This will be a short post for all my quilting friends and the ladies of Bow River Quilters. As for all of he rest of you who tease me about being a quilter just move along, nothing to see here.
In my previous post I showed you my very sparse sewing space. I have since added a shelf from IKEA . I think it looks great and couldn’t have fit better in the space.
The baskets on the bottom shelf came wrapped flat in plastic and you had to unwrap them, square them up, fold down the bottom, secure it and voila, instant basket. So I did that and a couple of days later I was walking down the hallway and there was a cockroach! I just went OMG (Oh My God) and ran! Then I had this argument in my head…I can’t touch that…well you can’t leave him there…what am I going to do?…you have to smack him…and then what?…scoop him up and flush him! So I did, very quickly with with my eyes half closed and my teeth gritted. Then I shut the lid on the toilet because I read that cockroaches can hold their breath under water for forty minutes and could crawl out. Believe me when I say that I always check before I use that toilet now.
If you look on the top shelf there is a little iron. I picked it up at The Cat Street Market in Hong Kong for $10 CAD, after haggling a bit, of course. It is the cutest thing and I just love it! It has some writing on it that I want to get someone to translate and it opens up so you could put hot coals in it so it can be used as an iron.
I have started to decorate a little and have a made a bed runner and cushion from fabric that I brought from home. Next up on the project list is to recover the bench and make a cushion cover from the grey fabric that I also brought from Canada. I just need to get my hands on a staple gun. That will require a trip to Old Shekou where there are lots of little ‘Mom and Pop’ shops filled with interesting things.
As for quilting I have brought along a couple projects that will keep me busy for awhile. I haven’t started these yet.
I did start on this project which I think will be absolutely beautiful. It’s a Block of the Month by Edyta Sitar, one of my favourite quilt designers.
The only problem I am having is that the pattern calls for working with 1 1/2” squares, which are very small and do not lay flat after you iron them. I was wishing I had brought some spray starch with me. So what do you do when you don’t have access to something like that here…you make your own spray starch! A simple google search gives you the recipe. Two cups of water and 2 oz of vodka. I decided I didn’t have anything to lose and if it didn’t work out we could always drink the vodka. But it worked like a charm!
Now only nineteen more blocks to go for the first month!
Once you have found an apartment you like here, there are usually negotiations that happen involving the rent. In our case this did not happen but we did have a list of items that we wanted in the apartment and asked the landlord to purchase for us. These included a washer and dryer, TVs, dressers, desks, a safe, water cooler, lamps and most importantly, western mattresses because Chinese mattresses are extremely hard. Fortunately our landlord was very accommodating and most of the things he would have had to buy anyway. I was told to send the landlord pictures of what I wanted for furniture and he would get it for me. Well isn’t that what every girl wants to hear? Unfortunately for me, I had no idea where to go to look for furniture so I found some pictures on the internet to give him a general idea of what I thought would work. And as luck would have it, while we were at IKEA, we found the western furniture stores and I took some pictures of things I liked and our landlord got them for us.
Again, everything here is a process and getting things done here takes time so we had to wait for the apartment to get fully outfitted. We were also up against Chinese New Year where everything shuts down for two to three weeks so everyone was trying hard to get everything done so we could move in before then. Finally, after dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s it was moving day! James, our relocation guy, had secured us a moving van and we were packed up and ready! More than ready actually after two months in the hotel.
It just fit! After a ten minute car ride we arrived at our new place. It is one of the newest apartment buildings in Shekou and it does not disappoint. We live on the 18th floor of a 51 storey building.
Welcome to our Shenzhen home!
At our front door you get in by using the keypad, your thumbprint or the old fashioned way with a key.
The front entrance, well the only entrance I guess. The video panel is the doorbell where the security guard rings you up to let you know if someone is delivering something or company is coming. They let them into the complex and then there is another set of secure doors people have to come through to get to the elevators. The security guards do not speak English so it’s always a hit or miss with communication. Most of the time it is good and learning some basic Chinese words helps your cause immensely.
The galley kitchen with a wok ring, two burner ceramic surface element and two gas burners. Across the way is the microwave, complete with a dumpling button, toaster and kettle at the only outlet in the kitchen. There is also a concealed dishwasher to the right of the sink.
Our new rice cooker compliments of Holly and Cameron that they brought from Japan. Japan makes rice cookers specifically for the Chinese market and are better quality than what you can get here. It plays a little tune when you start it and when it’s finished. It was also Chinese New Year and it is considered good luck to buy a new bag of rice.
Just outside the kitchen there is a mini balcony where the washing machine is located. Yes outside! The gold thing is a clothes drying rack that raises and lowers with a remote control. Yes remote control! And across the way…are the neighbours!
Also out on the mini balcony is the ‘ayi’ room where the dryer is located. The dryer is not vented outside and it has a condensing unit which means we have to drain the water out of it when your laundry is dry. Well, things are never really dry here but we are lucky to have one. An ayi is a Chinese maid and this would be her room if she were to live-in. The room is 6 1/2 ft by 6 1/2 ft so about 42 square feet or 4 metres square. Attached to the ayi’s ‘bedroom’ would be her bathroom. It is very compact being only 2 1/2 feet by 6 1/2 so you can pretty much do everything at once. Very efficient!
Coming out of the kitchen through the door is the rest of the kitchen and the dining room. The wall of appliances has a steam oven and a regular oven which I think will fit a 15lb turkey if I happen to cook Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner. A full sized fridge and freezer and a mammoth sized wine fridge which is totally lost on us!
The living room and my ‘Around the World’ quilt that I brought from home.
Hallway bathroom.
This is the second bedroom which we affectionately call Holly’s room and is the guest room if anyone comes to visit. It has an attached bathroom and walk-in closet. If you pull up the blind in the shower stall you can see the great outdoors, as well as the neighbours. I’m not sure why they built it like this.
This one is Courtney’s room and also has my sewing space. Sorry no attached bathroom, walk-in closet or TV! No bedroom for Cameron, he gets the couch.
The master bedroom and bathroom are lovely and spacious with all the bells and whistles. The bathtub has windows around it so you can soak in the tub and take in the lights of the city. Each room, bathroom and closet has its own humidity and temperature control which I thought was rather excessive until you realize how humid and hot it can get here. We also have heat which is lucky as lots of buildings in China do not. If you do not have central heating, you have to buy a space heater for every room.
But our favourite part of living here has to be the fabulous wrap around balcony and its gorgeous views! You can see that we are well taken care of here and we know that we are very fortunate. We have settled in well and are adjusting to what life will like be for the next two to three years. So if you are in the neighbourhood, D and D’s B & B (Asia Pacific Division) is officially open for business!
Sorry for the late post! I had this one started and then lost it all. So sad. But fear not! I, being the intrepid blogger that I am, will start again.
As some of you know I am a self professed HGTV junkie. There is nothing I love better than to look at houses, renovate houses and decorate houses. So when we had set the date for going to look at apartments in Shenzhen I was elated! As luck would have it though, Dave was unable to come with me on the first day of the apartment hunt as he had meetings in Hong Kong. So it was me, James, our relocation guy and three Chinese real estate agents, with little or no English, making the rounds.
Apartments in Shenzhen are generally in high rise buildings and there are three to four to five high rises in a complex. The apartments are individually owned and you will have to deal with a landlord. If luck is with you, you will get a good one who likes to maintain their property. Apartments can be unfurnished, partially furnished or furnished. The complexes themselves have green space, courtyards, landscaping and maybe a water feature. Some complexes are better maintained than others. We had given James, our relocation guy, a list of criteria that we had for our apartment and the budget we had to work with. We were looking for a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment with an ocean view and within walking distance to Dave’s work. Since we would never again in our lives live by the ocean, the ocean view was very important.
Armed with our criteria, James had made up a list of places to view, so off we went. I don’t think I was really prepared for what I was going to see that day. We started at the lower end of the budget and the old adage, ‘You get what you pay for’ certainly applied here. I did find out that the one English word that all the Chinese real estate agents knew was ‘Beautiful! Beautiful!’
Here are just some random pictures of places I saw.
These apartments were in a new complex and were quite nice but were not within walking distance for Dave.
Next we toured a three level apartment complete with a rooftop garden. To reach the rooftop garden you had to climb an iron ladder attached to the wall. Even with my love of gardening I don’t think I could have done anything with this garden space.
Then we went to see a newer apartment closer to Dave’s work but the bedrooms were too small.
We went a little farther out again and saw an actual house but it was too big.
Our final appointment of the first day was at a serviced apartment/hotel. This was very similar to what we had been living in where someone comes and cleans your apartment twice a week and the breakfast buffet is included. It was a much bigger apartment than where we had been staying but it was right next door to the construction zone where they are building a new subway line. Every day at 11am like clockwork, you could hear and feel the blasting that was going on underground to build the subway line. It was just like in the Merry Poppins movie where the Banks family had to hold everything down when the admiral fired off his cannon next door.
I will admit I was very discouraged…and very tired…and very hot by the end of the day. Fortunately Dave was able to join us the second day and we were taken to a multilevel apartment which had five bedrooms, two living rooms, a huge designer kitchen and a ball pit in the basement. It was really well done but much too large for our needs.
The next couple of apartments were in a new building along the harbour and we did end up choosing one of them. But before I show you what we did pick, I will show you the process we went through to get the ‘stuff’ we needed to live in the apartment.
The apartment comes fully furnished so we concentrated on the smaller everyday things and that required a few trips to IKEA, first to scout things out and then to actually commit and buy something. IKEA is a twenty minute cab ride away and it is just like any other IKEA in the world except it is very, very busy, even moreso on a Saturday morning. There are lots and lots of families with young children in Shenzhen and this is where they all are on a Saturday morning, usually with Grampa and Gramma in tow. Dave and I had a good laugh because forty years ago we were buying Billy bookcases at IKEA when we went to university. Incidentally, the Billy bookcase is forty years old this year and IKEA has sold over 60 million units worldwide. We were also laughing because we only bought six plates, six bowls, six cups and eight glasses. Living like students again!
After paying for all the things in our cart we took it to the counter where for $10 CAD they will box up your items and deliver it to your house. Since we came in a taxi we took full advantage of that. Next stop, KFC for a well earned break!
We also visited a store called Sundan a few times, again to initailly scope things out and then finally to buy something. Sundan is a chain store very much like Best Buy where you can get large and small appliances and some electronics. It’s a bit better quality than Walmart and has better selection. We picked up a few things and had them delivered. The funny part about the delivery was that it was delivered by the two young ladies from the store, driving in the dark, balancing everything, even the ironing board, on a scooter. They even beat us home! How’s that for service? I wish I had gotten a picture of it because it was just so funny but you will just have to use your imagination.
While the process of buying what you need to set up an apartment may seem easy and we have done it a few times for our kids when they went off to school, it is much harder here. You do not know at first where you should buy items and you do not have a vehicle to load everything into to take it home from the store. You are restricted to what you can carry home in the taxi with you so we made many trips with many smaller purchases. You never came home empty handed. When you figure out that places will deliver purchases to your house there is the language barrier to deal with so you keep your fingers crossed that everything comes together and shows up at your house. Lucky for us everything did!
One of the things I was concerned about with our impending move to China was what I was going to do with myself as I had no job and no kids in tow this time to ‘break the ice’. I decided to look for an international woman’s group and found it, quite easily, when I googled ‘Shekou women’s group’. I was in business.
The woman’s group is called SWIC, Shenzhen Women’s International Club. It was started in 1986 by five women gathering together for coffee and planning events. Thirty three years later, this group is still going strong and has some two hundred fifty members from around the world. All you need to join is a foreign passport…well I certainly have one of those!
My first encounter with SWIC was a field trip to the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital. We boarded a bus to the hospital where we met with hospital doctors and various administration people to inform us on how this hospital would work for expats. (Two of the head doctors that were attending the meeting were Canadian). After the meeting we were given a tour of their very beautiful facility and were shown the emergency department where there is a special window for expats and if you just ring the doorbell, someone will instantly appear to help you. I have it on good authority that this does not happen. Also, I learned if you need to use an ambulance here, you will need to keep cash in your sock drawer to pay the ambulance people on the way to the hospital. Please bear in mind that an ambulance here is only a transportation vehicle, there is no lifesaving equipment aboard, not even oxygen, so appreciate what we often take for granted back home. The only thing I came away with from that trip was… do not get sick in China. SWIC meets every Tuesday morning for coffee at the Hilton Hotel. Even though I had met a couple of women on the hospital field trip, it was still very difficult to talk myself into going to this. I could have very easily stayed holed up in the hotel but I put on my ‘big girl panties’ and headed out. (And really what choice did I have? If I had stayed home I would be isolating myself and you do not want to do that here). I needn’t have worried though, everyone was very welcoming.
What was amazing to me was how quickly they brought you into the fold, no standing on ceremony. The first question people asked was your name and where you were from. The next question people asked was who does your husband work for? All very standard. Then they filled you in on how to live here and by that I mean, how to actually function. Have you been here? Have you been there? Do you know how to do this? Do you know how to do that? Do you have WeChat yet? I will be your contact on WeChat. Do you have WePay yet? Have you been apartment hunting yet? Here is what you need to look for. Let me show you how to do it. I will take you with me when I go somewhere. Come and join this activity. And my absolute favourite…here, just give me your phone, I will do it for you.
What was also amazing to me is that these women are from all over the world. Some have been doing the expat thing for years and some are mothers with young children navigating the international school system. I love to hear their stories and how they came to be in Shenzhen, not to mention listening to their accents! Oil and gas is not king here, people work for Walmart, Huawei, Harmon (as in Harmon Kardon speakers of old), Daimler and many others. There are also independent business people who work in manufacturing and the import/export world. All very international. When you encounter a fellow Canadian, you have a friend for life!
When you join SWIC you get great swag like this backpack!
Inside the backpack you get SWIC magazines, published quarterly, a guidebook answering all sorts of question, a handy umbrella and a T-shirt!
But by far the most useful item in the backpack is the little package of cards. The cards have a picture and the address in both Chinese and English of everywhere you will need to go. These are very handy when you use the taxi and the taxi driver has no English. Also it is vital to know your home address or they could just drop you off wherever and then the fun would begin! If that’s not enough to intimidate you, the taxi driver may refuse to take you if he doesn’t recognize the place where you want to go.
There are lots of activities that you can become involved in when you join SWIC. There is a very active hiking group that literally climbs mountains, mah jong, tennis, various craft activities led by someone with a little expertise in something and always an interesting field trip.
Yes I learned to crochet!
And yes I had help.
All sorts of things to make!
This is the pop up craft store.
My first field trip with the group was to Zhuhai, by ferry, to a Chinese furniture place. You could get anything you see in the pictures in any colour you wanted! I did not buy anything.
My personal favourites are May I? and archery. May I? is a variation of rummy that requires a long attention span and razor sharp thinking skills, neither of which I possess. I’m pretty sure they let me play just because I can shuffle the cards. We meet every Thursday, have lunch and then play for three hours. There is a small charge involved to cover your refreshments but most of the money goes to support a handicapped child. So far this group has raised $1000 CDN. The ladies are very patient with me and they tell me I am making great progress! Archery, on the other hand, is where I show some proficiency and our group is gearing up for an in-house competition soon called The Hunger Games. I am going to practise in Calgary while I am home and be ready when I go back to Shenzhen in the beginning of May.
Female bonding is as old as time. We do not need elaborate systems, fancy clubs or special handshakes to get the job done. It can be as simple as a pot of tea or a glass of wine. Studies have shown that female friendships can reduce stress and lower your blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol. Who couldn’t use some of that? Joining this group, meeting these ladies and participating in the activities has been one of the best things I have ever done. It was nerve wracking at first to go, not knowing a soul, but each time it got better and now it seems like I have known them forever.
I have mentioned in previous blog posts about the traffic challenges here in Shenzhen, this will give you something of an idea of what goes on here. There are a lot of nice, high end cars on the streets here and I dearly miss driving myself but I would not want to drive here unless I knew exactly where I was going. The other vehicles cruising the streets here are taxis and buses which are electric. China leads the way worldwide in getting electric vehicles on the road and they are everywhere here.
When I say cruising the streets it brings to mind a nice, easy drive down the road with the wind blowing your hair back and the radio blasting your favourite tune. Well I’m sorry to burst that bubble because it just doesn’t happen. The rule is…there are no rules! You want to pick up or drop off somebody, no problem, just let them off wherever. You need to make a u-turn, no problem, just do it in the street or at the corner. The guy ahead of you is too slow making a left hand turn, no problem, just sneak in beside him and beat him to it. Straddling the lane lines is common and using your turn signals is almost nonexistant. If there is gap in the traffic ahead of you, they will gun it and go for it. Merging is a big game of chicken and you can put a piece of paper in between the cars when they are trying to get in. Somehow it all works out with the occasional tooting of horns and there are surprisingly few accidents.
Bicycles abound!
The real stars of the show here are the electric scooters. Everybody has one.
I like to think of them as China’s Harley Davidsons without the noise! They go anywhere they want and you constantly need to watch out out for them. You need to look, look, look and look again! The one time you don’t look is the one time they will run over you and because they are electric and therefore silent, you do not hear them coming. Pedestrians have no right of way. They are a good alternative to cars to get from A to B and you see people transporting all sorts of things on them. Mothers have a six year old on the back and a toddler on the front with no helmets or other proective gear and survive the journey. It makes you think how bubble wrapped we are.
When you order food from the restaurants and everyone does, it gets delivered by a guy on a scooter.
I must admit I want one of these things. My heart is saying ‘Oh you need one of these babies!’ ‘All my friends have one.’ My head says ‘Don’t be stupid, you will kill yourself.’ So we will see how things go before, if ever, I take the plunge and buy a scooter. Will the thrill of scooting around win out over self preservation? Time will tell!
China has a burgeoning middle class with money to spend and a liking for designer goods. Designer goods are great but still out of reach for most of us so China does the next best thing and creates their own ‘designer’ goods. The place to get your ‘designer’ goods is Luohu Commecial City and/or Market about an hour ride on the Metro from where we live. This market is located near the border of Hong Kong and people come over the border for a day of shopping. The Shenzhen Railway Station is located here where people take the train to anywhere in China, as well, the market is a hub for the bus station and the Metro. It is a busy, busy place. Rule number one is that you do not go anywhere with the guys on the walk to the building that tell you they have ‘good stuff this way.’
Inside the market you will find everything your heart desires on five floors of shopping fun. You can find purses, electronics, glasses, sunglasses, clothing, jewelry, tea, trinkets and much, much more all packed in booths not much larger than a Canadian bathroom.
Rule number two is, this is the place you bring your “A” bargaining game because the Chinese know how to bargain and they bargain hard. You never accept their first price and you counter with a low offer but not too low that it offends them! If you tell them that you live in Shekou and that you are not a tourist, you get a better deal. Then the game begins and you have to be prepared to stand your ground and walk away if necessary. They will generally follow you and the game begins again until a mutually agreed upon price is reached. It may physically pain them to give to you but it is all part of the process. They want you to come back to their stall and they do remember you when you do come back, so it works out for everyone.
Upstairs on the top level is the most interesting place I have ever seen. It is where all the tailor’s shops and the fabric booths are located. This is what a lot of people come to this market for…to get custom made clothing at bargain basement prices. My new friend from the Netherlands took me to meet her tailor, Stephanie, who speaks very good English and will make you anything you want. You really have to know what you want and it is helpful to bring a picture, a pattern or a piece of clothing that you want to replicate. Then you make your way through the clothing booths that are packed together like sardines, bargain for some fabric and take it back to Stephanie.
So as part of the kid’s Christmas present, we took them to Luoho to get some clothes made for them. It is quite the ordeal to pick out fabric when there are so many choices and lots of people giving you suggestions but we got the job done and here are the results.
First you have to get measured and Cam barely fit in their stall! He got three three shirts, the one in the middle has moose on it, an ode to his Canadian heritage. Courtney got a ‘Chanel’ jacket and three skirts. A ‘Chanel’ jacket is ‘must have’ on people’s list and is on my list too. Holly got two pairs of pants and a dress. All for cheap like borscht but very well made. I know I will be spending a lot of time here!
Hello and welcome to our Christmas Vacation Part Two! Since one can only get a five day visitor’s visa to Shenzhen because it is a special economic zone, we ‘loaded up the truck’ or in this case the van, and we drove to Hong Kong. When I say we drove, I do not mean we personally drove. It is not recommended that we drive in China and it is easy to see why. There is a lot of traffic, a lot of aggressive driving and if you do not know where you are going the road signs are of no help to you as they are all in Chinese. So you hire yourself a vehicle from an app called DiDi and you leave the driving to them.
Getting across the border is relatively easy but you do have to follow certain steps. On the way to the border crossing, you fill out your exit card for China Immigration and an entrance card for Hong Kong Immigration. At the border, you get out of the vehicle, go into the building, hand over your exit card and passport to the person behind the counter and they process you. In the meantime, the driver drives around the building and meets you on the other side. You get back in the vehicle and you drive a short distance to the Hong Kong Immigration booth. You stop at the booth and open both the side and back doors, they check you with an infrared temperature scanner and look at your luggage. Again you hand over your passport, this time with your entrance card and they process you. You are then on your way across the big, beautiful bridge that connects Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Shenzhen Bay Bridge
We checked into our hotel and managed to have a video chat with my sister, Darlene and her crew at the farm. Technology is great!
Me, Holly, Jill and Joel
Later that night we took in the Symphony of Lights on a harbour cruise around Victoria Harbour. Now if that name sounds strange to you, here is your history lesson for the day…Hong Kong became a Crown Colony under the British Empire in 1842 when China lost the First Opium War. It was originally called Hong Kong Harbour but after China was forced to cede Hong Kong to the British it was renamed after Queen Victoria. As an aside, it was interesting to me that when we were driving through Hong Kong, the streets had British influenced names and they were written in English/Chinese. It was a welcome sight after having only seen signs written in Chinese. Also you drive on the left side of the road in Hong Kong and you make that change while you are driving across the bridge from Shenzhen. Something I had never thought about before.
The Symphony of Lights is the world’s largest permanent light and sound show according to Guinness World Records and it did not disappoint. Plus everything is more fun when you are on a boat.
Hong Kong Disney was next on our list, just for fun. The kids have been to all the Disney Parks except the new one in Shanghai and since we are in the neighbourhood, some day we will make the pilgrimage to that one too.
The following day we just ate and because we were on vacation we felt it was justified. First we had Dim Sum with a couple of my new friends from Shenzhen.
Then as part of my Christmas present, Holly made a reservation at the Langham Hotel for us for afternoon tea.
The Langham Hotel in London dates back to 1865 where it opened as the then largest building in London and Europe’s first ‘Grand Hotel’. It had 15,000 yards of Persian tapestry, hot and cold running water in every room and the world’s first hydraulic lifts known as ‘rising rooms’. We had our afternoon tea in The Palm Court, just off the lobby where you could sit and watch the world go by.
We had only dabbled in what Hong Kong has to offer and I know that Dave and I will go back again while we are living in China. Our children, however, were on a schedule so we took our leave of Hong Kong and boarded the ferry across to Macau. Please note that…”It’s pronounced Macow, not Macaw. It is not a bird, Mother.”
Step aside Las Vegas, Macau is now the gambling capital of the world. Chinese people love to gamble and since gambling is illegal is mainland China, they go to Macau. This gambling haven looks likes Las Vegas since they have replicated some of the theme hotels but it does not have the grittiness of the Vegas strip. Nor does it have the many, many shows that you can see in Vegas, there are only a few. What it does have is lots of shopping and lots of casinos. The favourite game here seems to be baccarat and the buy in is high, much too rich for our blood, so we made our donations to the slot machines. I was missing my gambling partner, my sister Darlene, as we go to the casino once a year whether we need to or not and she always wins.
Macau was formerly a colony of the Portuguese Empire. Portugal was given perpetual occupation rights in 1887 where it remained under Portuguese control until 1999 when it was returned to China. Macau is now a special administrative region and maintains a separate political and economic system apart from mainland China. It even has its own currency. Because of this, parts of Macau still retain their Portuguese style architecture.
Ruins of St. Paul’s
Catholic Diocese
By far the most noticeable building in Macau is the Grand Lisboa.
The building is meant to resemble a blooming lotus with the base nestled in a Fabrege egg. We wandered through the lobby and marveled at the many fabulous sculptures of gold, jade, ivory and precious stones. They are all part of Dr. Stanley Ho’s, the king of gambling in Macau, private collection.
Our adventure ended all too soon and our children started to make their way back to their respective homes. Travelling is great but it is always good to get back home and home for now is Shenzhen. When we got off the ferry in Shenzhen things actually looked familiar. We knew enough now not to talk to the men that pester you about giving you a ride. We knew enough now to pick the right down escalator to go to the front of the taxi line. We knew enough now to keep going straight and turn left at the crazy corner. And we knew enough now that we needed to be dropped off at the side entrance of our apartment hotel. I consider that progress.
Christmas in Shenzhen did not disappoint. We decided that since we had just moved here it would be fun to fly the kids to us and celebrate Christmas in Shenzhen. We had also been thinking that we would be in our apartment by now and we could all be in the same place, but no such luck. So with the arrival of our three children we checked out of our temporary digs and into the Shenzhen Hilton.
This was probably one of the best ideas we have had in a long as our two bedroom apartment where we are currently living, was too small for five people and getting smaller by the day. The move to the Hilton enabled us to have a change of scenery, have some room to move around and sleep in a soft, luxurious ‘just like home’ bed!
We just took it easy the first day and hung around Sea World.
Our children decided that we needed to take some pictures so they could be Instagram stars.
By the second day we were ready to roll so we hopped the metro and took the kids to the Window of the World theme park. This is not a theme park as we know it (nothing here is as we know it) there are no giant roller coasters. It has about 130 miniature replicas of some of the most famous tourist attractions in the world squeezed into 48 hectares or 118 acres. The reproductions are grouped according to regions and everything is built to some sort of scale. Some of The Amazing Race 28 was filmed here in 2016 if you’re into that show. People here laugh at this place and call it cheesy. It kind of is, but if you can’t go to the world, the world can come to you. We decided that it was kind of fun because you could plan a future vacation to see the things you hadn’t seen or didn’t even know about. Enjoy the pictures and see how many you know. I couldn’t take pictures of everything but there is always Wikipedia if you want to expand your knowledge base!
The grounds of Window of the World were very well done and it was nice to be out wandering around in them. The gardener in me is always looking for inspiration!
The most fun for me at Window of the World was the ‘Cowboy and Indian’ section, not very politically correct but it did have an archery range. I paid my money for fifteen arrows and with my newfound archery skills challenged Cameron to a shootout. The lady running it had me shoot at a very close target and when she figured out I had done this before she moved me to the targets that were further away. By this time, quite a crowd had gathered to watch a Caucasian woman shoot a bow and arrow. Let’s just say that my new nickname could be Katniss from The Hunger Games and Cameron is no William Tell.
After logging a lot of steps through the park we made our way back to Sea World where we all had a Chinese foot massage. This particular massage involves soaking your feet in a little wooden bucket, a back,/neck/shoulder rub through your clothes, a foot massage followed by warm paraffin wax being painted on your feet. You get to relax in a lazy boy recliner while they work on you. So five of us in the same room with five people massaging your feet…nothing awkward about that! The masseuses asked us questions about who we were and we did manage to convey that we were a family and the birth order of the kids. I can only imagine what they were chatting about while they worked on us.
Now that we have been here awhile you start realize that when you live in Shekou, you live in a bubble. If you want, you can live in that bubble forever and be perfectly happy. We made a decision that before we moved here, we would not live in this bubble and try to experience everything that Shenzhen has to offer…well maybe not everything! David and I are not very adventurous on our own but together we are much more brave, just not crazy brave. So our adventures always begin with taking the subway.
Shenzhen Subway Map
Here is map of the Shenzhen subway. I swear to God that this is also what the inside of David’s brain looks like and that is why the man can navigate any subway system in any major city in the world. Shenzhen subway system is very new, very clean, very cheap, very efficient and very safe. It is safe because there are security guards around to make sure of that. After you buy your ticket at the kiosk, you have to pass through the security gate and put your bag through the X-ray machine on the conveyor belt, just like at the airport. After that you are good to go.
Kiosk
Token
We are using the tokens because we do not have WePay on our phones yet. You can’t get WePay on your phone until you get a bank account and you can’t get a bank account until you have an address. You can’t get an address until you get your residence permit and you can’t get your residence permit until you get your work permit. We are almost through all these stages as tomorrow we get a bank account. Well, Dave gets a bank account, I do not. I am kind of partial to the tokens and I will miss them.
It’s a long way up or down. Thankful for the escalators!
Gates where you use your token or your phone to get in and out of the subway.
Waiting for the train.
Make sure you read the sign above the door.
After an hour on the train we came above ground and had a ten minute walk through construction (they are always building something here) and we reached our destination. Today’s destination? The Stationary Market.
The Stationary Market consists of three building, five stories high, all filled with STUFF! As you can see, it is all decked out for Christmas. Christmas overload, that is.
You can get just about anything here… toys, towels, umbrellas, bags, paint brushes, calendars, thermos’, kitchenware and as the name implies, stationary and office supplies. Each little cubicle is filled to the brim and bursting at the seams with stuff. They will bargain with you but I think I insulted a lady when I offered her a price for two bags. She said they were cheap already and refused to bargain. Oh well, her loss.
Oh and just in case you didn’t know, 2019 is the Year of the Pig!
The pigs are in the background. These little Lucky Cats never fail to make me smile!
If you want to find out more about the Lucky Cats or Fortune Cats, take a peek at the link above. There’s your history lesson for the day! I did buy a few things at the market but not much. After awhile it just all blends together and you forget what you came for but the experience of it was great. Not very much off the beaten path but enough for us now!
Saturday wouldn’t be a Saturday without some shopping and it is no different here in Shenzhen. Pending the eventual move into our apartment we decided to buy some basic supplies at none other than Walmart. Yes there is Walmart in China and it has been here since 1996. Word on the street is that it’s pretty good but I have read a few articles that dispute this so we just decided to check it out for ourselves and form our own opinions.
Walmart is just a short, ten minute taxi ride from where we live and it costs us about $3.00CDN each way. That’s a real deal considering that in Calgary we are twenty minutes from the airport and it cost $35-$40 one way. Walmart is connected to yet another mall by an overhead walkway and from the walkway you can see what is going on in the plaza below.
Mall
Exit from the mall to Walmart
Walkway
Different groups of ladies dancing in lovely costumes
Aerobics
Upon entering Walmart you are greeted by Christmas music and decorations. Yes Diane Berge, Christmas is everywhere! The rest of the store is like our Canadian Walmarts but yet not. It is well laid out, clean, tidy and carries a LOT of stuff. The quality of the items carried is quite good and in some cases, better than what we get at home. There are many people in every department offering to help you and between our Microsoft translating app and hand gesturing we are able to find what we want. So check out what we saw…
So nothing unusual here. Just like any other Walmart you say? This is true until you decide you are done on this floor and are ready to go to the check-out downstairs. You access the lower floor by taking a flat escalator. As you go down the escalator the noise from the floor below gets louder and louder and louder. By the time you reach the lower floor, which is the grocery department, you can scarcely hear yourself think. It’s a very good thing that Dave is tall because he wove his way through the throng and I followed him. I stopped a few times to take a picture which probably wasn’t the best idea as I would lose him. But he is easy to see in a crowd and we eventually made it to the check- out line or should I say lines?
The pictures do not capture the sheer volume of people here, the noise or the aisle upon aisle of items. I’m pretty sure there was one whole side of one aisle just devoted to soy sauce. Needless to say though, we did enjoy our shopping trip to Walmart and we will be going back again but maybe not on a Saturday afternoon!
Dixie Goes to China 