Shopping in China is fun!

National Day in China is a pretty big deal. It is an entire week that people get off of work or school to celebrate. By...  um... not going to work or school. Unless of course you are not a teacher then you still go to work. The only other way I saw that people celebrated was by massing together into one gigantic clump to go shopping!

Notice how the traffic is only going one way. I am pretty sure there is only one place people wanted to shop.

I went with a friend to Erqi Guangchang (Erqi square). Apparently this is the place to go if you want to find good deals on clothes and if you want to see a lot of Chinese people. Traffic it seems was only going to one place. Erqi square is in the middle of the city. I can get there in about 10-15 minutes on my bike. It took an hour by bus. Traffic was going slightly slower than walking pace but it was fun to be in a bus and relax before the craziness ensued.

This is in a less crowded area of Erqi square

Once we arrived, we meandered around a bit until my friend could remember the shop where she actually knew the owner. I have the impression we were not the only meanderers.

After flowing through a sea of people, we eventually ended up at a type of distribution mall where you could (supposedly) get clothes for super cheap. I thought it was very interesting being in a mall where basically everything was the same. One floor would have pants with about 20 shops that were nearly identical. Then you would go to another floor with shirts and stores that were identical again. Interesting indeed. I was able to get a few shirts. The cheapest shirts I got were 25RMB each (about $4). They actually ended up being the nicest looking and best fitting shirts... should have gotten more.

I also got a pair of pants (that don't fit too well) for 45 rmb ($7). Although it is nice having more than one pair of pants, I have determined that I am probably not going to find pants that fit well here... (frowny face). I have noticed that a big problem with me shopping here is that I always compare prices in my head with prices from Value Village (Savers) so I rarely think I am getting a spectacular deal.

Um. Yes. Asian kids are WAY cooler than American kids. I mean... those glasses just scream sophistication. 

I think it is important to work on my modeling poses. I wouldn't want to be a model and  look silly because I don't know how to pose correctly.

Walking anywhere in Erqi square was basically like this. 

Yay! I found an Android robot!