I shouldn't have been surprised that the Wal-Mart in Shenzhen had that smell, but it seemed so familiarly "Wal-Mart-ish" that I was not expecting it. The store has all the normal components: a special section to buy glasses and get your eyes checked in the front, a large make-up and toiletries section, books, food, kitchen wares, large and small appliances, clothes, and those familiar blue signs with white block print.
We had two hours to spend at the store, and it took me the entire first hour to figure out how to get a cell phone that would work. It took another large game of English-Cantonese-Mandarin telephone with Serena leading the way yet again, but we eventually figured it out and I now have a cell-phone that is the technological equivalent to the cell phone I had when I was 16. But, the important this is that it works and the whole thing only cost 440kuai (about $67).
The only thing I needed other than the phone was some conditioner and something cold to drink, so that left me with an hour to explore the store. The first floor is mostly books and toiletries, so I started out looking around the book section. I considered buying a kids book (because I am, after all, illiterate), but chickened out. Next I headed over to the hair-care section and it took me all of 30 seconds to realize that finding conditioner was going to be kind of hard, so I decided to put it off for a little bit and go to the second floor.
Now, because this is Wal-Mart and you generally need a shopping cart to get everything you need, there's an "escalator" that is really just a ramp to take you to the second floor. I think this is a good idea in theory, but considering I was carrying nothing except my rather empty purse and STILL nearly tumbled backwards down the thing, it might not be the greatest idea ever...at least not at that angle anyway.The second floor is where all the food is. At first it looked pretty normal (well, "normal" in the sense that it looked like the other Chinese grocery stores I've been to). There's a bakery and a snack foods area, the produce section is well-stocked and the masked people who man the produce and bulk scales are standing around looking bored as usual. There is a section to buy ready-to eat stuff (kind of like the deli section in the US), and aisles of frozen foods, drink stuff, and other pre-packaged Chinese foods. And then, there is the fresh-foods section.
The first thing I noticed upon walking into this section was the sausages hanging on the wall. These sausages kind of look like some sort of scat you would see in the woods, and I hear that they are very good...but that is not the point. The point is that they were hanging on the wall without any sort of packaging or wrapping whatsoever. After the initial shock of this wore off I realized that the same went for all kinds of dried fish-looking items and other meats that were cured in some way. It doesn't seem very sanitary to me that random people are brushing up against your food, but then again, China in general is not particularly sanitary...and it turns out that wasn't even the worst of it! The next thing I noticed was a woman using a colander to scoop live crawdad-looking creatures (they were probably shrimp, I guess) out of a large tank. Next to that was another tank with a floating colander and LIVE FROGS (well, except for the one floater). Next to that tank was a block of shaved ice that had dead squid sitting on top in a pile. I continued to wander this fascinating and horrifying section and saw tanks of large fish and turtles, big chunks of very fresh meat, another block of ice piled high with chicken feet, and a section to buy pieces of animals...like fish heads. After circling this area three or four times, I decided that I was done being a gawking foreigner, and since I was not going to be making a purchase, it was time to move along. I spent very little time on the third floor because, well, it was boring. So after a quick lap I headed back downstairs to the first floor. I decided that it was time to face the music: I had to find conditioner.
Standing in the shampoo aisle I truly felt what it means to be illiterate. There is a lot of writing...a lot. Bottles are covered in words that are supposed to be catching my attention and making me want to buy their product, but since I can't read them, all they do is confuse me. Luckily I have bought hair products before, so I know that most companies put their shampoo and conditioner in similar but different-looking bottles. I went from shelf to shelf comparing similar-looking bottles to try and find some small difference that might be the word "shampoo" on one and "conditioner" on the other. The aisle had a sign that said "shampoo" in English under the Chinese characters for the same (presumably), but even that served to be little help. After several minutes of me staring at bottles like a monkey doing a math problem, a nice saleswoman saw me and tried to come to my rescue.
I say "tried" because she doesn't speak English and I clearly do not have a firm grasp on Chinese. After she tried to explain in Chinese and I tried to ask a question in English, the conversation that finally got me my answer went as follows (roughly translated):
me: "This one and this one the same?" (pointing to two bottles)
her: "Not the same" (also adding some information in Chinese I had no hope of understanding)
me: "This one and this the same?" (pointing the the one I thought was shampoo and the sign that said "shampoo")
her: nodded yes
me: "Thank you! I want this" (followed by me all but running out of the aisle with the alleged conditioner)
By the time that was all squared away it was time to go back to the hotel. By coincidence, it was also the time the sky decided to open up and pour down a few inches of rain. This phenomenon of beautiful weather, then torrential rains, followed by beautiful weather again all within a couple of hours, is completely foreign to me. Coming from the Midwest, we see weather coming for days before it actually hits, and while sometimes it fluctuates quite a bit from day-to-day, it just doesn't compare to the hour-to-hour fluctuations here.
After running around in ankle-deep puddles in the pouring rain, we eventually found our bus and made it back to the hotel. I was soaked to the bone, but I had my new cell phone and my Chinese conditioner (at least I think its conditioner), so all in all it was a successful day.
Two of these are conditioner, one is hand soap, and one is shampoo...I think
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