Ehhh...alright, not exactly...but surprising nonetheless.
As part of my 'entertaining' of the recent visitors I had at work, I took them out for a quick trip to a local mall, so they could see the 'underground' culture of youth in the city...and maybe pick up an item or two along the way.
We walked around and around the underground 'Update' mall that is just off the Martyr's Park subway
station in GZ. This mall has countless stalls of clothing, sneakers, hair bobbles and various other knick knacks and stuff that Asian kids love.
We stopped into one shop that was loaded with all sorts of crap you might find in a Spencer's Gifts shop in the States...all manner of things that everyone was keen to check out and discuss. As I stood to the side waiting, one of the guys picked up a hand pump flashlight and was talking to me about it...they are pretty cool and he'd never seen one before. And then I peered down into the glass case the shop keepers was leaning against and I saw two small ice skates with black and yellow socks in the back of the case. I crouched down and there he was...Bobby Orr.
I quickly asked the girl how much and she proceeded through the crowd of people in her shop to the opposite corner to retrieve a box...a box that contained Wayne Gretzky, just like the Bobby Orr doll.
RMB50.00
Knowing that I would regret myself if I only bought Bobby Orr...I bought Wayne too. I tried to bargain the prices down, but the girl quickly told me that she was not the 'boss' of the shop and she couldn't help me. I respected that and paid the RMB100.00.
Nearly 12 years ago, while browsing the cramped and dirty markets of Qingping, I stumbled across a small Cam Neely statue and made the quick (over priced) purchase. Joining Cam Neely was a cool little set with Hasek and Gretzky a couple years later...and now I have the big boys.
Score! Number 4! Bobby Orr! (Okay what do you want...I grew up in Boston and can remember watching some of the Bruins games in the early 70's...)
Posted by: Kirst Afloat | March 17, 2008 at 12:28 AM
Kirst...I am a HUGE Cam Neely fan, as he played his junior hockey in Portland WAY back in 1983. He was drafted by the Canucks, which drew my fan-dom to them...but traded him to Boston and the rest, as they say, is history. I've got that tiny Cam Neely statue right next to the autographed puck someone gave me years ago, cuz they knew I was a hockey fan and they didn't know who Cam was. If you are in Boston and you score a Cam Neely sweater...let's talk.
Go Canucks! (sorry)
Posted by: GZ Expat | March 17, 2008 at 09:13 PM