Saturday: Tea Market and Silk Market
9 hours. I cannot believe I spent nine hours shopping on Saturday (but do take into account travel time!). Two of my friends and I decided that it was time to start gift hunting for friends and family so we hit up the tea market and silk market...all in one day. It was very surprising that when we showed up to the tea market, it was empty. There were a couple of people here and there but for the most part...nothing. After walking around for a bit trying to pick which vendor to go to, we began the full tea market experience. The tea lady was so sweet and so patient with us. We tried all different types of tea and she definitely put on a show for us! She explained each tea very thoroughly and let us sample whatever we wanted. As a tea lover, it was a dream come true. At the end when we decided which tea we wanted, we were shocked to find out how inexpensive it was! I will be bringing tea back for my family and friends!!
Having a fabulous time tea-tasting
This woman has officially been dubbed "My Tea Lady." She makes tea like so fancy!
After picking out a few bags of tea, we hopped on the metro towards the Silk Market. I was definitely not mentally prepared for the Silk Market. It was overwhelming to say the least. So many natives, tourists, and the vendors were all over us. It felt as though I was being pulled by vendor to vendor. During my first negotiating encounter, it was clear that my negotiating skills were lacking. I felt terrible negotiating for something that was originally 300RMB to 20RMB! I overpaid at the first transaction but as time went on, I got more aggressive and made some GREAT deals! These vendors were interesting. Not only did they price items ridiculously but they knew what seemed like a million different languages--Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Spanish, English, Swedish, Russian. You name it, they know it. After perusing three floors, we finally decided to call it a day. I walked away a happy girl with a few cute purchases. I will be back Silk Market!
Sunday: Tianjin
My friend Rachael and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Tianjin. We left around 7:45am to catch the bullet train out. These bullet trains run every 15 minutes to Tianjin and took only 30 minutes. It blew my mind that it takes 30 minutes to get to another city while it takes me an hour to get to work every day. The trains were so clean, quiet, and there was more leg room than that of airplanes. Beautiful!
I went into Tianjin with low expectations but at the end of the day, I was so happy that we decided to go. Well worth it. The city was gorgeous and I think it was even more beautiful with a sunny spring day. The city was quite random though because on the same block there would be Western buildings and then a random Eastern influenced building. That's how it was throughout the city. Confused city?
The city seems to have never heard English or seen Americans. People stared...all day. When we asked for directions, they seemed to not know where anything was and we were sent in circles. Can you believe it took us close to two hours to find this one Thai restaurant (it's supposedly the best restuarant in the city)? After following a million different directions for this restaurant, we finally stopped at a Westin hotel for clear details. Lesson learned: when in need of help, go to a Western hotel.
This man is drawing this out of carmalized sugar. So impressive and the five-year old kid next to me was BEYOND excited. Too cute!
Old City Museum
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All this traveling this weekend has made me fall in love with getting on a train and going somewhere. Even flying to Fuzhou was exciting. I can't wait for more weekends filled with traveling!
Sounds like somebody has catch her grandfathers gene for travel
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