Downtown Chunxi Lu, the ultimate shopping district.

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I really want to go to bed. With a rat in my wall, a neighbor's cat crying every night and the booms of the new year fireworks, I've been getting next to no sleep. But, I'm leaving for a trip to Guilin Thursday night, and won't be back until Tuesday evening. So, I figured since I'll be busy packing and making up my itinerary tomorrow, I'd better update my blog!

Lately, I've been making a lot of new friends with the locals, especially my neighbors in the apartments. I've also made quite a bit of Tibetan friends. Even if my Chinese is limited (as of now...just you wait!), locals are still really friendly and want to get to know me. I've been 'adopted' by a few families already!

So, I've been doing quite a bit of shopping lately, to prepare for my trip to Guilin. I needed to buy jackets and new shoes, since Guilin is considerably warmer than here, and I figured I'll be doing quite a bit of hiking. As for the jackets...the shopping trips were a SUCCESS. I've been able to find cheap North Face and Puma jackets in Chunxi Lu, an upscale shopping district in the heart of Chengdu.

That place is fancy. Well, coming from a boring place like Kansas, of course I find everything interesting. But really. One Adidas store will have ten stories of shoes. Which I guess Chunxi Lu needs. Apparently, sporty (and very bright) clothes are the "in" thing here. I noticed most of the stores are along the lines of "sporty fashion"---you know, Puma...Adidas...Kappa...Nike...and I could tell, the clothes are geared more toward the fashionitas, rather than athletes looking for high-quality performance clothes.

As for the shoes...I FAILED. No one carries a size 41. The largest boots I've seen were size 39, but even that's a size 7.5 in the United States! Sigh. I really need to find new shoes before the rainy season starts...

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Photos

Tianfu Square.
Me with Mao.

So...I walked by this odd fellow when going to Chunxi Lu.
And on my way back home (about 9 hours later), he was still there. Haha.

Chunxi Lu.
My favorite stretch.

Chunxi Lu.
Love this place!

Tianfu Square.
The heart of Chengdu.

Tianfu Square.
Very famous Mao Zhedong statue.

Tianfu Square.
I think this picture is angled better. As you can see, I'm horrible at taking self-pics.

Tianfu Square.
Not quite Chunxi Lu, but closeby. You walk through Tianfu Square when taking the subway.

Chunxi Lu.
I took this when crossing a bridge, to show how rediculously crowded Chunxi Lu is on a Saturday afternoon. Bad time to go if you hate crowds!

Chunxi Lu.
An underground tunnel.