9/11/16: The Jungle

1.     9/11/16

a.     Sleep in, lazy lunch.

b.     Go with Xin to retail markets recommended by Xin’s mom, where you go if you’re looking for a deal and not the cachet of shopping at a pricey shopping mall. This part of town is absolutely teeming. Whatever chaos of sidewalk vendors and stores I’ve described before, this is 2x. And the streets are so crowded. There are giant bales of… stuff… out on the sidewalks. Giant bales. People unpacking, wrapping, hawking, an explosion of the stores and warehouses right out onto the sidewalks.

c.     Get incredible shave ice and fruit thing, with like 10 different toppings, for 6 yuan ($1).

d.     Finally find first store Xin’s stepmother recommends. I’m shocked to discover the setup is like the cell phone retailer—tons upon tons of individual retailers, no listed prices. My eyes get sore almost immediately, dazzled by so many offerings with so little order. Decision-making faculties retract into a tight shell. I get three little binder things and then retreat to satisfying my curiosity. Personally think a well-organized Wal-Mart full of authentically cheap Chinese goods could wipe The Jungle out of business pretty quick. Very radically different from US retail if I have to emphasize that. Malls are similar but this—the WalMart equivalent—is absolutely bizarre. (Hey! A bizarre bazaar. Isn’t that whence the adjective derives?)

e.     Visit Chaotianmen, the place where the two rivers intersect and their different colors of water ribbon out across the expanse. Great view of the whole city.

f.      Special Moon Festival dinner at home. Moon Festival is Thursday, I’m missing it, Xin’s family (incredibly generously) wanted to have me try some of the foods. Xin says it’s because that goofball I met earlier (the police commissioner) is planning his dinner on Thursday and they have to attend, but want to do a family thing. But I’m worried they’re just doing it for me. Anyway, it’s amazing. Sweet sticky rice things, numbing fried chicken, mouthwatering mouse, perforated lotus-root. It’s the one dinner we eat without rice. I wonder if they would eat all dinners without rice if that were monetarily feasible. Afterwards drink beer and regale to Xin’s dad’s stories of catching criminals as a cop.

g.     Learn something incredibly striking about chinese legal system, one reason tour scams are still so common. If you get into a fight over how much you pay for dinner, and for example, the restaurateur stabs you with a knife, in a region where it does no lasting damage—that’s a civil dispute! A civil case! Punishable by 15 days in prison. What. The. Actual. Frick. This means that you can (and this happens often) be totally extorted by people with big knives who run mafia restaurants with tour guides. Blows my mind. Now, as a cop, Xin’s dad is safe from scam, even off duty. Stabbing a cop gets you in real deep trouble.

h.     After dinner, walk with Xin’s dad and Xin, learn martial arts from Xin’s dad, almost get haircut.