The Great Shopping Adventure

The day the ladies have all been waiting for has come and gone. Our big excursion to Shamian Island to shop and shop is over. You can see it on all the ladies' faces the look of sadness and regret - sadness that it's over and regret that they didn't spend more money. It's like they've said goodbye to a good friend and they'll never see them again.

Shamian Island is the reminder of Guangzhou's colonial history. From the 18th to the mid 19th century, it is the only place where foreign traders were permitted to set up their warehouses and factories. It became a British and French concession after they won in the Opium Wars, and is covered with decaying colonial buildings which housed trading offices and residences. This island is where The White Swan hotel is located. Many Americans adopting here stay in this hotel. The Goulds and Petersons stayed in The White Swan on their trip. I've posted a picture of the girls on the infamous "red couch" of the White Swan hotel. There are probably 40 or 50 shops near the White Swan on the island that offer a last chance to get souvenirs before we head for home. It's a fun experience in a way because you get to negotiate the price of the items you are buying. It's also somewhat draining because everybody knows that they're selling the same things everybody else is selling. Thus it's their task to keep you in their store because once you leave you're not coming back. They don't have anything unique that can't be bought next door. So we got some good deals and some not so good deals. If you're curious, I did end up getting my set of golf clubs. They're imitation clubs but you would have a hard time telling the difference between them and the real thing. For you golfers out there, I got a set of Cleveland CG4 irons, a 60 degree Cleveland wedge, a White Hot two ball putter, a very nice Cleveland golf bag and a travel bag for $150. I figured it's worth taking a chance!

We stayed on the island pretty much all day after lunch. We ate at Lucy's which was a very nice taste of home. Real hamburgers! Kristi and Becky ordered Quesadillas which somehow I find it strange eating Mexican food in China. They were very good though. I would say the most eventful part of this excursion was the ride home which shouldn't surprise me. Our tour bus left at 5:30 and we decided to stay on the island until about 9 so we caught a cab to get us back to the hotel. Well we had so much stuff that we couldn't fit all our stuff and us in the same cab. So we split up. I put our suitcase full of purchases (literally - no joke) in the trunk of the cab and my golf clubs rode shotgun. The Fraziers got a head start because they were in the first cab and that was all they needed to take home the victory of the cab race back to the hotel. I'm not joking, our cabbies were literally racing. The Fraziers' cabby was more aggressive than ours. Up until we lost sight of them, we saw them using the left lane of oncoming traffic several times to get around buses and the sort in their lane. Our cabby, I guess, didn't feel comfortable crossing over the solid yellow line on the city streets so we lost by about 30 seconds. I'm sure their cab ride was more fun and I'll bet they posted some insights into the victory on their blog (http://frazieradoption.blogspot.com).