This past holiday weekend we were invited by Sandy, another foreign instructor, to go explore Beijing. She had said that the China World Trade Center was going to host the city's first Ex Pat Show and figured it might be a worthwhile exhibition for us to go see. Since we are always up for new things we delightfully excepted her invitation. Plus, she mentioned that she hadn't seen us for a while and wanted to reconnect and see how we were getting along.Yes, if you didn't catch that opening sentence we did mean holiday. Qing Ming Jie, is an important but not as well known to foreigners holiday. Translated it means Tomb Sweeping Day. Upon learning about the day, we realized how similar it is to Día de los muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexican tradition. Chinese families take time out from their regular routines to clean and visit graves of loved ones who have passed. Several businesses take time off from work and worship on this day. This included BISU which allowed for faculty and students to get Friday off from classes.
Adán was also finally able to get a haircut during this weekend. It had been over a month so he was itching to have it done. We were totally lost as to knowing where the best place to go would be and on top of that we really did not have enough Chinese under our belt to communicate with the barbershop. That's where Linda came in. She is the great freshman student in Adán's Oral English class that desperately wants to improve her mastery of the English language.
She was more than happy to meet us at 9:00am on her day off from school! We met at the courtyard right next to the tennis courts on campus. The first place Linda took us was to the school's barber. Not knowing how much we could afford, she decided it was best to start their. Many of the male students frequent this small and hidden shop. In fact we did not know what it and we had passed by it half a dozen times prior. Once inside it was liking taking a step back into the 50's. A older man in his 70's was giving a haircut to a student in one chair while a female in her 40's was cutting another young man's hair. The scissors, clippers, and even hair dryer looked at least 30 years old. The bench seat to wait had definitely seen better years. Since we still had a couple of passport photos on us, Adán used that as a way of showing the barber what kind of haircut he was wanting. Linda took the picture and asked the female if she was able to do this particular style. She hesitantly said yes. Then Linda asked the older gentleman the price of a haircut. It was 5 yuan (less than 75 cents)! Unfortunately we weren't convinced that they could cut hair the way Adán needed it so we exited the building. As we got outside Linda had this concerned look on her face. "I'm glad you said you didn't want your haircut there, but I don't know where I can take you now," she said. We responded by saying that we saw several little shops outside the school grounds and maybe one of them would suffice. She hesitated until she finally said, "Yes, I thought about those place but they are very expensive." We asked how much and when she told us 20 yuan (less than $3 dollars), we said let's go.
On the way we explained that haircuts in the U.S. regularly top $10-12 dollars and she was amazed. It was not long until we reached a shop that appeared to be very hip and trendy. Inside we saw about 20 young men and women working. The pace was day and night compared to the on-campus barbershop. Linda showed my picture to on particular hairstylist and he immediately nodded his head confidently. We didn't even need for her to interpret that response for us. Within half an hour Adán lost about five pounds of his head and the haircut, although not like Razor Ray's, would work. We paid and were on our way. We both thanked Linda and she departed to prepare for a tutoring session she had later that afternoon.
Ex Pat Show Beijing
After getting Adán's haircut, we grabbed a quick bit to eat and were off to Sandy's place. She was ready to go as we knocked on her door and she promptly answered. Our route was to get on the subway and take it until we reached Guomao station. It was a nice quick trip to get to the trade center. It took maybe twenty minutes tops. We arrived just as the doors were opening to the event. Inside we quickly registered and were off. The show since it was the first annual was rather small. There was about 100 exhibits with everything from organic yogurt, to golf pros, to chiropractors. Pazi and Sandy spent a lot of time at the booths for travel packages, guides, etc. Sometimes it was to get information and brochures, but other times it was to get the free pens and notepads. We spent roughly two and a half hours seeing all that the show had to offer. It ended up being worth the visit (free admission helped) even though nothing really stuck out as being memorable. That is until we were about ready to leave. In the last hallway right before exiting the trade hall, we noticed a man at a small booth in the corner. This artist was making animal figures from what appeared to be wax or some other material. We quickly learned that it was sugar and he was shaping it as heated it. It was amazing to see his ability to mold these small creatures with such precision and incredible attention to detail (see photo).
We ended our day with a bit to eat and a quick tour of the Xiu Shui , the famous Silk Street and Pearl Market. This indoor facility houses hundreds of vendors selling anything and everything, somethings authentic but more things fake. Since it was absolutely insane here we decided it was best to come another day. In fact, we decided to pencil it in for one of our "free Tuesdays." We'll definitely share more about this famous Beijing shopping center very soon.
