went with a few classmates last week to qipu lu (chee poo loo, aka cheap pu lu), which is this shopping 'street' with tons of vendors selling cheap clothes. we'd heard that it was a crowded mess, but wanted to see for ourselves. the clothes were underwhelming - your typical chinese fashion with an excess of rhinestones, ruching, tassles, strings, paint, print, what have you - and the vendors were insanely aggressive. two women from a clothes stall followed us for 3 stories (the stalls are indoors in these multi-plexes of commerce), pulling on our clothes and blocking our path to get us to buy from them. it got annoying and we left without buying anything, but i guess it's good i experienced it (?). i had half an eye out for shoes since i was brilliant enough to bring from home two pairs of sneakers on their last legs, but all the pumas were... shall we say, less than authentic? you can tell mostly because the tread on the bottom of the shoes feel hard and plastic-y, not supple and rubbery. sure to make you scrub and fall when running through the metro on a rainy day.
the more fun part for me was walking back from the shopping district to the metro, where you get to be amongst the hustle and bustle. this was cool because qipu is situated in a non-foreigner area, so it's not like your senses are being assaulted by 3-story high billboards for lancome or giordano or whatever. there are tons of people loitering around, buying snacks from food vendors and standing around discussing stuff. linda and i stopped by a steam-food stall for these dumplings made of sticky rice wrapped in dough. starchy goodness.
mob scene we were greeted by upon leaving - trying to sell us watches and bags
waiting to cross
roasted chestnuts are a common street-vendor food
tangerine guy
No comments:
Post a Comment