8.21.2001 8.22.2001 REFERRAL! 8.23.2001 New Pictures 8.24. 2001 To Austin! 8.27.2001The Other Jin Yi Ling 8.30.2001 Care Package 8.31.2001 Update! 9.06.2001 Travel approval 9.10.2001 Poem 9.11.2001 9.12.2001 Travel booked 9.26.2001 Itinerary 10.03.2001 Departure Day 10.05.2001 Hong Kong 10.07.2001 HK Day 2 10.07.2001 Nanning 10.08.2001 GOTCHA DAY! 10.09.2001 It's official! 10.10.2001 Tourist time 10.11.2001 Green Mountain Park 10.12.2001 Market 10.13.2004 Last Day in Nanning 10.15.2001 Visa Day 10.17.2001 Last Day! 10.19.2001 We're Home! Post or view Messages

Our group took another trip to the department store this morning. Walking through the streets with the babies is an experience. As we walk along, everyone stares and points and giggles! We've gotten quite a few thumbs-ups and a lot of the old women like to come over and look at the babies. We haven't run into any clothing police yet (the old ladies who come over and scold the parents because the babies are not dressed warmly enough). We bought a cheap stroller at the department store, and Zoe isn't exactly thrilled with it. So long as we are constantly moving, she'll put up with it. She liked being carried in the baby carrier, though. The department store is huge, multilevel, and looks pretty modern. But the way business is transacted is pretty old-fashioned. We bought some clothes and shoes in the baby department, and it worked something like this. You pick out your item and give it to the sales lady. She hand-writes a ticket. She then disappears, taking the ticket with her. You pick out another item. Same thing. When you're finished, she points you toward the cashier. You pay the cashier. The cashier gives you a receipt. You return to your department. The sales lady looks at your receipt and then bags your stuff. And you do this over and over again in each department! We trekked through the store a gazillion times just to buy some simple stuff! The group of 5 families with Guiping babies also bought a boatload of toys for the Guiping SWI. This afternoon we went to the Guangxi Province Museum. They had a nice exhibit of minority costumes (the majority of the population in this province is from minority groups rather than Han Chinese). We then walked through the Minorities Relics Park, which has buildings from the various minority groups, including a bridge built with no nails (kind of glad I didn't know that when I walked across it!) It was interesting to see these ancient buildings with the modern highrises of Nanning behind them. We also got to see a dance troupe doing indiginous dances of the region. That was in stark contrast to the photo shoot we saw of a bridal party, the bride decked out in a very Western white wedding gown complete with train and veil. This page accessed 483 times