We spent most of December 29th lounging around Aaron’s apartment and watching TV. After all, that’s what vacations are for, right? Aaron had to teach a class in the afternoon, but Taara brought along some TV shows to watch and Aaron has a large collection of Chinese bootle…er…perfectly legal DVDs, so they kept us busy.

In the evening we found ourselves headed towards Miriam and Heather’s house (two of Aaron’s friends who also teach English here in Guangzhou). Aaron brought home Pizza Hut pizza (real, pork pepperoni! we don’t get that in Bangladesh) and we enjoyed a nice game of Settlers (especially nice because I won!).

But the real fun was to begin on Day 4 of our trip, December 30, when Aaron introduced us to one of the many multi-storied wholesale shopping malls in Guangzhou, where stores are crammed together like sardines. We were able to snap some pictures of some of the interesting things we saw, so that we could share them with you.

I’ll keep the commentary down to a minimum (yeah, right) so that you can enjoy the pictures for what they are. Let’s start with what might be the most controversial:

That’s right, Saddam Hussein and George Bush boxing puppets! An Osama Bin Laden puppet is also available (not pictured) but there was no Pakistani cave model to scale so we figured it wasn’t realistic enough for a photo.

Little did you know that Apple was poised to announce two new models of iPod, the “iPod Cylinder” and “iPod Cuboid.” Well, here they are in all their glory. They won’t play MP3s, all they will do is tune in (some) radio stations, but for $2 what do you expect? Apple’s legal team would have a party in this place…

We couldn’t come to China without seeing the Great Wall (or so lots of people told us), so we went out and saw it. Here it is. Personally I thought it would be a lot bigger, but the salesperson assured me this was, in fact, the Great Wall of China. It’s a beautiful etching in (I think) pewter protected by a glass pane and mounted on a nice frame. Cost is about $20 or so (before bargaining), we may go back for one of these, after all, who else will be able to say they have the real Great Wall of China in their living room?

This one is bound to be a big success in Bangladesh (at least once they get their electricity problems sorted out). It’s a beautiful picture frame with a large backlit photo that hangs on your wall. There were assorted types with LED clocks, countdowns, and so on, but in this case simplicity really equaled elegance. The picture above is of the Ka’bah mosque in Mecca, where Muslims go yearly on their hajj (pilgrimage).

Among all the other nifty gadgets and toys were stores that seemed to be selling faux military gear. I’m not sure who would buy these things wholesale, but some of it certainly caught my attention, like the laser-aimed spy microphone pictured above. Yeah, that’s right, a directional microphone with an aim and headphones that permit you to listen in on conversations from far away. Why they would sell such devices in a country who would obviously never engage in such invasions of privacy, I have no idea…(or maybe these are just surplus from the latest run manufactured for the US Homeland Security Dept…hmm…).

Speaking of freedom-loving regimes, it was hard to find items with red stars or hammer and sickles stamped on them (believe me, I was looking).

I did find some vintage-looking Russian vodka flasks (with Russian writing on them - probably misspelled if the local English translations are any indication), and the bags pictured to the right, with depictions of Chairman Mao and the Red Star. Unfortunately they looked too cheap and badly made to buy, but I’m still on the lookout for my People’s Republic Souvenir. I did see some (also ratty-looking) posters of Chairman Mao on the street the other day, so there’s still hope. The ultimate score, of course, would be a Zippo lighter with a hammer and sickle or bright red star on it. Still haven’t seen one of those though…

Besides all the wonderful shopping, there are a few pictures I just need to share with everyone. The two blind men below are playing Erhu’s, traditional Chinese instruments. They were playing in perfect time and in perfect harmony, out in public.

Then there were the signs we saw, warning people against leaning on the angry subway doors…

…or stealing the merchandise…

Yes, you evil thieve, I have you now!

Day 5 was a bit boring so I’ll save a few of Day 4’s photos for the next post (actually it’s 2 AM and I need to sleep). I’ll continue Day 4’s saga tomorrow with the tale of the sketchy DVD store!