Ventured out to China

 

    Thursday, 12/30, was our day off, so we took a trip to Shenzhen, China.  Actually, we live in a town called Fanling, in the New Territories, which is only 2 MTC train stops away from the border.  We were in Shenzhen two years ago when we went to Hong Kong for a China Teachers' Conference, but it was a very short visit then.   So we looked forward to going back for a visit.

    We left at 10 AM and got to the border in no more than 10 minutes.  We already got our visas when we were at home in the US, so it didn't take very long to get through the Immigration to go into China.  What we saw when we got out of the Customs/Immigration building was amazing. 

    Luohu Commercial City Mall is one of the worlds' most intense shopping experiences, over 700 shops are squeezed into seven floors. Everything you can imagine is for sale, but clothing and custom tailoring are the biggest ...  There must be at least 100 stalls of fabric shops tightly clustered together.  Electronics, nail salons, arts and crafts, massage places, you name it, it's there.  They are so eager to do business with you.  Elwin and I went in to have foot massage or reflexology for RMB$35 each, but they asked for $15 tip each.  So, it came to about US$7.50 each.  Not bad, is it?  After all the walking we have done since we came here, it was a great relief!  Wish it were around the corner though.

    We even ventured out to find WalMart.  We were there 2 years ago, but had no idea where it was, but after some investigation, we took a city bus and found it.  WalMart carried a lot of things they do in the States, but not everything.  It was fun to be there.  Things were a lot cheaper in China than in Hong Kong.  We carried 3 bagful of grocery home.  Well, Elwin did.  Bless him.  We stopped at another grocery store and found pigeons in the cages by the meat department.  Hmmm...what are they doing with the live birds there? 

    We had lunch at the mall and loved their mapou tofu and rice noodle dishes.  They were close to what Taiwanese foods taste like.  May be that's why we liked it.

    It was a fun day, but sure not worth the money they charge for the visas to go in to China though.  It's gone up from $30 for multiple entry visa to $140 for multiple entry if you are lucky as most Americans were given only single entry visas even though they protested.  We were so glad to know ahead of time to get the visas before we left for Hong Kong.