 Jeremy and I found a curious product. Among the cheeses — and there aren’t many — we briefly considered a package of those terrible American cheese slices. “Ah, reminds me of home!” But then we found a thing that was truly horrifying. It looked like the normal individually wrapped American cheese-food slices, but it was the wrong color. It was a deep brown. Was it some kind of meaty cheese perhaps? No. In fact, it was was clearly labeled (in English) “chocolate cheese slices.” Spectacular as that sounds, we didn’t buy any.</p>
<p>I really hate shopping, especially the crowds and noise. And then with the additionaly burden of having to check for shoddy production and trying to haggle for better prices, I generally avoid the entire fiasco. But today I braved the masses. I went down to the bike market just behind the Wal-Mart. I hate the bike mart. It’s suspiciously empty with rows and rows of shiney new bikes and a handful of sleepy looking salespeople. They are terrifically overpriced. One guy started his price at 880RMB ($110) for a three-speed. Kunming is overflowing with bikes and I doubt anyone but the most posh asshole would pay that much for a bike — the exception being bike people that go to specialty shops. My friend Shannon was telling me that you could have a very, very, very <a href=http://092.me>nice</a> bike custom built for that kind of money. Sigh. It only hurts because Jeremy’s has a great bike and he got such a good deal on it because he was in the right place at the right time. He found a foreigner leaving town desperate to sell a nearly new bike. People have told me to check out the secondhand bike mart but I have no idea where it is. I guess I’ll have to figure that out if I want to buy one.</p>
<p>Actually my failed attempt to buy a bike is fairly typical of all of my shopping experiences here. That day we went to Wal-Mart and saw that terrible cheese, it was the same: I’m sure we spent hours trying to get up the nerve to go out and then we didn’t buy a thing. So exhausting! Yes, it’s quite a shopper’s paradise here. I think I need to recruit my friend Angels next time. She doesn’t have any trouble spending money. Heh.</p>
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5 comments ↓
- #1 Amelie on 11.04.06 at 1:30 pm
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i think a second-hand bike is a good choice. the second-hand market here is called 张官营旧货交易市场。you can take no.10 bus there(from yunnan normal uni.bus stop to 张官营 bus stop).or just take a taxi there. (zhang guan yin ,jiu huo jiao yi shi chang)
from my expericences, buying a new bike in the bike mart is not that expensive. you have to bargin with them.usually paying for 150-250,you can get one.(of course it’ll be an ordinary one without 3 speed ^_^)
although life here is quite different from home, hope u can enjoy your stay in KM.
- #2 Richard in Kunming on 11.04.06 at 2:13 pm
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I’ve also been bike-shopping here in Kunming. Second-hand bikes are mostly stolen. If that concerns you, best to ask a local to ‘check things out’ for you first. I also wanted a second-hand bike – why pay full price? But between quality and the questionable nature… I think I’ll just buy new. Carrefoure had some around ¥400, I’ll probably just do something like that. Let me know how you make out though. :)
- #3 Elizabeth on 11.04.06 at 3:37 pm
- #4 Adam Chen on 11.05.06 at 5:52 pm
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Actually, it is extremely easy to be stolen. In my momery,from the time that i was able to ride a bike to present, i had lost 8 bikes in kunming.Do you think that sounds bad? if you want to buy a second-hand one without any local people accompanying you, you must be buy one at high price. because you don’t know the price of bike market.Moreover,most of second hand bikes were stolen to sell.consequently since i knew that, i have never bought any second-hand one, the more second hand bikes were bought, the more the bikes were stolen. So i suggest you buy a new one if even the price is higher.Usually i choose Giant(a brand of bike). if you want to buy one, there are many exclusive shops around kunming.
- #5 Jonathan on 11.13.06 at 6:16 pm
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I have a basically brand new bike you can have for 200 RMB! I leave in a month and have only used it a few times. I got it new from Carrefour.
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