Diaper run through the streets of Guangzhou

** Adoption countdown: 4 days until Pam, Terry and Matthew return home **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

GUANGZHOU, China (Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, 6:45 p.m.) – A severe shortage of diapers – we ran out – set off a mad dash through the streets of this city of 7 million on one of the busiest shopping days of the week.

After three hours of attempting to hail taxis to haul Pam, Matthew and me; dodging bumper-to-bumper traffic; and squeezing our way through wall-to-wall people downtown, we had more than enough.

We started the afternoon buying a Chinese scroll and chop for Matthew and a $10 suitcase for me. A few doors down, at a nearby restaurant, we had an inexpensive lunch of sandwiches that took forever to prepare.

Then the fun began.

About 2 p.m.: We took a $2 taxi ride to Beijing Street in Guangzhou and quite possibly the largest crowd of people we’ve seen since we arrived in China.

This apparently is one of the most popular shopping areas in town with large department stores lining both sides of a wide street that was converted into a pedestrian mall.

Beijing Street was home to at least three separate McDonald’s locations as well as a multiplex theatre that had patrons lined up to buy tickets to latest movies.

The crowds along Beijing Street were literally wall-to-wall in a scene that reminded me of the crowds on Bourbon Street and Canal Street in New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

Pam and I were the only Americans around. While the whole area was safe and teeming with police, it was one of the few times since we’ve been in China when I felt out of my element.

That’s when we decided to head for Carrefour, the French-based discount stores we’ve visited in China. Since we couldn’t find a grocery store on Beijing Street, we knew new could find what we needed at Carrefour.

About 3 p.m.: We hailed a taxi, asked him to take us to Carrefour and proceeded to break down the stroller. Then he sped off without us – the only time we have been jilted by a taxi driver in China. I was a little annoyed.

About 3:05 p.m.: We hailed a second taxi, whose driver helped us pile into his car and took us to Carrefour.

About 3:30 p.m.: Another $2 taxi ride found us outside Carrefour’s two-level store. For some strange reason, the heat inside was turned up to at least 85 degrees during our entire visit.

Pam and I felt like we were in a sauna as we searched frantically for diapers.

About 3:45 p.m.: We found the diapers – a large pack of Pampers. We grabbed the Pampers, tossed them in the basket and headed to the grocery section, where we picked up a few boxes of noodles for Matthew.

Speaking of noodles, I’ve never seen so many in my life. Chicken-flavored noodles. Beef-flavored noodles. Spicy-flavored noodles. And tons of soy sauce. Carrefour had an entire aisle with any kind and brand of soy sauce you could imagine.

And then, of course, we visited the meat and produce section were we saw fresh seafood for sale including octopus, squid, whole fish and fish heads.

About 4:30 p.m.: I was dripping in sweat from the heat in the store. Pam, Matthew and I checked out and then maneuvered through hordes of people who pushed their way onto the escalator to street-level.

About 4:45 p.m.: We walked to the street and tried to hail a taxi, but had little luck. We tried again. Nothing. Finally, after the third try, we got a taxi and wound our way back to the White Swan in another $2 cab ride.

About 5 p.m.: We arrived back at the hotel, exhausted.

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.

Trip to the store takes us to unexpected stop

** Countdown to our adoption: Only five days left before we get Matthew. **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

BEIJING, China (Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, 4:40 p.m.) – A lady hunched over an open-air bin, picking through loose, raw, chicken legs and tossing the ones she wanted into a small bag.

A few feet away, an attendant behind the meat counter wrapped her hands inside a plastic bag. She grabbed a handful of ground meat from another open-air bin, turned the bag inside-out, tied the ends and handed it to a customer.

The lunchtime crowd at the Carrefour grocery and department store in Beijing was as crowded and packed with shoppers as any American store might be on a busy weekend. Folks bought food, clothes and other necessities.

Pam and I wound up at the Carrefour purely by accident. We began our morning determined to go to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Beijing.

I wanted a pair of inexpensive gloves to help fight the bitter, 25-degree cold and Pam wanted to replace face cleanser that security confiscated at the Tokyo airport.

Our concierge at the Novotel Peace Hotel hailed a taxi for us and, we thought, told the driver we wanted to go to Wal-Mart.

Headed for Wal-Mart

But after about a 30-minute, $6 taxi ride across town, we found ourselves in a strange, unfamiliar part of Beijing. The driver took our cash and told us to take a pedestrian bridge across a busy highway to Wal-Mart.

I was game, Pam wasn’t so sure.

At the top of the bridge, we realized we weren’t at Wal-Mart and were at a place called Carrefour. And even though we were the only American tourists in the area, we were comfortable enough with our surroundings to visit it anyway.

Why not? Security and police were nearby. And the store was crowded.

I’ve said before, and it bears repeating, I think you can learn a lot about a foreign culture by visiting local grocery and department stores. There, you can learn about the food folks cook and eat and what kinds of products they buy.

Carrefour was no different.

Like the Beijing Wal-Mart (which we still hope to find at some point before we leave Beijing on Tuesday), Carrefour is a two-story grocery and department store. Groceries are on the first, other goods are on the second.

Searching for Blu-rays

Upstairs, I was excited when I saw the DVD aisle. I came to China hoping to buy a Blu-ray version of “Red Cliff,” an historical epic and Hong Kong director John Woo’s first Chinese-language film since “Hard Boiled.”

But no such luck. After Pam spotted some inexpensive men’s gloves, we headed downstairs and wound up in the produce and meat section where we saw things we didn’t see in March 2006 at Wal-Mart.

Employees were everywhere, eager and ready to help customers. In fact, you couldn’t go anywhere in the store without running into a waiting attendant wanting to help you find a specific product.

Open tanks housed fresh seafood: crabs, eels, turtles and clams. Open bins displayed live crawfish crawling on top of each other, live prawns still moving feverishly and piles of freshly caught shrimp.

Across the aisle were bins with raw chicken parts segregated by type: legs, thighs, wings, breasts.

Butchers worked behind counters, slicing and trimming cuts of beef and tossing them aside as customers used metal tongs to pick over pieces and cuts they wanted.

Offering tempting samples

Another bin featured fresh roasted duck, with workers offering customers free samples. Off to the side, employees prepared and cooked fresh dumplings for customers.

And, of course, the bread. The aroma of fresh-baked bread filled the back of the grocery as one employee urged us to take home a hot loaf of what looked like French bread.

We passed.

Instead, Pam and I headed toward the front of the store and the cashiers; after about an hour browsing the aisles we were ready to head out and find another place to visit.

Ah, but we had one more chore before we could leave: Pam had to find her face cleanser. And because we don’t speak a lot of Mandarin, communicating her needs took a little time.

So there we were: We checked out of the store, buying a pair of men’s knit gloves (about $2), a bar of Oil of Olay soap (about 90 cents) and a tube of Garnier face cleanser (about $2.25).

And the best part about it: Pam’s face cleanser came in a 100 ml tube, the maximum amount allowed on a flight. So, if she still has it when we return home on Dec. 18, she should make it through the Tokyo airport security.

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.