Yesterday was spent in a very “modern-Chinese-girl” way. I went shopping.
When I was teaching in Lishui, I remember many of my students when asked what their hobbies were, answered shopping. In modern China, going shopping with your friends is more for the sake of hanging out with you friends than to buy things. Shopping does not necessarily involve buying anything, and if it does then not more than a couple of items.
First, me and Lise went to Fashion Lady, a gigantic underground shopping center in Nanjing. You can find anything from panda bear earrings and Sponge Bob wallets to the “latest fashion” here, and bargaining is required.
We also found photo booths there. I discovered these last year with some help from Kala. Here’s yesterdays result ^^, :
In the evening, I went for dinner with two of my friends from Lishui, Cuty and Jenny. And guess what we did after dinner.. we went shopping. Even though I went shopping more or less all day yesterday, I didn’t really buy much. But I did find this panda bear desk lamp:
It’s not really strange that shopping is such a popular activity in the big cities of China, cause there is such a variety of things for sale. Just looking at all the strange things they expect people to buy is entertainment enough. I don’t think shopping will be my number one hobby this year, but it’s fun enough once in a while.