Sunday, 11/17/13

We’ve been talking about trying to find another market for either clothes, or items to bring with us when we travel to the US in December.  We’ve heard about the Zoo Market, near the Beijing Zoo.  Supposedly this a great place to buy in bulk, and “knock-offs” are easily accessible.  We’ll see.

We grab a taxi and head over this morning to check it out.  We arrive at the zoo, and start trying to find the markets (there are supposed to be several within a block of the zoo.  We walk inside the nearest building, and it is definitely a market area.  There are hundreds of stalls and vendors.  We wander the aisles, and unlike some of the other markets we’ve walked through, the vendors don’t yell at you and grab you.  This is much more sedate.  Each floor is it’s own area of shopping.  The basement is shoes, 1st floor is men’s clothing, 2nd floor is jackets, etc.  I don’t know how a vendor could make a sale.  There are so many options for each product.

None of the items appeal to us, so we go looking for another market.  Sure enough, with a little walking we find three more really big market areas, with different levels of quality.  These bigger markets seem to be wholesale markets.  Most of the merchandise is tied up into large packages.  It actually becomes overwhelming, there are so many floors with so much stuff.  This will be a good place to come when we have list of needed items, but wandering around is just a waste of time.

Worn out and hungry, we decide to go to Solana Mall for lunch.  It’s on the other side of town, and by the time we arrive, we’re ravenous.  I convince Judy to eat at Cabare, where I ate last week.  We find a comfortable table looking out on the fountain area and enjoy a relaxing meal.  As we leave the mall, we stop at Paris Baguette, an upscale bakery, and make some purchases for dinner.  We’ve avoided stopping here on our last 3 visits to the mall, but couldn’t get past it this time.  All the displays are tempting and we leave with a full sack of bread and pastry items that should last a week, but will probably not make it to tomorrow.  At home, naps and schoolwork take up the rest of the day. 

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