Shopping

Just like in Peru, the shopping is really different. In the markets, which are the most fun way to shop in my opinion, there are little booths where you can buy anything. Notebooks, pens, toys, food, tape, fingernail clippers, wallets, suitcases, Chinese fans, chopsticks, pretty much anything. I know numbers and how to ask "how much?" in Chinese and somehow, that's all I need.

I've done a lot of shopping for violins. I am planning on playing the violin in the 8th grade school orchestra when I get back, but I need a  bigger violin. We are buying it in China because it's probably cheaper and much more cool. A good violin, new in the U.S., is about $1,200-$1,800 as far as I know.

One music store we went to was called Rainbow Joy. They teach music and dance and other things there. The violin teacher was really experienced. The two violins they had there were really high quality, and really low priced. The one I liked better cost around $800. Mom didn't want to pay that much, though I really wanted her to. Rainbow Joy also had a harp, and they let me play it. They videoed me.

We looked in another store and their $1,300 violins were not very good. They sounded like they should cost $100. 

Mom and I went by ourselves, without my aunt who has been showing us where to go, to a music mall. There were small tourist markets on the first floor. We took an escalator to the second, where there were stores for pianos, violins, basses, drums, ukuleles, Chinese traditional instruments, and some that just had all of them. Trying almost every store's violins on all three floors of instruments took two days.

It's a Minnie Mouse piano, with ears on top!

And a Mickey Mouse piano to match!

We saw this bookshelf in the music mall. I
absolutely love it.

Mom bought a dizi, a traditional Chinese
instrument that sounds like a mix between a
flute and kazoo.

It only added to the difficulty that there was only one down escalator. Once you boarded an up escalator, you had reached the point of no return. To get back down, you either had to take the stairs which smelled bad, or the 'bubble lift'/elevator.

One day coming home from the instrument mall, Mom bought us popsicles. She tried a flavor we didn't know, and it turned out to be "red bean." The Chinese put beans everywhere. They even put it in pastries, along with egg yolk.

The third day, we bought the violin for 2,500 yuan (almost $400). I think it is a wonderful violin.

One day we bought breakfast from this little shop by the street. It was really delicious. My favorite thing was the 'baozi', meat or vegetables encased in white dough, then steamed. 

After breakfast, we tried coconut. They cut of the top of a coconut and stuck a straw in it. I didn't like it very much. We found kittens, though!

 So far in the trip, some of the things I've bought are pens, erasers, pencils, a bag, chopsticks, fans, a sand picture in a glass bottle, and a tassel. Lily loves shopping even more than I do.