quick SZ trip last wednesday.

between my saigon trip and my seoul trip, I made a quick day trip across the border to SZ on wednesday. I had to give a talk at our research center up there, but afterwards I stuck around to do some shopping.

I went back to the D0ngmen shopping area. I discovered yet more blocks of shops of all sorts that I didn't see the last time. This one was very interesting, the ground floor was all game shops, the upstairs was mostly young womens' fashion, and on the top floors they had a lot of shops selling japanese anime stuff, stickers and yes, even cosplay costumes.

I ended up doing some GBA games.... got them for $3.12 each... apparently the going rate on newer games (the price varies based on the RAM required to copy onto the cartridge, some are $2.50, some are $3.75)...

Holy smokes! its the first McDonalds in Mainland China! Opened in October 1990! Right here! I had no idea it was here in SZ (but I guess it makes sense, being right next to HK. Its pretty big, like 400 seats (not the biggest I've seen in China, but up there).

China is always full of suprises:

i'm not sure you can what that is... you can use your imagination or read this:

its a kid taking a crap on a piece of newspaper in the middle of the sidewalk while it was raining... Why? I don't know... its not like there weren't any bathrooms in the malls...

Here's what I got:

Yes, I got a big ass heavy jacket to wear in Korea (i left my winter jacket in japan over the summer... as I didn't think I'd need it til i returned). I also got a few DVDs for mcchubb and the Gameboy games... two star wars, simpsons roadrage, a mario and a Bruce Lee game.

the jacket was only $19, they had cheaper ones too, but i'm willing to splurge for the sake of not freezing my ass off.

update: i'm disappointed no one wanted to comment on perhaps the most scandalous etchy blog picture ever... :-P

I also forgot to mention one interesting anecdote from this adventure... i mentioned the last time I came here about the aggressive panhandlers (i knocked the dish out of the hand of a beggar woman who was trying to grab onto my mother's arm).

This time this older woman came up to me and she APPEARED to have an amputated arm... she was wearing a sweater and her arm ended somewhere between the shoulder and the end of the sweater's sleave was folded in, leaving a stump.

She, like most of them was being aggressive, she came up to me and started tugging on my sleave as I was walking by a store looking in. Of course I quickly pulled my arm away and said (in chinese, the usual). and she persisted to push her bowl into me.

but for some reason I noticed that something didn't look right... she was a bit pudgy, but it seemed like her torso was a bit mishapen and moving in the wrong way, and I got instantly suspicious. I said "hey, is this real?!" and believe it or not I started poking back at her! (it was all in the span of a second, I was surprised i did it myself). She instantly pulled away but it basically felt like her 'stump' was just a sleeve stuffed w/ socks or foam or something... she kind of yelled at me and waved her hand at me, as she knew she had been busted. and quickly scampered away.

it was pretty bizarre....