Hi friends. So it’s been less than a week since I last posted, but I did a lot of cool stuff! For instance, I went to the 798 Art District and was immersed in Chinese art. To be honest, I didn’t think have any expectations for this Art District, but I was stunned.

I had thought that the 798 Art District would display a lot of traditional art around its galleries, but I found more modern art than anything else. Some of the art included a headless Chairman Mao, political cartoons about North Korea, and paintings/drawings depicting the issues China is currently facing. I went to a little store and bought some small things, which included panda propaganda postcards and movie posters. My friend bought a pair of fake Ray Ban sunglasses for 69 RMB, which is the equivalent of approximately $10.38. What a deal!

This past weekend, I also went to the Silk Market and I ??? (didn’t realize) that the Silk Market was actually a huge shopping mall! It looked modernized, and it reminded me of the shopping malls back home near Chicago. The basement was full of small shoe stores that sold exactly the same thing, and the store owners hiked up the prices to around 600 RMB per fake pair of shoes. For instance, a pair of fake Yeezy Boosts was like 625 RMB. Converted into USD would be around $93.84: way too much for some fake Yeezy’s. I didn’t buy the Yeezy’s but I did get ripped off for some gray T-shirt. It’s okay though because I learned a good life lesson. When life hands you a 200 RMB T-shirt, don’t say 150 RMB, say 10 and you’ll be good. Well I’ll see you guys next week when I talk about my trip to Xi’an!