Chris really wanted to go but I told him I had no idea where it was...so I was not confident in going out just the two of us. So we knocked on Bobby's door and luckily he was up for a little outing (and he also speaks quite a bit of Chinese...which is useful). We headed to a cab and Bobby simply says 'Zhong Guan Cun'...well...I guess that was easy, well as long as you know how to pronounce it correctly that is. As we pull out I begin to wonder if I've actually been to this place. Eventually the cab is taking a route which I am very familiar with and he ends by pulling in front of a subway station which I am very familiar with. The place that I go on Sunday mornings is near here and the taxi drivers will never take me all the way there...instead they always insist I want to go to this place. I never had any idea what it was or why the taxi drivers always dropped me off here instead of at chrch. But now I get it...this place is a huge attraction so they just always assume the 'tourist' will be going here.
At any rate we get out and are faced with two huge Mall type buildings. We head in and we are met with floor after floor after floor of every electronic gadget/gizmo you could ever imagine. One floor of headphones...one for computer parts...one for computers...one for tablets...wow! This place is a techies dream come true! Chris is looking for computer batteries and I'm sort of/kind of looking for an external hard drive. Enoch sold me a piece of crap external hard drive for $50...which is cheap...but it only works half the time. So I'm sort of in the market. I take my time to practice some Chinese and even some bartering...I finally have started using the terminology for 'how much is it' and this seems like a good place to just get practice with that. I end up bartering a few but nothing is really in my price range so I decide not to buy. Chris barters FOREVER in English...but eventually changes his mind from 3 computer batteries for his laptop to a fancy charger gizmo that he can use to charge his zune and computer on the plane. He is looking at getting a really heavy duty one and tries it out on his zune when...kablooy...it destroys the Zune...well that marked the end of our trip to Zhong Guan Cun.
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| Chris and Bobby in the background...Can you spot them? |
We leave the electronics superstores with nothing...but I have an idea...'Bobby...is Carrfour near here?' Bobby responds, "elkj dkhe jeidh. ejkldjfi right here." And he takes off. I take this as a good sign that it is close and he is leading us to it. Carrfour is a foreigner grocery outlet with many coveted items that you cannot find in any of the markets/stores around us. I've heard that it may even have tortillas...and real cheese! Two items I've been craving like nobody's business! We head in and the place is PACKED! But we are determined. I head out and quickly find tortillas (yes!!!!!!!!!), all sorts of real cheese, butter (score!!), a nice bottle of wine (woohoo!), and a loaf of zucchini bread (my favorite!). I was unsuccessful in finding coconut oil...but that's o.k. I've chalked that up as an impossible find in Beijing already. We check out (after waiting FOREVER in line...surprisingly since this is a foreigner grocery store...they actually do wait in lines here :-) and head home after the long day.
The drive home was rather interesting because we came upon a small traffic jam (not unusual for the 'Jing') but unusual because a man is outside his car YELLING at another car. The man then reaches out and opens the car door of this car and continues yelling. He then reaches in and grabs the man and pulls him out! They are both screaming at each other...the man gets back in his car...and the guy reaches in and pulls him out again! No punches were thrown but many words were exchanged...our taxi pulled on through and I'm not quite sure what came of that showdown...but it was certainly something I'd never seen before.
That night I made up a batch of pseudo taco meat and had 'tacos'! Oh they were so delicious! The next morning I had breakfast burritos and then tacos for lunch and supper and alas...the tortillas were gone. What a welcome change to my vegetable and rice diet. Carrfour...I will be back :-)
Zaijian,
(Learn chinese: shen ma-what? Very good one to know)
Gary
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