Indulging My Inner Shopper

Back to the big city...

After 4 days of reverie in the “pastoral ideal” China of rural Guangzhou, I returned to the city where my sister resides: the “Urban Chic” China of Guangzhou.

Here, I delved – with gusto- into all things urban: shopping malls, shopping streets, markets, spas, hair salons, sushi buffets, dim-sum diners, bubble tea counters, supermarkets, cafes, 7-11, IKEA, metro stations…

This is the window display of the Guangzhou IKEA. Notice
the people making themselves comfortable on the display
furniture. It's quite normal to find people napping in the beds
or posing for photos in the demo kitchens. Quite funny!

Now those who know me well, know that I’m not much of a consumer. I revel in simplicity and strive for a life relatively unburdened by materialism as necessitated by my nomadic habits. I harbour feelings of disdain for establishments starting with “W” and ending with “Mart” or the heinous invention known as the “box store”. And, admittedly…I can be downright miserly at times.

However… There are certain times, in certain places, where the wee small consumer inside of me has a sudden growth spurt and is let out to play. Now, this doesn’t happen without some feelings of guilt, hesitation, and some serious self questioning, at which point I try to rationalize this uncharacteristic behaviour with reminders that I don’t normally live like this and a rare splurge can’t be so bad, and that ¾ of my shopping list is for others who can’t access these goods in Sudan, and so on.

Moral dilemmas aside…I confess…it was fun. The “kid in the candy shop” phenomenon was definitely at play, or in my case “the Sudanese bush-dweller in the shopping mall” phenomenon.

You know that part in the classic plot of any cheesy feel-good film where Pretty Woman gets her shopping spree, or newly in-love couple enjoys a magical day together, or some other happy moment is attained and the heart-warming music plays as the film cuts from scene to happy scene of life being wonderful? Well, here’s that sequence of my China trip:

This was the electronics mall on probably one of the most insane
days of the year to go shopping. It was a public holiday, and
apparently everyone else wanted to by a computer too. The people
working in here are machines! I literally had to stop and take
a few deep breathes at one point.

...but...consumerism got the best of me. Here I am with my
whopping electronic purchases of the day for friends in Sudan.

Where is the other partner for the perfect shoe??

There's got to be a steal of a deal down there somewhere...

...Aha...this is interesting...

My shopping guide extraordinaire in the "market of small things"

Ah – and I can’t write about consumption without mentioning how positively scrumptious every meal I ate here was. We did some good eating – and plenty of it. Chinese food from several different regions, plus Japanese, Vietnamese, Azeri, Western, Italian..mmmm

All you can order Sushi. We shared the table with a large family.
They TOTALLY out-ate us (even the kid). We kept thinking they
were done and then the waitress came with more bowls and plates
for everyone.

One of my very favourite meals in China, in the market place in Fuli.
A bowl of puffed rice, other puffed cereals and peanuts in a tasty steaming
broth. With a fantastic donut-like pastry dipped in. Mmmm...


How bizarre. I come to China and find the Baku restaurant in
Guangzhou! Mmm...the dolma brought back memories.


This one was a brave experiment on my part - and turned out
to be very tasty. Slimy goodness. It's a hot pudding with sesame seeds.

Here's another experiment. Everyone else in the restaraunt had them
and they just looked SO COOL! What is it, you might ask? A mountain of
sugar snow (like a snow cone) dripping with...yes, that's right, beans
and lentils! Ok...weird, I fully admit. But it was actually relatively tasty
...at least the first few bites. (We shared.)

Have you seen a prettier piece of chocolate cake?

Being served samples of jasmine tea in a small side-street tea shop.
At this point, she's pouring out the first brewed pot on the lucky
clay pig (an important part of the tea pouring ritual)

We did make 1 home-cooked meal.