Abi and Tim trying out a chaise at the Furniture Market

Our first day in China in was filled with shopping and decisions. We spent some time early this morning at our apartment. The work that was going to be done over the past month just began today. Oh well....we are not in any hurry I guess. To our surprise all the workmen were smoking in our apartment as they worked. Yuk!! This was a little shocking having just come from Washington where there are strict "no smoking" laws. This is going to be a hard adjustment for us.

There were several pieces for furniture that we needed to choose today in order to have them delivered before Chinese New Year. The next two weeks are very busy in China as everyone prepares for the holiday. We went to a furniture market that was five stories and at least 100 stores per floor. It was a little overwhelming but fun to see the style of home decor that is popular in Asia. Most of the designs are very contemporary. We took a break for lunch and then went back to the market to make our final decisions. We choose living room furniture...sofa and two large chairs, a bed for Abi, and two chaise lounges to sit in the window for reading and viewing the river. We then went back to the apartment to choose fabrics for drapes and several upholstered pieces. It is actually cheaper to reupholster furniture here than to purchase new. I like this very much. As you know I love bringing all the pieces together to make a cohesive environment. All in all it was a fun and productive day.



Jet lag caught up with Abi and I at about 4:oo this afternoon. We were also freezing so we came back to the hotel for a few minutes before walking to dinner. After dinner we all had a massage. It was heaven and painful all at the same time. The massages here are very ...... how do I say this..... I can't think of a word to describe it......so I will just say that the people giving the massage are very strong.