China Post #33 Assorted

Here are some shots from another expat, Ian (EYE-an), who went with us to Dandong last month. A nice little family shot near the end of the Great Wall.

I had a shot of Linda climbing on the broken bridge and here is one of me. Since Linda would never look at the bridge and think, OH that looks good to climb someone had to start it.
And of course what mom and dad do.....
The little ones try to follow.

Of course Ian right now is stuck in Beijing. He showed up 29 minutes before his flight departed, I don't know if it was because he was running late or what but you could easily get through security and to the gate in every airport we've been through in time. Yet in China check in closes, PERIOD, 30 minutes before departure so in Beijing he stayed. Hopefully he makes it back or works something out since his flight back to the US leaves tomorrow morning at 10AM.

I had mentioned how China has invested heavily in High speed rail. Well as we sped along on our journey to Huashan we passed many of these towers in varying states of completion.
While out shopping in Shanghai we passed this store, UM Yeah, lets do that.
We also checked out this shopping mall, 4 stories high with almost 100 stalls on each floor, though after about 5 or 6 they started to repeat themselves.
You had the stores with coin purses and bags in all sorts of colorful patterns. Shops with t-shirts that had typical China images such as Mao or panda bears. Then there were the name brand shoe stores where you could get Nike and Adidas for ridiculously low prices. Outdoor clothing stores where the Mammut and Arcteryx soft shells had no stretch to them and exposed raise seams on the inside. Oakley sunglasses that were obviously not, but had the label along with $2,000 watches for 20 bucks. It really is all about the label, some of the stuff may have "fallen" off the back of the truck or slipped out the back door from the factory, but most of it was completely fake.

My favorite shop though was the Ipad, electronic accessory and lingerie store, they also had mens underwear as well.

It was interesting to see westerners walking around with suitcases full of stuff just buying everything in sight. Then of course there was this sign explaining what the mall stood for.
OK then. It is all fine and dandy to make knock off clothing and such but it has gone too far when THIS becomes an issue. This is a little too close to home for us as climbers and it seem that someone in China really lacks a conscience. Though I did not see any of this gear at this particular mall. If you ever go to a place like this just be sure that you are willing to deal with the consequences of having whatever you purchase fall apart on you. I don't think the government expressly promotes this kind of retail as the shop keepers did not want people taking photos of the product.

Enough for now.