Dragon Mart/ Window Washer

Good day all! This weekend Jimmy & I went to the Dragon Mart appr. 30 minutes away from where we live. Dragon Mart is a 1.2 km long (almost 1 mile) indoor shopping complex. It is 150,000 square meters of floor space with approximately 3,950 shops. The retailors are Chinese importers and sell EVERYTHING that is made in China. Seriously- what is NOT made in China! They run the gamot from high end electronics, clothing, home and office furnishings, interior and exterior lighting, bathroom fixtures down to tourist trinkets and every kind of gadget you can imagine. The building is shaped like a dragon and broken down into zones. There are many twists and turns and you can veer off the main strip of shops into a maze of other shops. We spent two hours there and only saw a fraction of the stores. Some of the shops are very redundant- there are many, many, places to have custom made curtains tailored, clothing stores galore, tools, etc. It gets repetitive but there is a lot variety, too. We bought our GPS there and it has updated maps which is very important. We also bought good quality binoculars; because we live on the 21st floor it is cool to see some of the details of our area from this vantage point. Just to be clear- I am not a "creeper"- the windows are all very tinted so it is impossible to see into other apartments. I have also purchased a couple items of clothing and some other odds and ends. Here are pics I took-

Each colored area represents a zone and each zone has 100's of shops! You can see what I was saying about going off the main strip into side halls with more shops. You can click on any pic to see it better and then back arrow to return to the blog.

Outside the main entrance; each zone also has an entrance with one side being A and the other B. This is a huge water fountain statue of a dragon wrapped around a gold colored globe with smaller dragons spraying around the perimeter.

Closer pic of the dragon fountain.

Inside the main entrance. A small part of the Dragon Mart is two story.



Where we had lunch- one guess- yup Chinese! There are food kiosks with sandwiches and such but it is primarily Chinese. The food was pretty good.

There are so many toy stores! This is two remote control dolls on bikes. Outside of almost every toy store is someone demonstrating so watch out for gizmos on the ground and flying objects!

Random pic of the main strip of shops.

Window display of shoes at one of the larger shops. The shops range in size from hardly bigger than a large bedroom to several thousand square feet.

Another random pic of the main strip.

In this pic you can see this is zone EA on the left and EB on the right.

Another random pic. This is zone FB and the arrow indicates more shops down the hall off the main strip.

Clothes and dresses!

All of these are Hello Kitty purses (this one is for you, Dara!)

A baby air chair! I found this little jewel off the main strip. How cute is that!

This is a "you are here map" for Zone H. You can see from the shape that the exterior of the building really is shaped like a dragon. And clearly see that there are lots of shops!

As I have stated our apartment is on the 21st floor of a 35 story building. We were having a lovely breakfast on the balcony Saturday when I noticed some ropes hanging off the side of the building. We went inside to get a better look and were quite surprised to see two window washers! I grabbed the camera and began taking pics as they cleaned our windows. Even that close they could not see us inside and had no idea two goofballs (well me, anyway!) were inside photographing them.

Surprise! I was amazed being this close they could not see in.

A little further back.

It took them less than 3 minutes to clean all 6 windows. Definately not their first day on the job!

All done! One guy is taking in the view while the dude on the right lowers them for the next set of windows. You just have to wonder how much $ these guys make-not enough for me to do it!

So with the exterior windows all freshly cleaned it could only mean that the dirt and smudges that still remained were on the inside. I moved the computer table away and cleaned them until they sparkled. You just don't realize how dirty something is until you start to clean it (hint to my girls regarding the bathrooms!). We ended up taking everything off the balcony and cleaning it, too. The difference is amazing! I love a clean house- inside and out!

This is Memorial Day weekend back home. Ya'll remember to take a few moments to remember and honor the service men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we may enjoy freedom. All gave some; some gave all.

Peace, love and happiness- M&J