17 July 2009

Tiff and Song headed out to get their nails done after we dropped off the ironing, did I mention that labor is inexpensive in China, People don’t do their own Ironing it’s cheaper to have someone else do it. Peichen, one of his school mates and I went on one crazy shopping expedition. I wanted to get a spare battery and a USB key so we could empty the cameras onto it. Peichen took us to the electronics part of town, the building that housed the electronics was massive with each floor dedicated to a different electronic device. One floor was dedicated to mobile phones and another floor had cameras, we made our way up to the floor that had batteries and memory cards.

We presented the sample battery to a sales assistant who was manning one of the stalls, the sales assistant grabbed the battery and headed off into the maze of various electronics retailers to see if she could match it. Peichen asked another attendant about the USB stick and she too disappeared into the labyrinth returning a short time later with a 4Gig memory card. The battery however was not to be found and we were advised to go to the equally large building full of electronics next door. Peichen always the fierce negotiator was able to get the USB key for 65 RMB when the previous day I had seen a similar one for 120 RMB. After we collected the battery from the building next door, we went to get Peichen some shoes for the wedding and he managed to negotiate a discount on those and then sold his receipt to some random who could claim it on tax for a further 20 RMB.

We all met up at the hotel where song and peichen’s ceremony was going to be held the next day. Every one pitched in and helped to set up the table arrangements which took most of the afternoon, Songs Aunty dropped of some KFC at some point to help feed the troops. When most of the tasks we could help with were completed, one of Song and Peichen’s friends offered to take us to see the Olympic stadium and the Olympic park.

The finished product

Room for a couple of hundred of your mates

The drive over there was something to give Sydney cab drivers a run for their money, however once we arrived and had cleaned the pedestrians and bikes out of the grill, we had a good wander around and took loads of photos. There were stacks of things happening with bands and street performers all over the place. Some people were flying kites they would have been at least 1km up and they had strung heaps of small LEDs at various intervals hanging down from the main string so that you could see it in the dark. The Birds nest was interesting enough I was thinking that perhaps they had just dumped the steel there and decided to weld it together where it lay. The Pool covering was something else and was lit up from the inside with an array of alternating lights.

I reckon with an angle grinder and a welder we could probably make something out of it

Spectacular

On the way back to the hotel Song and Peichen’s friend dropped into the place where she was going to have her wedding the following year. It was one of the walled off houses that have been in Beijing for a long time and would probably have belonged to someone of importance back in the day. Quite a nice little joint and if I had known how to speak a little more Chinese back then I could probably have asked more about it.

Converted walled house

The Dragon room

We arrived back just as everyone was starting to clear out so we caught a lift back to Song and Peichen’s place to crash for the night. Tiff stayed up with Peichen and helped him to put money into red envelopes for the games to come in the morning.