Simon Says

One of our classmates took us to the fabric market today, which was surprisingly a much more enjoyable than my last market experience (previously discussed here). Thankfully they were not nearly as pushy and seemed much more used to basic interaction with Westerners.

Anyhow, our colleague described her memories of her first visit to mainland China around 20 years ago. It was uncommon at that time to see many Westerners in China (there were definitely no McDonald's). It was even more uncommon to see someone with blond hair. So when Eva went to the fabric market in Tianjin, she quickly noticed a crowd of 20+ following her about 10 feet back. They were not comfortable coming too close, but were definitely intent on staring and watching her every move. When she finally picked out a purse she liked and purchased it, she noticed the entire entourage gathered around the stall as soon as she moved on. When she returned 10 minutes later to buy a second one for her sister, the vendor told her that every single one had been purchased. She glanced behind her and saw an entourage with 20 matching purses.