21st September 2011 (16th day)

21^st September 2011 (16^th day)

Today after lessons, we went to west campus and have lunch. On our way there, I saw the auntie selling the pouch this time round and I make sure I get them before going for lunch if not it will ended up like the other time. I bought the sunflower pouch which costs 10RMB, $2, and I love the sunflower character very much and wishes to get hold more of the character of some other stuff. And this character is not available in Singapore and only saw it here. And other of my friends get other characters such as cat, stitch...

This time round I ate their 饼！Which is like Singapore’s style of Roti Prata with meat and veggies. After eating, I went to the minimart that sells the same stuffs like my campus I am studying at to get some tidbits. And again, they don’t provide us with plastic bags, which helps to save the environment and this makes China people to have a sense of responsibility to bring recycled bags to supermarket. If China people are same like Singaporeans who were given free plastic bags in the supermarket then they it will really cost the country a lot on plastic bags because of their huge population.

After that the guys went to play basketball and the girls went back hostel first before setting off to ‘虎泉’ street for shopping! This is the day whereby the girls got independent and didn’t depend on the guys to help us explore the place because it will be boredom if they followed us for shopping. We took Bus 715 there and once we reached, we saw this street and began shopping inside and thought this is (LAOＳＨｕｊｉｅ).  So we happily shopping inside till one of my friend asked is this the street and the person exclaimed that this is not! And all of us were shocked and she directed us to the street. So we stopped shopping there and went out and explore the place she directed us, and on the way, we saw Vincent; our classmate at the spectacle shop.

Another place to shop! this place is with air-con and the price inside is slightly higher than the street!

This is the Hu Quan Street!

 MY FAVOURITE CREPES IN CHINA!!!!!

All of belts!

In Singapore, you do not see them display their belts like that to sell, however i think this is a beautiful way to display, (:

Food is unstoppable to us; therefore we get some food to fill up our stomach before entering to the street market and start shopping again!  Halfway shopping, Alicia has stomach ache so I offered to company her to the toilet and we have to ask for directions. Soon we reached and the entrance fee was 0.3RMB, $0.06 comparing to Singapore’s toilet entrance which is $0.10. When she’s out, she mentioned that the toilet has no door and it’s extremely dirty. Inside, they are all squatting type and you are able to see the butt of the person infront of you, which disgusts me very much.

We shopped till 8pm and make our way back home. All of us are worry about how to get home fearing that the bus stop opposite do not have the bus we took here. And it’s quite late already and we wanted to get a private mini bus but it seems impossible to find and dangerous. Therefore we quickly find the entrance out and walk towards the opposite bus stop we came. Together we took care of ourselves for the whole day without the guys help, and I am proud of my girls!

Girl's POWER! hahah! many buys!!

Today I have learned about negotiation power. For every item that I bought, I will try to negotiate because we are taught that we should do this. As the shop tenant might know we are not locals and want to earn out money therefore setting a higher price initially. Some good shop tenants will allow abit of negotiation, but some does not so if we think the price is reasonable then we will get if not we will walk out of the shop. Sometimes they will call us back and reduce the price a little. However this is unlikely happened in Singapore because Singaporeans have their own pride and their price is quite standard. That explains that Singaporeans who think that the item is not reasonable will hence drop the deal and not ask for discount.