老盧廈門遊記 – 4

I'm guessing Tom is in his late 50's, his family is back in Tao Yuan, TW. Colin's family is from Malaysia, his 閩南語 isn't quite the same as ours but we can still communicate nevertheless. After about 15 minutes of weaving in and out of traffic, we arrived at our destination. Mobile food vendors occupy the street sidewalks while store displays spill out to the storefront. The electronics / computer district extends two city blocks, covering two, maybe three buildings.

We browsed through over a dozen stores, they were more or less the same. We also checked out several food vendors, Tom and Colin bought something that looked like a sandwich with meat and veggie fillings. I wasn't hungry (surprised?) so I waited and took photos of the street scenes. Among the vendors was one gentleman selling BBQ squids. I asked if I could take a photo of him and he gladly posed for me. We resumed our tour and walked into one of the buildings. The stores on the first floor usually have larger display of merchandises, the prices are typically higher. We took the escalator to the second floor, I could smell the smoke before the escalator was mid-way up the floor.

"OK, take a deep breath and pull up my shirt collar.", I prepared myself to combat the smoke. The second floor and beyond, were like a labyrinth, with small shops occupying every square centimeter of all available space. We looked at some newer gadgets - hand-held computers, smart-phones, surveillance equipment. I didn't have any shopping in mind since I didn't have much space left in the only suitcase I had brought on the trip.

We got out of one building and entered the next, then the next building. As I walked by one store selling digital media players, I thought to check out the goods. I brought with me a portable hard drive with several movies and family photos on it. I had been watching the movies and viewing the photos on my travel-size netbook. I thought to get a media player so I could use it to hook up the hard drive to the hotel TV.

I looked around the store and compared several different models. One of them had all the functions I wanted at 380 RMB. I asked the store clerk if he could reduce the price to 350 RMB AND throw in an HDMI cable? He paused for a few seconds then nodded. I have a similar media player back home which I paid $75 for. This one, would cost around $53.

Our tour continued on until late afternoon, where we slowly walked our way to one of the general shopping districts. The famous Gulangyu, just a short walking distance away.