Thurs, October 22 - Shopping Glitz and More Favorite Food

Slept satisfied that I had already accomplished what I came back to Shenzhen to do.  Seeing Harry and the school again again were heart warming -- and the noodle place, well -- delicious.  It could easily become a "comfort" food -- like I previously posted about.

So, today I hatched a plan to ride the light rail "metro" to the city center -- just to people watch and figure it out again (I'd done it on prior trips, but the metro is now much larger).  So for the entire journey, 21 stops -- I was the only white person I saw -- as I rode the very busy metro to a stop called "Shopping Park Station."

I do love the metro cars here as unlike Washington, DC metro were you have to look out the window to see what stop you have arrived at -- there are lights that keep you informed of your exact progress:

And Shopping Park Station was a mega-shopping mall with both recognizable brands (Gap, Costa Coffee) and many others I didn't.  I found it interesting that smartly dressed and attractive female sales associates stood at the openings of most of the high end stores, just awaiting each person's approach.  Perhaps they are there just to get passerby's to look that way -- I couldn't help but think that in the USA, sales associates would be behind counters or tending to stocking/folding/cleaning.

While enjoying free wifi and an espresso, I texted with Staci and she recalled from memory the Pinyin spelling of Chinese names for two other delicious dishes at our favorite hole-in-the-wall. Knowingly, Staci quipped in her text that I would be incapable of speaking the names intelligibly and the cook would only be able to read characters, she suggested I get the Chinese characters.  So I texted the names to my dear friend Andy (more about him in tomorrow's post) and he sent back the Chinese characters for shredded potato and green onion pancakes.  Some of you may appreciate that I was "iMessage" texting with Staci, while "What's App" texting other friends, and "WeChat" texting Andy.  WeChat is the most common Chinese texting program.  It was crazy fun!  So, talking about these special dishes inspired me to return to the hole-in-the-wall for these dishes.

After window shopping a little in the mega-mall, I was back on the metro.  I decided to get off one stop early so I could check out the routing to the airport for tomorrow's flight, but then realized I was quite a distance from my little village restaurant -- so for 10RMB I jumped on the back of an electric motor scooter who whisked me closer to my destination.  Click  here for a youtube video I shot of the ride!

I proceeded to the cook who was smiling to see me again -- showed him the characters and in short order had this delicious meal in front of me - 15RMB ($2.36USD). 

If you'd like to see a little of the street in front of the noodle place -- click here for a short youtube.  The video ends just a bit beyond the noodle place.  Going from the glitz of the Shopping Park mega-mall back to the Xingwei village reminded me of something I had read in wikipedia about Shenzhen: "The population structure polarizes into two opposing extremes: intellectuals with a high level of education, and migrant workers with poor education."

Afterwards I walked back to the school campus I visited yesterday -- before walking back to my motel.

Another good day with great food.