The Black Market, Chinese Spa, Pizza Hut and Friendship
By: Coach Bastian ~ August 31, 2011
Well… It’s 4:30 in the morning and I’m listening to the Chicago Cubs/Giants game. I’m not sure what my body’s clock is doing…..
I’ve lost a little track of time. The last couple of days have been somewhat eventful. I chose to do a shopping day at the Hongqiao Pearl Market area. Interesting to note that they have the area of the international market that is open to the public and everybody, but through relationships and friendships, I’ve been able to find kind of the black market/underground Chinese market, which is highly secured. You have to walk through the back streets of the hutong area of Beijing until you come to basically a warehouse that has armored doors and cameras outside, and if you know which door to walk up to and knock on, they will look at you and decide whether or not they want to let you in. The reason for this is they sell a lot of products there that are trying to be protected by copyright and trademarks, but they are still having the products made at the factories and they sell them any way they can. When you walk into this warehouse, it’s amazing what you will find in there. There is a jewelry and watch department where you can get some very high quality watches and jewelry. My favorite place to go to is the movie/CD department- which I’ve been told by the Chinese is changing a little bit because of the ability to watch movies for free online right now. I still enjoy picking up the CD’s for 5 RNB, which is very, very cheap and I was able to pick up some of the newest releases- copies of the American movies, but they are very high quality and they will actually replace the CD if it doesn’t work well, so they actually have some quality standards there. They also have a high quality golf club department. They have an amazing shoe department where you can get converse, Nike and all kinds of sporting shoes, flip flops, dress shoes, leather shoes of very high quality. I picked up some Air Max shoes- I guess I’ll call them Nike’s- I thought they looked cool and they’re not like any other Nike’s I have seen. They also have an optical/glasses department with corrective lenses and also an amazing selection of fashion sunglasses- Oakley and all the different companies and brands are in there. They also have purses and clothing of all kinds. Interesting to note: I purchases a couple of shirts that play on the Chinese/USA relationship with a facial photo of President Obama superimposed on the outline of Hu Jintao’s with a background of the Chinese military surrounding it, basically written in Chinese script on the shirt is “To serve the People”, which should tell you a lot about the China/USA relationship right now and their evolving sense of humor and also their understanding of the economic and political challenges that the two countries have. On the back of the t-shirt I think it says “Mao Bama” or “Hu Bama”.
It is always interesting to see the items the Chinese have and to see the “Made in China” quality issue being addressed and changed. It gives you a real understanding of how many products are made in China.
Also on that day, I decided to do my “spa day” and spent several hours in the spa. I was able to get a Chinese massage- which is amazing. Their spas are so inexpensive still. My favorite part now is to get a pedicure because they always look at my feet and then send out a male pedicurist, who will look at my feet and grunt because of the challenge of the skin on my feet. They use, basically a set of knives- they don’t clip anything on your feet, they basically cut your feet. They peeled my toenails and the skin on the bottom of my feet basically like a potato. A Chinese pedicure is always a treat and my feet feel much better and I’m amazed that they can tear into my feet with basically knife blade and never cut me. Their skill level is amazing.
Also, I had a dinner with Qi Yan and her son, Lu Jun Qi “Little Qi”. It’s always great to see Qi. She is no longer working with the Chinese Softball Association, which she said she’s really happy. It’s kind of sad and very educational and speaks for itself that Zhou Yu and Qi not longer work for the CSA because of losing trust and respect for the CSA leadership. Had a wonderful dinner, and it’s kind of funny to note that we spoke again about where we wanted to eat: Did we want Chinese food, Italian, American? It was chosen last night that we went to Pizza Hut! It was a crazy night at Pizza Hut. The menu is completely different than in America. It had some interesting salads, French fries, some appetizers that were crazy, the pizza… it is hard to explain what they do to it, but the meal was interesting.
Well… It’s 4:30 in the morning and I’m listening to the Chicago Cubs/Giants game. I’m not sure what my body’s clock is doing…..
I’ve lost a little track of time. The last couple of days have been somewhat eventful. I chose to do a shopping day at the Hongqiao Pearl Market area. Interesting to note that they have the area of the international market that is open to the public and everybody, but through relationships and friendships, I’ve been able to find kind of the black market/underground Chinese market, which is highly secured. You have to walk through the back streets of the hutong area of Beijing until you come to basically a warehouse that has armored doors and cameras outside, and if you know which door to walk up to and knock on, they will look at you and decide whether or not they want to let you in. The reason for this is they sell a lot of products there that are trying to be protected by copyright and trademarks, but they are still having the products made at the factories and they sell them any way they can. When you walk into this warehouse, it’s amazing what you will find in there. There is a jewelry and watch department where you can get some very high quality watches and jewelry. My favorite place to go to is the movie/CD department- which I’ve been told by the Chinese is changing a little bit because of the ability to watch movies for free online right now. I still enjoy picking up the CD’s for 5 RNB, which is very, very cheap and I was able to pick up some of the newest releases- copies of the American movies, but they are very high quality and they will actually replace the CD if it doesn’t work well, so they actually have some quality standards there. They also have a high quality golf club department. They have an amazing shoe department where you can get converse, Nike and all kinds of sporting shoes, flip flops, dress shoes, leather shoes of very high quality. I picked up some Air Max shoes- I guess I’ll call them Nike’s- I thought they looked cool and they’re not like any other Nike’s I have seen. They also have an optical/glasses department with corrective lenses and also an amazing selection of fashion sunglasses- Oakley and all the different companies and brands are in there. They also have purses and clothing of all kinds. Interesting to note: I purchases a couple of shirts that play on the Chinese/USA relationship with a facial photo of President Obama superimposed on the outline of Hu Jintao’s with a background of the Chinese military surrounding it, basically written in Chinese script on the shirt is “To serve the People”, which should tell you a lot about the China/USA relationship right now and their evolving sense of humor and also their understanding of the economic and political challenges that the two countries have. On the back of the t-shirt I think it says “Mao Bama” or “Hu Bama”.
It is always interesting to see the items the Chinese have and to see the “Made in China” quality issue being addressed and changed. It gives you a real understanding of how many products are made in China.
Also on that day, I decided to do my “spa day” and spent several hours in the spa. I was able to get a Chinese massage- which is amazing. Their spas are so inexpensive still. My favorite part now is to get a pedicure because they always look at my feet and then send out a male pedicurist, who will look at my feet and grunt because of the challenge of the skin on my feet. They use, basically a set of knives- they don’t clip anything on your feet, they basically cut your feet. They peeled my toenails and the skin on the bottom of my feet basically like a potato. A Chinese pedicure is always a treat and my feet feel much better and I’m amazed that they can tear into my feet with basically knife blade and never cut me. Their skill level is amazing.
Also, I had a dinner with Qi Yan and her son, Lu Jun Qi “Little Qi”. It’s always great to see Qi. She is no longer working with the Chinese Softball Association, which she said she’s really happy. It’s kind of sad and very educational and speaks for itself that Zhou Yu and Qi not longer work for the CSA because of losing trust and respect for the CSA leadership. Had a wonderful dinner, and it’s kind of funny to note that we spoke again about where we wanted to eat: Did we want Chinese food, Italian, American? It was chosen last night that we went to Pizza Hut! It was a crazy night at Pizza Hut. The menu is completely different than in America. It had some interesting salads, French fries, some appetizers that were crazy, the pizza… it is hard to explain what they do to it, but the meal was interesting.
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