"Lady! Lookie, lookie!"

As with most Asian countries, China has great markets and a sometimes frustrating bargaining culture. I headed up to some of these markets on Saturday to finalise my Christmas shopping and pick up a couple of goodies for myself. My first stop was the fabric market, where I was due to collect 5 new dresses. I love strolling around the market here and looking into all the tiny stalls filled to the brim with fabrics. There is always a real buzz of excitement as local and expatriate buyers choose their fabrics, go about their fittings and then finally come to pick up their new outfits several days later. There is a sense of satisfaction in the air as new jackets, dresses, pants and shirts are tried on and given the thumbs up, because many of the clothes have been ‘designed’ by the purchaser …. ‘I want this dress but with a different neck line in this material’ etc. The bonus is also that things can be adjusted if they don’t fit, which was the case with 3 of my new cotton dresses. As I was waiting in this small, popular stall, I spotted some new fabrics, so it will be 5 dresses, rather than the original 3 that I will soon be wearing over the southern summer time! The lovely girl in the stall offered to send all the dresses to Wuxi for me, for the measly price of 20rmb ($4).

Excellent! Super! Quality no doubt! Only that!

After refuelling with some Cantonese with Ashley, my next stop was the Pearl Market, where as the name suggests, you can buy pearls. But, I wasn’t there for the pearls, I was there for the Chinese crafts on the bottom floor of this huge building - photo albums, Christmas decorations, jewellery boxes, anything and everything made with Chinese silks. This market wasn’t so pleasant with to walk around - it was hot, crowded and the stall holders were a lot more aggressive with their "Lady! Lookie, lookie!" cries. The best find of the day was a DVD store next to the market - this shop had good quality new releases (genuine of course!) for $3 each, it even had British comedies which I love. What a shame I didn't find this shop earlier in my China stay!

Pile after pile of colourful fabrics to choose from

My final shopping stop was City Shop for a bottle of bubbles and some organic vegetables before jumping on the train back to Wuxi where I promptly fell asleep!