, which would be beyond perfect… and the little devil got it worked down to 15!

See? I would never do that, I don’t have the guts to push strangers like that. And the prices are fairly reasonable. But it’s pretty cool to watch, very impressive! So we walked out and it was pretty sweet, enjoying our purchases.

We moved on. We wandered through shops, buying more Christmas gifts and stuff, taking a few pictures, and we returned twice to the art shop.

Magi finally asked the few people nearby if it might open. The lady nearby was the mother of the owner and opened it up for us! Super nice. That’s where it came in so handy having a Chinese friend. There was price confusion then, because none of it was 20 RMB even in the morning, which sucked. We asked about prices and stuff and spent the longest time working on bargaining down some scroll art from 50 a piece.

Which isn’t terrible, but it was still more than we wanted to spend! We ended up about to walk off, when the younger owner came through, and agreed to 35 a piece- after all, Katie and I had promised to buy 2 each. And Magi agreed to get one, too!

Katie took the cutest one, a girl playing a flute. I took the next best, a phoenix! It was so brilliant! Then I even got a discount because there was a stain on the back.  We spent a little while going through extra scrolls for my second one and plus one for Magi. It took a while and I felt bad, so I finally picked a good one before letting Magi finish up.

Side note: Don’t know if I mentioned last time, but the area Qingyan is well known for their famous blue and white dyed art. It’s very lovely! Very lovely!

Ummm, yeah. Lots of shopping. A decent amount of bargaining- even when they had prices tagged everywhere, we usually got things talked down at least 5 RMB or so. Go Magi! Haha…

Finally we were all getting tired and we’d gone around in so many circles, seriously. We ran over several shops, back and forth and so on. It was about 1 when we decided we were tired, and finally left on the bus. There wasn’t too bad a line and got a good seat as we headed back into town.

Which was cold, by the way. The whole day was freakishly cold and Katie and I didn’t appreciate it. Also, we were hungry. We hadn’t eaten since before getting on the 210 bus. Well, I hadn’t finished my fried thing so I finished that in the Town, but that doesn’t really count.

Magi helped us try and get the same hot dog wraps as before… except I think it was double the price and it was carnitas meat and not a hot dog. I’m not really sure.  But! It was still really tasty, and that’s the important thing, right? We walked down a ways to find something Magi would like, and just ended up getting another fried thing from before- Katie and I ate part of one, too.

She was tired [she was wearing heeled boots so I don’t blame her], so we decided to take the bus. Katie and I had intended on being out all day but it was too cold to do shopping. But I figured we should hit up the DVD store to give us some more time in town since it was only 2 and we’d get so bored otherwise.

The sweetie she is, Magi was concerned for us getting out into town with it cold and sprinkling, but we promised her we knew what we were doing, and climbed off at our stop. And right next to it was the underpass for the DVD’s! Yay!

We hurried under, and paused to look at tights before turning right and stepping over to the DVD shop. Thirty minutes passed before we left, I think, because I know I went through just about every single pile of English movies [non Blue-Ray]. Plus the 1 RMB movies, too! Seriously. Crazy stuff.

I ended up getting more than planned, unfortunately. But still important, since two of them were gifts. That way, I technically spent hardly anything over my budget. And since we’re buying so many, they’re giving us the 1 RMB movies for free. Super sweet, right??

Anyways we caught the next bus ride home. We stood most of the way.  One lady didn’t get off at her stop and started kicking the back door and yelling and going nuts [Katie saw it better than I], but the bus driver- definitely grumpy because his driving sucked- refused to do anything until his next stop. Rude, I know… Anyways, we climbed towards the back, got pushed by some old lady who demanded a seat, and then ended up getting seats together a minute later!

Getting off the bus, we stopped at the store for some carbonation [weird craving on very rare occasion], and then we headed back to our apartment, immediately turning on the heater! Hallelujah!

We went through all our new movies, talked for a bit, worked on our budgets, and then started a movie: R.I.P.D. Which wasn’t too bad! Neither of us had seen it but we wanted to check it out so I bought it. Not too shabby. Kinda odd, but whatever…

Time for a break then. We dug into Thanksgiving left overs [yum!], and then I pulled out everything I had bought here and was taking home. Freaking load of stuff! Lots of random things, too. It’s pretty awesome, seriously. And I was just about done with all my Christmas shopping, thanks to our Ancient Town trip! It was awesome and so perfect, thank goodness. I got a few notes written down about the past and for the future before lightly packing it all away [would fit perfectly in my large suitcase, leaving me to fill up my carry on and backpack], and then getting ready for one more movie, 10,000 B.C.

Which was a bit slow, but pretty decent, overall!

And after a long busy day, I laid around in bed for like two hours, just thinking- only one more month in China!- before nodding off to sleep.