I can’t call myself a Singaporean if I had actually left China without buying anything. :p
Opposite the little street where the hotel I stayed in was situated were a row of shops. Two of which were a bookshop and a CD shop. I can usually resist buying CDs in Singapore but the ones here were too cheap to resist. I bought 4 albums (and they were double CD packs, so actually I got a total of 8 CDs) for RMB80 which is about S$16. That price would only have gotten me one CD in Singapore. Actually maybe not even one.
I bought albums by Sandy Lam, Stephanie Sun, Jay Chou and Steve Chou. All the albums were their “best of” albums. Their selection of English albums wasn’t that good so I didn’t get any.
Usually entering a bookshop will prove to be my undoing. I can’t resist books. But I thought this time would be different as it’s all Chinese books and I would never end up buying anything. I had contemplated not walking into the bookshop but I can’t resist entering one if not for anything but a browse.
And what do I see the moment I step in? Jimmy Liao’s books! Well, not all of his books were on sale, but at least they were selling some I did not have. His books which are written in Chinese, are the only Chinese ones that I have the patience to read as they are simple enough. And I love his illustrations. His writing, though short and consisting of many one-liners, are always full of implicit meanings and are thought-provoking. In Chinese, people say there is a lot of 涵意 (han yi).
Anyway, I came away with six books. Five Jimmy Liao ones and another one which is about the history of Chinese characters.
Below are some snapshots which I took with my trusty Canon ixus 400.

One of several elderly men practising their calligraphy at the Summer Palace (颐和园). I was so amused ‘cos I thought it was such a cool thing to do! The ‘ink’ that you see is actually water. They dip their ‘brush’ into the lake which is the famous Kunming Lake (昆明湖). What an ingenious idea!

Another calligrapher who writes in a different style of calligraphy.

Was pleasantly surprised to see horsecarts which all but don’t exist in Singapore! My colleague told me most of them are used by the people who come from the countryside to sell their fruits like watermelons (which are really cheap in China).