A Visit to Shopping Street

Yesterday Rose and I had hoped to find "Girls Street" to go bargain for some new clothes, but we forgot to find out the Chinese name for the street and no one knew what we were talking about when we asked for directions. Instead we hung around Wu Ma Jie (Shopping Street) and started by visiting a book store. Rose is going to trade language lessons with a Chinese woman and she needed to get a text book. The bookstore is quite large and has three stories. I found a book that is written in English and Chinese character called "A Schoolboy in Three Cultures" and it is about a boy that lived in Beijing, Vancouver BC and Hong Kong and the differences he found in the educational systems. I think it should give me some good examples to use in my classes. The photo above is Wu Ma Jie. It is pedestrian only (yay!) and has a similar feel to the shopping streets in other countries.



Wu Ma Jie translates to "five horses street" and the name refers to a street that was big enough for a cart to be pulled by five horses. This sculpture is at the end of the street.
We decided to wander some side streets and found an entire street that is devoted to little shops selling bedding. I wonder how all of these little shops selling the exact same things can survive.....
Eventually we strolled into a cool little neighborhood that surrounds this temple. Inside the temple is an exhibit on Wenzhou, but it was all in character so Rose and I just looked at the pictures. Across the street from this place was a shop selling snacks. Their specialty was this little flattened bread (looked kind of like a quesadilla) that was filled with seaweed and potatoes and onion. The man gave us one that was hot off the pan and it was great! It cost less than 50 cents American.

Some people have asked me what I mean when I mention "European looking shoes" and here is an example. I know that this style of shoe is now pretty popular everywhere, but the first place I saw them was on a trip to Europe, so to me they will always be "Euro shoes".

Finally, here is a sample of the vast high heeled shoe selection in Wenzhou. I am convinced that that status provided by traditional foot binding has been replaced by the wearing of high heels. I see women wearing these things everywhere- when they ride bikes, at work, at the grocery store, on the bus, teetering along the un-level sidewalks.... the fact that there are so many places around here offering foot massages now makes perfect sense!

The weather has finally cooled and I can't believe that I was wearing a sweatshirt this morning! I heard that it snowed in Northern China yesterday so I'm sure we are in for several days of cool weather. Wenzhou is way more livable when it isn't so damn hot.

I'm off to write my lesson plans!

L