Doing My Part for the Chinese Economy

It was another gloomy, rainy day. My remedy? Shopping. I needed to spend some money. Lucy told me about a street not too far from where we live called “Garbage Street.” I walked. I was on a mission to find dark brown boots. There were dozens of shoe shops. A girl’s paradise.

I couldn’t believe my luck. The first pair of fake Uggs I found was only 145 yuan (about $20). They are a deep chocolate brown and come halfway to my knees. They’ll go with everything and they’re extremely comfortable. Bonus. I know guys aren’t particularly fond of these boots, but we girls are all over them. The beauty and convenience of these babies knows no limits. I’ve had several pair over the past couple of years, but made the mistake of buying the tan-colored ones, which get dirty very quickly. Now, with the rich chestnut, I’ll be able to hide their age when I’ve had them for a while. The scruff won’t show as much.

I also found a slightly overpriced pair of tall fake leather-ish brown boots that are perfect with my jeans and, because the fake Uggs were so cheap, I decided to splurge on these second pair of boots. You cannot understand the sheer joy of finding these. I didn’t care that I was paying too much because I have always had problems with finding stylish boots to fit my calves. I have big calf muscles and it isn’t easy to get snug high boots to come around them.

The beauty of these boots is that they have snaps along the side, which means I can pull them up over the thicker part of my calf and snap them snug when they are all the way on. Voila! They also have versatility. I can leave them unsnapped and roll the tops down to show the not-too-leopardy print on the inside. For the most part, though, I think I’ll keep ‘em snapped and snappy.

After my good fortune on Garbage Street, I decided to head into Hangzhou to Wu Shong Guang Shong (the Night Market) and buy parting/Christmas gifts for Lucy, Reena, and Tina. I found each of them a different color beautiful scarf and hunted down handcrafted/hand-painted wooden bracelets that were a similar shade to each scarf. I coordinated.

I also found a cute black hat for myself at a street vendor. Across the alley from the vendor was an expensive scarf shop that I probably shouldn’t have entered. But I did anyway. The material was, by far, superior to anything else at the market and I couldn’t resist an oversized woolen scarf that I could use as a wrap on the cold winter days. It was too much, but I bought it, nonetheless. (But because of the price, I got free gloves to go with it. At least that’s some consolation for spending too much money.) Its base is black, with a houndstooth plaid in brown, tan, and charcoal gray, with a touch of deep blue between the plaid-ish pattern. It will look amazing over the grey coat I bought at Carrefour.

After dawdling through the Night Market, I headed to the Carrefour center on Yan’an Lu and found a charcoal grey winter coat for only 149 yuan. Who can say no to that? In addition to the coat, I bought some deep wine-colored nail polish.

The best buy of my day, however – the one that makes me feel triumphant over all China – is that I finally found a pair of black Chinese jeans to fit my big western ass. Even in the States, I have what you’d call a ghetto booty. But here in China, it might as well just be called colossal. Victory is mine!