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May 12, 2008
Niketown & Downtown Beijing
After lunch, half the group decided they wanted to go to Zoo and the rest wanted to go into downtown Beijing to shop (specifically to Nike Beijing, the largest Nike store in the world). We took the subway to the main shopping area in Beijing which is outside of Tian'anmen square. It took us about an hour to get there, with 10 stops and 3 different trains. Only cost us 2 Yuan (25 cents). I wish the metro was that cheap.
However, the real cost of going on the metro is the horrible air quality and extreme business. When we were transferring trains, we had to go through this corridor that you could literally see the dust clouding up the air. It sucked.
When we finally got to where we wanted to go, the warnings about being overwhelmed and being careful of traffic were understood. Tons and tons of people. The Niketown store really was huge, and they were out of my size of the shirt I wanted. The shoes were actually more expensive than in the states, which was odd considering they are made about a few hundred miles away for less than a dollar in labor.
The one shopping mall we went into was much bigger than anything in the US. It was eight stories tall...with each floor being the equivalent of a typical mall in the US. Out of control. The group of seven I was with decided we just wanted to take a taxi back home. The taxi ride took about 45 minutes...but cost a whopping 47RMB ($8 split between 3 people). That same taxi ride would have been 50-60+ dollars in the US.
Time to go get ready for dinner and going out!
Posted by brianhe at May 12, 2008 05:23 PM