Lo Wu Shopping

Lo Wu Shopping Mall is just across the border from Hong Kong in Shenzhen. It is a general consensus that Shenzhen is Hong Kong's backyard to the motherland, and Lo Wu Shopping Mall is a favorite shopping center for Hong Kong people and overseas visitors with 90-100,000 visiting daily. The mall is filled with bargain shops selling designer brand name products, beauty shops for massages and manicures, tailors and most of a floor with silk and other cloth material of every kind.

Bev is having a top and pants made from silk for her.The total cost of the pants and top with long sleeves is $73 including labor and material. We have to go back next weekend for a final fitting. It is over a one hour bus ride or 45 min. taxi ride. from where we live. Tim bought a Ralph Lauren polo shirt for about $7.00. Bev purchased a Jimmy Choo designer bag for about $34.00. These run about $2,000.00 - $3,000.00 US in London. So it was a heck of a buy. It may not be 100 percent original!

The tough part about this mall is that you get a shadow whether you like it or not before you enter the mall to help guide you to the best shops$$. One guy followed us, and at one point Bev was calling Tim, so he walked up and told her where her husband was standing. Ours followed us around for a couple of hours. Also the number of people offering you DVD's, sunglasses, watches, Nike golf clubs etc. is huge. As Bev walked down the aisle of shops she had people pulling her arm and shouting "Missy, Missy" at you. This happens about 10 times per minute. It wears you out after a while because it is so high pressure, and you can't stay long. You can find a large variety of silk scarves, handbags and more. It is not like that anywhere in Shekou where we live.

Street Food

There is more food sold on the China Streets than anywhere I have ever been. You can buy anything you want and you might be surprised what is available on the streets. There is an abundance of vendors, especially with food. It doesn't take much to set-up shop. Sometimes as little as a cloth to put on the ground to place your product on. Better than that, some use a basket or two and a stick with strings to carry up to two different items. Even better yet is a bike with a flat board mounted on the back to hold your fruit or live items like chickens for the evening meal. Some bikes are outfitted with propane tanks and cooking pans. Sometimes they just get a 50 gallon barrel and use it as a cooker. These seem to be used primarily to cook large batches of sweet potatoes. Our friends tell us they are delicious and We are going to try them soon. Previously, before I left the states, I said, I would never buy any food from the street vendors, but I have relented and purchased quite a few things. Bev has bought a number of fruits and some vegetables, some of which we later eat. Generally, our purchases have been items that have a skin of some sort of peeling to get to the fruit or item to eat. These are some pics of some of the varieties that you can find everywhere. BTW Most of the fruit is excellent. Tree ripened! Bananas from the street vendors are less than 1 yuan each or about $.12. If you don't know the expected price for something they will charge you more. And almost always things cost less away from Shekou, Seaworld, where we live.

I have not seen anyone with there own chopsticks. Most of the street food does not require them but if it does the standard wood chopsticks in a paper sleeve are more common than straws and just as cheap to handout. We have been given them to use in restaurants that have the metal chopsticks as they are easier to use than the thin metal ones.

Afternoon Cool Off

Bev and I decided to go for a swim Sunday afternoon to cool down and get away from the high humidity and smog this weekend. It had been all of the above. This Hotel, the Nan Hai is suppose to be a 5 star hotel. It is very nice, maybe not a 5 start though. It is about 3 blocks from our school and farther than our apartment but still a very easy walk. We had the pool to ourselves for the first hour and then were joined by this young man and his father. Later some school staff and their families came in for a swim. Very beautiful place. Note the gray air. Yuk.I added the flower pic since I hadn't posted any flowers yet!

International Brunch

Secondary Students pose for a quick picture.

Each year students and parents participate in an International Brunch on Saturday September 15th. Many students dress in native costume and parents bring a traditional dish to share. Dishes are placed on tables according to nationality. After a brief announcement everyone digs in with forks and chopsticks. Here are just a few pictures of this years event.

Tall Shenzhen Buildings

Shekou and Shenzhen may have been two separate cities but today are totally linked together. The same bus system will take you from one end of Shekou to the other end of Shenzhen. We traveled by public bus for about and hour and a half from our home to downtown Shenzhen. It is big city the entire way. Here are some pics of the area Lou Who and some pics of the Cities large skyscrapers. There are about 14 million people in the greater metropolitian area. Believe me there are many people everywhere you look. Most of these shots where taken through the bus window so the quality suffers but you get the idea. I had to show you the window washers. The are near the bottom of a very tall building. What looks like a line between them is a water hose they passed back and forth. Note the single rope per person! Check out other Shenzhen skyscrapers at this link.

Seaworld Sunday Morning

Just some pics Sunday morning right outside our apartment that I took as I went to Starbucks this morning.Kind of a overcast day.