Shopping in Shenyang

This afternoon, I went to a shopping center across town. Trying to hail a cab at 4:30 in the afternoon is a bit harder than I thought, though. Eventually, a cabbie stopped and helped me put the stroller in the trunk. He already had a passenger in the front seat, but that's a pretty common practice here, especially at rush-hour times, to double up on fares. Well, this guy kept pulling over for every flapping hand, asking them where they were going, and he didn't even start the meter until the third passenger. The third guy who finally joined our little taxi party was really, really dirty. I think he must have been fixing a car in a coal mine while chimney sweeping or something. I offered him a wet wipe, but he turned it down. It was more than a one-wipe mess. We eventually dropped him off. He ran inside to get his money, then ran back out to pay the cabbie.

Eventually we made it to my shopping center. I'd never been there before, and it was really swanky! There was a big haunted house set up in the pavilion, with people wearing vampire capes and lines of people ready to get in. I've never seen something so Halloweeny before in China. Further on, there was a life-size sculpture of Optimus Prime. If it had been daytime, I would have totally taken a picture. He was made with real tires and probably a real semi-truck! I'm not a huge fan of the Transformers movies, having heard better dialogue performed by kids playing with the toys, but this was an impressive display!

I did my shopping, finally buying Penny some decent winter clothes (from H&M; the one in my building doesn't carry children's clothes). As I was trying to catch a cab home, I walked by a store selling decent kids' clothes... for a fraction of the price. I spent all my cash in that store, leaving about 12 kuai for me to get home. A taxi would be more than that, plus no cabs were stopping. Let's hear it for planning ahead! So I took the subway home. Shenyang actually has a really nice subway system. Who knew?!

The subway cost 2 kuai, and on the final stretch toward home, I stopped and bought 10 kuai worth of pears. There are a million varieties of pears here in China. The ones I bought are my new favorites. They're about the size of a plum and a beautiful golden brown color. They're soft and taste really sour. I love them! They're called nan guo li, meaning "south fruit pear." Either way, they're wonderful.

When I got home, I literally had no money left. But I had lots of stuff, and that's what's important.