Published by Swiss James on 14 Jan 2008
Warm weather clothing
I’m off to Harbin this weekend, the freezing cold city north of Beijing where they hold an annual ice festival.
In preparation for the weather in Harbin
[oh Jesus I've just looked at the forecast, it's going to be between -23 and -35 degrees celsius- why the hell did I agree to this?!]
Emma had been given a tip about where to buy cheap duck down coats. Just the ticket.
Buying a jacket in a place like this is about as pleasant as getting your finger trapped in a car door.
The rails are packed into the available space so people shove and elbow each other out of the way to get where they’re going, staff are all on commission so are on you like ants on a Fruit Pastille, and when it’s time to pay you have to queue up at a separate cash counter for the best part of a week- waiting for someone to rubberstamp a sheaf of sales receipts for you to take back to the harpie with your jacket.
“That was like being on the ‘Titanic‘ ” Emma said as we left. She had a point.
The jackets were cheap- 300RMB for hers, 400RMB for mine. In the end, though, it was a false economy since we spent 400RMB on afternoon tea at the Four Seasons to recover.
Duck Down jackets, 300-500RMB. “Palace Of 100 Products” (or something) Department Store, Nanjing Dong Lu