Golden Five Star Market & Metro Outing

This is how today began...wet!

This picture is at the bus stop at 7:00am. The streets were completely flooded and our feet were soaked! D doesn't look very happy for a Friday!

I had planned on meeting some ladies and heading to a market, I was contemplating it with the weather. But I decided, "what the heck" and opened my umbrella and made the 15 minute walk to our closest subway. I took the subway for about 30 min and got off on line 13 Dazhongsi. Our meeting place was exit A. Most subway stops have two to four exits that put you out onto different sides of an intersection. If you take the wrong exit, it could mean a headache to get where you want to go. It is common, when learning subway directions, to hear exits also.

At many subway stops there are food vendors, especially at breakfast time. This vendor was making fried pancake-type things with eggs wrapped in them. They looked quite popular.

Here is what the outside of a typical "mall" looks like. Some do have American stores like North Face, Zara, H&M and Gap but they are extremely expensive. Today we are not shopping at the mall, we are hitting the Golden Five Star Market! After a friend and her driver (sigh) picked me up we were on our way. From exit A you could walk by taking the stairs down and going under the subway tracks. Turn right down the dirt road that runs parallel to the tracks, the market will be on your left side.

This is what a typical market looks like. Many markets have specialties like jewelry, clothes, art, etc. This particular market specializes in stationery, home goods, framing, some clothes, etc. Each stall has it's own number and may sell unique things or things you could find at many stalls. I found one stall that just had gift wrapping, gift bags and ribbon. There were not too many like that.

This is where to come for kitchen supplies. I will probably come back after our shipment arrives to fill in the missing pieces. I really could have bought dishes. Our apartment only has four plates, four bowls, etc. Our glasses are all mismatched. I know I did not ship any of my dishes or glasses. For now we will make do.

Some stalls sell sewing items. Other stalls will let you pick out fabric and they will make your throw pillows for 20 yuan a pillow. That is about $3.00 each.

After a quick bite to eat at McDonald's (does yours have this new drink that has mango, sprite and ice cream? They are SOOOOO good!) we headed to a place called Metro. It is similar to Costco (ahhhhh) and the driver we were with has a membership. No Costco hot dogs here though! He so graciously took us and let us go in with his membership. I heard this was the place to get my much-needed crock pot!

And it was! I found a huge crock pot for 289 yuan, which is $45.00.

Yay, now I can cook!

It is very, very similar to our Costco in the states. Bulk items of everything and specialty items like electronics and luggage. A few things you just don't see at Costco are live fish and live frogs you can purchase (not intended to be pets).

I would LOVE to have a membership here but could you imagine shopping and then getting a taxi? Today Bill, the driver, was sweet enough to take me all the way back to my apartment. Quite a luxury indeed!