We travelled from Shanghai to Beijing with nothing previously booked or planned and with s very thight budget. Every day we decided where to go an do, and it was great. But when we got to Beijing, we just dind't know what to do. The city is overwhelmingly huge and every "normal" place you go is crowded with tourist, and we didn't like that.

I wanted to buy cool clothes so bad. Not the cheesy Chinese clothes all tourist come back with, but the very contemporary chinese weird designer things. We tried to look for them but every place we went all was tourist oriented... Until we found Shan!! Trust me, this was a great experience!!! Shan is kind of a personal shopper, but she is also a very interesting chinese girl to meet. I am an anthropologist, and I enjoyed Shan's views and comments on society more than anything.

We contacted her by email and met to have a coffee the next day (well, not actually a coffee, you don't get much of those around there). I told her I wanted to go to a very chinese and modern "designer's mall". I told her we did not want to see a tourist all day long!! And she made it! I will not bore you with details but at the end of the day, my shopping "needs" were more that fulfilled!! I had so many bags that I didn't even remember what was in half of them!! And everything was sooooooo cheap and authentic!! Shan's guidance had a price, and in the beggining I thought it was too much, but I saved so much money that day, that you wouldn't believe it.

The best part was at the end of the day. We were having something to eat and she told us about a "glasses mall". We both wear glasses and contacts, and she told us that in this place, gasses are very cheap... She would not tell us exact prices, so we decided to meet her next morning just for a few hours so se would take us there.

I'm used to pay around $100 for a pair of glasses/contacts back home... That was a 6-stories shopping mall where all you could buy were glasses!!! And they made them in something like 10 minutes!! Ok, we bough a total of 5 normal glasses, 2 sunglasses, and 4 pairs of hard contacts, ALL for about $95!!!!! And they were beautiful and contacts were Bausch & Lomb!!

Really, I LOVE SHAN!!! We are actually friends now!!!
Her blog is pekingconnection.blog.com,or contact with her by pekingconnection@gmail.com, and I truly recommend it!!