A Day in Tanggu...

We're finding out that there are neighborhoods, or boroughs, in our city, somewhat

like living in Brooklyn or the Bronx in New York City.

Right next to us is Tanggu  (variously spelled Tang Gu)--the area on

the other side of the tracks, and next to the river.  

As with the rest of China, part is beautiful with well-kept landscaping,

then there is the other part.

During our October holiday, as other expat families flew to exotic locations in

Vietnam, Thailand, Bali, or even to Korea,

we decided to explore the Walking Street area of Tanggu,

complete with the bronze bull which reminds me of

the statue at Wall Street.  Fortunately, no occupiers here,

just a nice, wide area to enjoy the sunshine and browse the stores on either

side.  And those stores range from VERY upscale department stores 

(don't touch the merchandise because it's PRICEY! Hundreds of dollars!),

to back-alley shops where the proprietors live in a hut right next to their wares. 

Their merchandise is cheap--and they love to bargain.  My conscience, however,

 keeps me from being too aggressive with lowering the price.

Then we came to the river.

 

 There is a small cruise ship docked, open for tours.  I have no idea

if it still sails or not.  The smaller river cruise boats going

up and down the river lent a touristy atmosphere to the scene.

 And although it was pretty hazy, we could still feel the warmth of the sunshine.

 People had their wares displayed on the marble (slippery when wet!) platform.  

I've seen more marble sidewalks here in town than EVER before.  

Must be a cheap material here.

 (And I don't think you need a vendor's license here--people just lay out things on the sidewalk.  Ellie has mentioned that when our stuff gets here, she thinks she will have too much--

she's getting used to doing with less.  I told her we could 

always just lay things out over by the Tesco grocery store

and join the group of other vendors.  Of course, we don't have any black market 

videos to sell...).

These people had shells, pearl jewelry, etc.  We passed.

 Then, at the riverfront, but looking back at Tanggu--there's the Papa John's!

 And we walked through an alley, trying to find a specific store,

and found this shark display instead.

 Most floral "beds" around town are done like this--they aren't flower

beds at all, just groupings of individual flower pots.

As a gardener, I realized, someone has to water EACH of those pots

every day!  Well, that gives one person a job!

Then we went to the other Tanggu--to the flower, fish and bird market

to get the replacement parakeet.

For some reason, I always feel like I have to wash my hands

 (and my feet if I've been wearing sandals) when

coming home from shopping anywhere.

 We could have bought pheasants.

 Or a hawk.  And if you are squeamish, don't look too closely

at what is in the bottom of his cage.

 Alice really wanted to see how much the owls were--

she's always wanted a Hedwig.  

But we didn't even ask.   We just wanted the parakeet. 

I'm afraid we chose poorly.  We needed a female, 

and wanted her to be young and teachable,

but she is still pretty ornery. 

Maybe it has to do with how she was transported home.

I've seen goldfish in a baggie, but didn't realize that a net baggie works for parakeets.  Kind of.

So, even if we didn't go somewhere exotic

we had some interesting experiences.