In the morning, did some clothes shopping and managed to pick up some ’new’ jeans for about £8. (I say ’new’ because, in keeping with current fashion, they appeared to have been worn in by a building site worker for several weeks before appearing on the shop shelf). Other stuff was equally cheap in the various small clothing shops.
In the afternoon I went to Qingshan park, which covers a massive area on the outskirts of Nanning. Unfortunately it was not a particularly good choice of day to visit as it was International Womens’ Day. This is apparently taken very seriously in China, and entails a large part of the female population going on outings, with the result that the place was packed. Highlights of the park were the peach blossom groves, the various temples, and the Qingshan tower (bit like the Kew pagoda).
Later, visited one of the several large markets in Nanning, with amongst other things, specialised in jewellery made from local semi-precious stones.
After a grand meal in the evening for a ridiculously low price, I walked round the adjacent department store. This was about the same size as Selfridges or Macy’s with a similar range of fashion outlets, and at London prices. So it is possible to spend a lot of money in China if you need to keep up appearances.
One tends to forget about China being a police state until you try to do things on the Internet, particularly in relation to blog sites. It has been a real struggle to post anything on this blog from within China, and every update takes ages, if it works at all. One can imagine the armies of censors reading every post before it is allowed through the system (Great Firewall of China). Having posted, I can not access the blog to read the end result. Obviously my blog is considered to be too subversive!
More pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rajbooth/Nanning02?authkey=kcmnAnRlFJ8
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