Sunday, May 23

Today we had a very nice day. The temperature was pleasant and the humidity was completely bearable. We were outside a bunch because it wasn't uncomfortable. What a nice change! This morning we went to the pearl market. I had in my head a bunch of tents or something- very wholesale. It was completely the opposite. The pearl market is just a bunch of jewelry shops in a mall- a very big mall. They specialize in pearls and their prices are very low compared to the US. The whole mall was jewelry shops- it was about 5 stories high and probably 75 stores on each level- all jewelry. The mall was in a different part of Guangzhou that we have not been to yet. It was very modern and extremely busy. We had to go through one mall- that was just a regular mall like the US to get to the jewelry mall. The regular mall was also 5 stories high with about 75 stores per level. It was incredible. One difference between stores in the US and stores here is the fact that it does not seem as though they have a back room to organize and get their supplies ready for the store- they just do it out front of the shop so every shop looks like they are just moving in or just moving out. Another difference between stores is the number of employees that work in the stores. The stores are small- even the big ones are like our hotel room. They often have 5-6 employees in each store. Today at the pearl store we did our shopping in there were 8 employees working plus the man who ran the cashier. It is like this everywhere. I counted at another store 11 employees and 1 customer. So when you walk into a store they just follow you around and wait until you ask a question. What a difference from home, right? After our shopping we had a new experience of getting a cab here--by ourselves. Our guide was with some other people who went back earlier than we did. We have a card that tells the name and address of our hotel in mandarin so they know where to take us. Before we got in the cab we had to wait for them to say yes I will take you there. The first cab we tried said no...HMMMM. The second took us to the hotel and didn't even rip us off. For a 5 mile ride it was 10 yuan- which is about 1.50 US. That is a pretty good deal! There was a McDonalds (actually 2), a KFC, and a Papa Johns in the courtyard area of this mall- but we chose not to partake. The people from our group that did said it tasted just like home- a good reason to not eat there if you ask me. We are really enjoying the food. There have only been a couple of things that we really didn't like and they were in Hong Kong. I am glad we have our guide to steer us in a good direction on food. When we got home Olivia who slept for about 20 mins at the end of our adventure decided that she didn't want to sleep. So after 1 hour of trying we just went outside to enjoy the day in the beautiful weather. We got some shopping done and that was nice. We ate dinner at Lucy's which I think used to be called the American Cafe and it was good as always. After dinner we went to have some tea with one of the shop owners here named Dong. He has taught us much about tea in China and given us many samples of the yummy stuff. There are so many Chinese people- families not business men- on the island this weekend. We are wondering if it is a holiday tomorrow because they look like they are on vacation- cameras in hand and sight seeing. It is incredibly busy and we are not used to that. Maybe tomorrow it will calm down a little.
Love to all,
Donna, Patrick, and Olivia