While we were in Xi’an I had a few days to kill by myself while Yifan caught up with friends. Since the opening of H&M’s first Xi’an store coincided with our visit, I took it as a sign to go and take a look. It was absolute madness!
Like Lanzhou, the bus is the way to get around in Xi’an. Tickets cost 1RMB or about 20cents within the city and there are hundreds of routes to navigate. I allowed myself plenty of time and set off early in the morning. I had the name of the road and a vague idea of where it was located but other than that, it was going to be down to sheer good luck. My back up plan was of course just to take a taxi, but the idea of showing up to dinner that night and admitting the fact was just too much to bear!
The bus stops are chaos. People all over the place and numerous waiting points. For someone who never mastered the Wellington bus system, this is all a bit overwhelming. The timetables are all in characters which ups the difficulty considerably. However, clearly some higher force wished me to be at the H&M opening, because within seconds of glancing at the timetable, I found a bus route that went straight the to road I wanted! Eight shorts stops later, I arrived triumphant but…. it was only 8.30am - an hour and a half until the store opened. So what is a girl to do? When in China, eat of course!
Breakfast was awesome. I am a sucker for the breakfast pancake! This one I had never had before, kind of like a "breakfast burrito". She made a wafer thin crepe, cracked an egg on top, and fried it briefly on both sides before adding some kind of deep fried crunchy nothing, julienne potato, lettuce, spicy sauce… divine. Eaten in the park while watching the old folk exercise, the perfect start to the day.
Onto the shopping. People started to line up from 9am, considering it was a Friday, I’m guessing a lot of people were wagging school and missing work for this… Western brands are crazy popular here. I joined the line at 9.45am (in the interest of full disclosure, waiting in line for a chain store such as H&M is not something I would generally do but… it was an experience right?) Lucky thing too, as it was a very long line by 10am. Press got entry first (an excellent representation of expensive handbags to be seen) and the common folk were let it at about 10.30, I do not have the stamina for this kind of thing, it was exhausting.
I was rewarded though, seeing everyone storm into the store was something I will never forget. It was absolute madness. The Commes des Garcons x H&M opening in Shanghai paled in comparison.
Unfortunately as much as the idea of fast fashion appeals to me, the reality is just too cheap looking to bear! I came away with a flower ornament as seen in Marc Jacobs SS11 as a memento. Upon my leaving, the line to get in was even longer! I am being conservative in saying several hundred at least.
After a milk tea to refresh, I spent the rest of the day pounding the pavement, no purchases I’m sorry! We have several weeks in Hong Kong planned for August so hopefully I can make up for lost time then. It's really more economical to do it this way because China has a crazy amount of tax on foreign clothes/ luxury items and Hong Kong has like no GST (I think?)
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