Shopping In Nanchang
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 by RachelWow,
We went to Walmart on Sunday evening. Oh my goodness! It was more busy than shopping the day after Thanksgiving in the states. The Walmart here (there are two in Nanchang, a city of 4 million people) occupies two levels of a building. The prices are said to be just “Ok” but the attraction is that you can get everything you need in one stop. That increased the novelty of the experience for us. The escalator going up to the second level of the store was shoulder to shoulder people and inside the store there were many people. Some of the brands were recognizable but all of the directions for them are in Chinese characters.
We went there to find formula with a scoop, snacks, breakfast food, smaller diapers, and maybe another outfit. It seemed like every family with a child wanted their child to meet Laura. Her red hair and large eyes are thought to be very beautiful (of course, we already knew that). She had a hard time with so much attention. We have been told that they do not have very much tourism.
The first floor was like a grocery store but with lots of raw meat. Some I could recognize and some not. The smell was a bit overwhelming. At the checkout, people just leave their carts after they unload them so it creates more congestion than just the people themselves do.
The ride back to the hotel reminded me of riding in Beijing. There are cars, buses, motor bikes, bicycles, and pedestrians all together on the road. There aren’t very many controlled intersections. I tried to not look out of the windows because it looked like we would for sure kill someone. People don’t wear seatbelts, helmets, and often have children riding the motorbikes too. It seems like your life flashes before you every time you cross the street. You just start walking in between all of the moving cars most of the time on a crosswalk. The crosswalk doesn’t seem to make a difference because the vehicles don’t stop for you and sometimes the crosswalk leads to a hedge or a wall! Ai Ya!
