Dongmen Shopping and Modern Toilet Restaurant

Today, Mel and I finally had the chance to take the subway into central Shenzhen and do some awesome exploring! We’d been so busy getting things for our apartment and training at our school that we hadn’t had time to get out of Shekou yet. So, this afternoon, we went to Laojie (“Old Street”) Station to check out Dongmen Market. 

 Forget what you think “market” means. This place was like a dozen malls and 20,000 stores and restaurants all crammed into a couple of pedestrian-friendly blocks in downtown Shenzhen. We shopped for 4 or 5 hours and barely scratched the surface of the things to see in this area. It was so cool. Well… actually, it was hot. So far, Shenzhen is a lot more bearable than Taiwan was the August we lived there, but it’s still 35 degrees with 100% humidity every day.  The streets in Dongmen were kindly lined with cool water misting machines, which we made a point of walking through every time passed by. At least I hope that was water…

 Our first stop was Modern Toilet restaurant, a chain that we’d visited many times in Taiwan, but never thought we’d ever see again. I read that there was one in Dongmen, but I wasn’t sure we’d be able to find it. Luckily there was a lady with a poopy ice cream sign standing out front to get our attention.

 The menu promised that the food would be both delicious and happy. It didn’t lie.

  The décor was wonderful. Your seat is a toilet, urinals stuck to the wall.

 

Looks like this poor guy is worried about his weight.

 Someone very nicely left a flower on our table.

There were some very soiled-looking toys to play with, like this guy.

 

And this guy.

  

 And that guy’s bum, with a poop hanging out of it, which you can shove at your wife’s face.

The food was actually excellent!! The menu was much better than the ones in Taiwan. Mel got a sizzle platter of 3-cups chicken and tom yum soup with a chocolate milk tea served in a urinal.

I got lemon chicken served in a bathtub, coke served in a urinal, and beef quesadillas served, lamely, on a plate. Everything all together cost about $20. Pretty fair, considering the fine ambiance.

I made a friend on the way out. Some kids were beating the crap *ahem* out of him earlier, I felt kind of bad for him.

 Oh, in case you were wondering, this is what the actual toilets looked like at the restaurant.

After lunch, we set out to explore Dongmen, and it took exactly 15 minutes for us to start eating again! We found an outdoor, but covered, food court full of Chinesey foods at Chinesey prices. Everything looked AWESOME, and even though we were stuffed we had to get some strawberry shaved ice. This stuff is amazing- we used to get it all the time in Taiwan. It’s like shaved ice cream- it’s so good.

 

They also sell baked potatoes. Choice of toppings include: chocolate and meat floss.

The food court.

 The food court was connected to a huge multi-level mall. Inside it was just a maze of small shops, stalls and boutiques. I saw SO MUCH STUFF that I wanted!! I really had to restrain myself. I think we probably shouldn’t come back here until we get paid first LOL. One of the first stores to hit up: Astroboy.

Looks like H&M has got a little competition on its hands.

Pronounce it.

Don’t worry, you can get your Chris Brown hats here.

Bulk candy! I have never seen anything like this in Asia. And it was all western-style gummies, too. The bag you put your candy in comes with free little tongs for eating your candy with. We got a big sackfull and it only cost $1.

We went to another of the malls, too, before heading back outside to look around. Do you think this is a Nike ripoff store?

Found this old bell near the McDonald’s. It looked slightly cultural, so I thought I'd take a picture of it to balance out all the Annil I'd been photographing.

 Ever see a McDonald’s that looks like this?

Or a KFC that looks like THIS?

 After getting something to drink (and some AC) at McDick’s, we took the subway to Children’s Palace Station. Please note that absolutely no balloons are allowed on the subway system.

We went to Children’s Palace Station because there’s a huge bookstore called Book City there. We read that it has a small English section, and Mel wanted to pick up a Chinese phrasebook. Unfortunately the English section was basically just 2 shelves. It was the smallest English selection I’ve ever seen in a major Asian bookstore- the books actually looked like they were second hand because they’d been picked through so much. And they were all like the “Shopaholic” series kinds of books. Luckily, Book City redeemed itself by being connected to a decently interesting mall. We picked up some things we’d been looking for at cool stationary store there.

And here are our takings from the day: his and hers domo underwear ($8- “no discount,” the vendor said to our unimpressed faces), totally authentic "beats by dre" earbuds ($2), a kitty t-shirt for me ($12), a domo wallet ($2), and his and hers canary keychains that sit in a little birdhouse that sticks on the wall ($3). Should’ve bought that “shopaholic” book.

After we got home, we took a walk along the boardwalk next to our apartment. Our place is right on the water, right on this boardwalk, and we’d still never had the chance to go down there for a stroll. It was really nice. Except for the massive holes in the boardwalk. With a view that nice, who’s looking down? I wonder how many people fall through every day?