Trip to the Tailor

This post should probably go after the next post but I was trying to do several posts from bottom to top and I got mixed up.

Heidi and Eric tried to encourage us to think of things we would like custom made for us when we came to China like suits or skirts or pjs or robes or jackets so we had some ideas but we weren't quite sure how things would turn out. Here is their favorite tailor shop --
Chens Shanghei Tailor. Here is Eric in the suit he was just picking up... he was very happy with the results. Heidi has had 3 or 4 skirts and pjs made. I ended up having this same skirt made for me only with a pink background instead of the yellow. I can hardly wait to wear it! You'll notice that Paul is holding a big bag of his fabrics for 2 suits that he had made for him. They turned out fantastic too! Oh, by the way, the suits cost about $60 for the fabric, lining and labor... not bad. Now that we are home we can think of LOTS more things we should have had made while we were there! (... next time....)

Custom made just my size

So after we made our purchases at the fabric market, Heidi & Eric took us to their favorite tailor where I got to design my own creation. Though I could see what I wanted in my mind it was a whole new experience to try to convey my ideas clear enough through hand gestures and finger pointing to hope I got my intentions across. They had some really old clothing catalogs that I flipped through until I found a page with a jacket similar to what I had in mind. Then I just tried to explain the thngs I wanted left off the jacket and the things I wanted added. He jotted down a few sketches and notes, took my measurements (no I wasn't laying down - I forgot to spin the photo upright) and 2 weeks later I came back and picked up this beautiful, perfectly fitting, just-the-way-I-had-imagined-it, totally Chinese jacket. And best of all it only cost me $30 for the labor and about $10 for the fabric.

Take a good look at the shop in the background. Talk about humble. Not only is this where this couple works 7 days a week from 8 am to 8:30 pm, it is also where they live. Behind me (behind the yellow fabric) is their bed and off to the side of the sewing machine is a very small table that held their rice cooker. It was their dining table as well. I have no idea where their restroom facitilies were... there was no running water into this room. There was fabric stacked up everywhere: orders waiting to be sewn and scraps from orders already made. They were so kind and happy and anxious to figure out what we wanted and accommodate our schedule for getting it done by the time we had to leave. They were in the process of working on a big order of several hundred graduation caps and gowns for some school so they were very kind to have accepted our order.

Traffic Beijing style

Here are a few examples of the traffic we came across on our excursions around town... always an adventure!

Beautiful Beijing!

I've only been home now for about 72 hours and already I am missing Beijing! We have had the most incredible experience! It was wonderful, delightful, eye-opening, invigorating, exhausting but totally worth all our time, energy and expenses! I honestly don't know where to even try to begin to share all that we have seen and experienced. First of all, it was so great to be all together with Heidi, Eric, Colton, Cory, Quincy, Capri and Conner for a whole 21 days! Kudos to Eric for putting up with "the in-laws" for that length of time -- he gets the gold star! We were so lucky to have been able to have this authentic "living in China" perspective instead of just what the typical tourist/visitor would see and to be able to be accompanied with a "local" that speaks the language fluently -- another gold star for Eric!

I didn't really go to China with many preconcieved expectations of the country or the city of Beijing. Most of my opinions were from what Heidi has told us about living there since September and she has been quite positive in all of her stories and experiences. I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised to discover how much I immediately loved Beijing! It is a HUGE city... it is the size of the state of Connecticut. I don't remember how many billion people live there but seriously, billions, with a "B". The landscaping was another big surprise. First off, I was so surprised by how green it is: trees everywhere and lush grass lawns. I was not expecting there to be so many flowers everywhere too. Rose bushes in full bloom lined the median of many of the roadways -- red, white, yellow, orange, pink. I just kept wondering who had to deadhead all the blooms (then I remembered they do have billions of people that need jobs). There were also flowerboxes of petunias hanging along the sides of the freeway overpasses. All of these flowers resulted in a lovely fragrance in the air as we drove through the city... not what I was expecting to smell I have to admit!

The skyscrapers in Beijing are impressive as well. The downtown area is covered in lots and lots of tall buildings and lots and lots more under construction. I think I had read somewhere that there are more cranes in Beijing than any other city in the world. One morning as we drove downtown, Quincy & I counted 38 cranes. The skyscrapers are not as close together as they are in like New York City. The Chinese must love to try new architecture each and every time they erect a new building because none of the skyscrapers looked the same.

Now I'm sure you've heard something about the crazy traffic congestion in Beijing... I have NEVER seen ANYTHING like it in my life!!! I don't even think it can be described. Heidi tried to warn us and give us examples but until you have actually riden in it you can not believe how off-the-charts chaotic it is! There are pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, pedi-cabs, motorcycle cabs, donkeys pulling carts, huge tour buses, city buses, and every kind of car all going every direction and making up their own rules to suit their needs (passing on the right side in the emergency lane is a favorite). There is alot of horn honking but we soon realized it is seldom honking in a "hey buddy, you just cut me off" way but in a "just want to let you know I'm over here" kind of way. All the bikes have bells on them and everyone rings their bells as they prepare to pass another bike or a pedestrian. It is very civilized in a very uncivilized way. It would never work over here!

Heidi swore she would never drive over there but Eric gave her a GPS for the car for her birthday in April (a gold star for that too) and by the time we got there she had built up her confidence enough to venture out on her own -- with us as willing accomplices. Each morning we would decide where we wanted to go that day and then Eric would download the coordinates from Google earth and we were set! We never got lost even once though the GPS did have to "recalculate" a fair amount of times.

I am struggling to get my body clock back on mountain daylight time. I was awake until 5 am this morning and then I finally slept until noon. I think it has been much harder to adjust coming this direction than it was going over there. So I think this is all I am up to for tonight. I have lots more adventures to share... good night...