China Life: November 2025

November 9, 2025

And all of a sudden we are well into November.

Since I last wrote, Kieran's shoe saga has continued. His feet have continued to grow and he is now into a size 13 (47) shoe, which is causing huge (excuse the pun) issues particularly because he is on the competitive cross-country team at school and needs really good quality runners that fit well. Last week I offered to take him to the World Leather Emporium which, for those of you who dislike shopping for handbags as much as me, is even worse than it sounds.

The back-story is this: I had ended up there a week or so earlier when Noémie asked if I could take her shopping for a new purse. Since I had been made aware that almost all mass-produced leather (and pleather) goods around the world make their way through Guangzhou, I decided that the World Leather Emporium would be an interesting place to look. Before we had even opened the door to get out of the taxi, we were swarmed by touts holding up photos and samples of knock-off handbags, belts and shoes. They all wanted to get us into their stores and were promising us amazing prices. One lady was particularly insistent and kept saying, "Don't go into the big stores! That's where the prices are the worst! They have to be! Come with me to my shop, I'll show you!" (There were guards at the entrance to the emporium... she was indicating that we go elsewhere).

Now, I know that this probably sounds really bad-- but to be honest, China is SUCH a safe country that I was not worried about getting robbed or attacked or anything, so I figured there was no harm in cutting out the storefront middle men and seeing if this lady actually could offer us factory-direct goods. So we followed her. She took us in through a side door, watching the guards very carefully. We then were ushered down a narrow hallway and to a dirty old elevator that took us deep into the dungeons of the World Leather Emporium. It was when we stepped out of said elevator and saw the shady looking guy with a dangling cigarette clearly keeping watch outside of a vault-like door and using a walkie-talkie to tell someone that some naive westerners had just stepped out of the creepy elevator (I think that's what he said-- but I don't speak Mandarin yet) that we started to question our decision. Noémie was extremely hesitant to get out of the elevator and she said that she was scared and wanted to leave. Tout-lady was tutting and pulling on my arm and insisting that it was all legitimate, etc. in a very "I get paid on commission" kind of way. Then the vault opened (I'm not kidding, it was sound-proof and there was a massive 3-bolt lock on the heavy door) and cigarette-guy said, "Go go go go!" as he practically pushed us inside and kept careful watch in every direction that no one had seen us go in. There was a bright shop with other customers inside, shelves full of Gucci, YSL, etc. knockoff purses. belts covered in bling, various wallets and I can't even remember what else covered the walls, and a few experienced-looking bargainers looking carefully over the goods and negotiating with other sales people. We looked around in awe for a minute, then Noémie caught my eye, shook her head, and I went back to the vault-door and told the inside guard that we wanted to leave. Our tout-lady tried to pawn off some gaudy-looking handbags on us, but we managed to shake her and get back into the elevator without too much fuss. It was very clearly not what we were looking for.

Sooo... back up to the public area of the World Leather Emporium we went. It is a labyrinth of tiny little shops (like, bathroom-sized shops) all selling what seemed to us like the same things: hand bags with no straps or just a chain, big brand-names slapped onto everything, and essentially nothing that interested us. We lost track of where the door was and ended up in these marble corridors under neon lights, looking at knock-off after knock-off. Some shops had people inside sipping tea and negotiating. Foreigners (many Africans, some middle-easterners) were dragging massive plastic bags of goods along behind them-- and it dawned on me where the goods that street-sellers in other countries come from. We never did find a purse for Noémie (she did not want a name-brand and that was all we could see... the Chinese sellers kept asking what brand we wanted, and all she wanted was a functional, versatile purse with a long strap and useful pockets-- pretty much the opposite of the blingy Gucci handbags we were seeing).

As you may be able to tell, that shopping trip was not my idea of a good time and I decided that it was an experience that I did not need to repeat. However, as Noémie and I were eagerly seeking a way out of Handbag Hell, a man from one shop handed me his card and said, "You need shoes? I make shoes in my factory! Any kind! You text me!" ... and a few days later, Kieran's feet popped from size 12 to size 13 and the shoe situation was pretty dire.

That's the long story of how I ended up taking Kieran to the World Leather Emporium the following week. In my defence, I HAD warned him that it was kind of Hell on Earth with touts, bright lights, fake brands, lots of bling, and people smoking inside-- and that we would get lost. But Shoe Man had been texting me all sorts of pictures of running shoes and saying that he could make them in any size I wanted. I honestly had no other ideas of where to go. We managed to find his shop. There was a couple in there already chatting with him (I think they were Russian) and after a few minutes of waiting, a lady came to collect us and rushed us through some hallways, down an escalator, through some hanging plastic pieces into a dark, concrete hallway and a narrow stairwell... and there we were again, back into the dark, creepy underbelly of the World Leather Emporium. Exactly where I did NOT want to be-- but at least I'd had a trial-run already and survived so I went into this one slightly more confident. Kieran wanted out. He was like, "Mom! Forget the shoes! We should not be here!"... and then the vault opened and we were inside. Once again, a bright shop with displays and salespeople and bargainers. We were told to choose any shoes and we would get a great price. Kieran would have none of it. I urged him to at least LOOK at the options available, and he touched a couple of them, proclaimed that they were all cheap knock-offs, and said he wanted to get out.

OK. He was right-- but I was also thinking that we could at least talk to someone who could actually fabricate what Kieran DID want-- but he was beyond wanting to trust anyone. So we left. And there we were, back out on the street, with no new shoes. I said, "OK so now what? What do you suggest we do?" Kieran's answer was to find a Nike or Asics or New Balance store and ask again. (We had already been to many). So I looked up the nearest mall with shoe stores and it was 3km away. We decided to walk. Close to an hour later we were in a mall where there were no shoes bigger than a size 11. Super frustrated and tired, we returned home empty-handed about 5 hours after we had left.

More on the shoe saga later.

The kittens were litter-trained but for some reason the apartment always smelled like stinky cats. I cleaned out their box morning and night (and often in between), turned on the air purifier, got air spray, opened windows, etc. but it was a constant battle. Meanwhile, they were getting more and more confident around the house and started scratching my new couch and clawing up the edges of the floor rug. Every morning they would chase me around meowing loudly as I prepared their food, and I started to grow concerned that 3 weeks had gone by and I had not yet heard anything about potential adoption from the animal-shelter I was fostering for. I finally wrote to them a couple of days ago and told them that I would be traveling soon, and had they had any success in finding a home for the kitties? I was told that no, not only had they not been placed, but that there are lots of kittens needing homes-- do I know anyone else who would like cats? Unfortunately I had to remind them firmly that I could not keep these kittens and that in fact it was not working out well to have them. They offered to take them back, and I accepted. So 2 days ago the kitties left. Every time I have asked a foreigner if they would like to adopt two free, healthy kittens they laugh and say, "Which organization got you? There are LOADS of cats needing homes!" It's unfortunate, but my sanity was at stake (and my eyes were itchy).

This past week at school was really busy-- we hosted the ISMAG piano competition on Wednesday, which was piano students from various international schools who performed on stage and were judged by an adjudicator. They were all amazing-- 8-year olds putting me to shame, 15 year olds playing Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu and Rachmaninoff-- and unfortunately it looks very likely that the judging was rigged (I was told before the students had even played that the adjudicator had connections at the American School and therefore 2 specific students would come in first no matter what... and they did).

On Thursday we hosted the Primary Talent Show which was also stunning-- and a lot of fun. 27 acts, and then the teachers went up and danced a number in banana costumes which the kids thought was hilarious.

Yesterday Noémie and I sang our first concert with the International Choir. It was outdoors, and despite a rather major technical difficulty of the electric piano not working, it ended up going quite well. Immediately afterwards Kieran and I headed to South Station to catch a high-speed train to Hong Kong. (Noémie had been packed to come with us, but at the last minute decided that she had too much homework and needed to stay back to study).

What prompted the mid-weekend trip to Hong Kong, you ask? Why... Kieran's huge feet, of course! We had been tipped off by a few people that the selection and ease of shopping in HK was far better than here, so decided to give it a shot. So I booked us a cheap(ish) hostel room that was rated 8.5/10 and in a very central area. The bullet train itself actually can get to HK in only 58 minutes from here, but the time it takes to get to the train station and then through customs and immigration at the other end is why it's kind of a big trip. Especially for our first time. We did a lot of standing in lineups, walking the wrong way, and getting frustrated. By the time we stepped out of the train station in Hong Kong it was after 6pm, dark, and we had not had lunch so we were pretty hungry. I plugged in the hostel location to a Maps app (thankfully I had learned that I needed a different SIM card before I came, so I was still connected), and we took a couple of metros and walked about a kilometre... and ended up absolutely nowhere near our hostel. I could not figure out where I'd gone wrong, but now we were really hungry and extra-frustrated. I plugged the address into a different mapping app, and sure enough-- our hostel was about 2km away. AUAUAGGHH! We turned around and battled our way back through the crowds on the sidewalks, figured out how to cross the major streets that were all barricaded to pedestrians, and then got to... a bunch of cell phone repair shops. I was starting to lose it, and Kieran had just announced, "Just so you know, I don't like it here." which REALLY made my life a *lot* (eyeroll) easier in that moment.

I was baffled. I tried a third map app, and it also said that our little icon was at the hostel. So I walked into the cell-phone shops and looked to see if there were any doors leading to anything hostel-like. Nope. Just as I was about to give up and either spend a fortune on a big-name hotel or return to Guangzhou, I saw a dark doorway with an 83 above it. The address we needed was 83 Argyle street. We entered the doorway and went down a dingy hallway where there were about 10 people lined up waiting for an elevator. While we waited, I saw a tiny placard on the wall that said, "Johnson Hostel". YAY!!! I knew it was located at 1113, so decided we needed to get to the eleventh floor. We squished into the elevator (odd numbers only) with a bunch of other people, and it kind of chugged up...and up...and up... we stepped out into a filthy, dark, tiled central courtyard-type area. But not a yard in the centre, per se-- more of an open central area with air conditioners, laundry, and old garbage suspended everywhere. There was a neon bulb every few metres so that we could see the door numbers. We found door 1113 and taped to it was a piece of paper and a key with my name on it. It also said, "513-7. Code 1369#."

It was like a real-life escape-room!

Normally fun-- but not with a grumpy, hungry teenager who is dragging along and constantly telling you how much it sucks here.

OWE. EM. GEE.

We managed to find the elevator again and rumbled our way to the fifth floor. It was extra-creepy. Here's a photo.

One of the central courtyards

Here's another photo. This hallway led to the hallway that led to our room.

Here's another courtyard view

And another.

Here's a similar building from outside.

OK, so... we found door 513 and plugged in the code. It opened into another (somewhat cleaner) hallway with 7 doors in it. Our key worked in door #7. Escape Room Achieved!

The room was teeny-tiny and smelled slightly of sewage, but it was clean enough. There was a twin bed and a bunk, and a tiny bathroom with water leaking on the floor. It really was not big enough to properly shower in, but I had kind of expected that and knew we would only be there for one night.

By the time we dropped our stuff, Kieran was so grumpy he was trying to convince me that he didn't need dinner and we could just go to sleep (it was only about 7:30pm). I looked up a nearby restaurant called "Graceland" that said it served American food, coaxed Kieran out the door, and we thought (for some stupid reason) that taking the stairs would be a better alternative to the elevator. Ughh... first thing I saw was a sign on the wall warning us to beware of the rodent poison. Then we headed down this filthy, narrow concrete stairwell. The lights were burned out on level 2, and Kieran made it all the way to the bottom before turning and running upstairs and saying, "there's no way out!" so we went back up to floor 3 where we found an exit and took the elevator the rest of the way.

All he wanted to eat was "something healthy like a big salad"-- and when we got to Graceland and looked at their menu under the heading of "Salads" it said, "Air Salad. Free. Because it's a bowl full of air! This is an American resturant! You don't come here for salads!" Other options on the menu were fried chicken, chicken and waffles with gravy, and deep-fried steak with fries. Kieran just grunted.

We went a bit further down the street and ended up at a sort of British sports-pub type place which served us some relatively awful caesar salads and a bowl of vegetable pasta for Kieran. Once he had eaten, I figured he might be a bit more cheerful and I asked him if he would be willing to come out to a night market with me. (I was still hungry and wanted to try some street food). That was a big no-- Mr. Grumpy just wanted to go back to the room and sleep off our difficult day. Sigh.

On our way back to the room, I thought it prudent to warn Kieran that finding shoes may be difficult even in Hong Kong. I said, "What exactly are you needing? If you could have your ideal racing shoe, what would it be?" And he replied, "Well... if I could have ANY runner? I'd like these ones I saw on the Asics website, but that would mean that we would need to find an Asics store."

This is when the miracle happened. Literally at that moment we turned a corner and were standing right in front of... an Asics store! Hallelujah!

I went in, looked at the sales rep, and after a quick hello I just cut straight to the chase: "What have you got in a size 13 men's running shoe?"

I could hear the angels singing when suddenly Kieran had not one but TWO different styles to choose from, and he managed to get his foot into both! Suddenly his mood changed 180 degrees. In fact, he then grew so confident that he did NOT want to buy those shoes because he could see out the window that there were other shoe stores nearby and perhaps there were even other options. Oh my.

Turns out that we were in an area known as "Sneaker Street" and had just stumbled upon it out of sheer luck. I think Kieran tried on a total of 6 pairs at 3 different stores before he found the absolutely best, most perfect size 47 wide lightweight runners on sale. MAN was that kid happy when we walked out with his amazing, beautiful, perfect genuine shoes! He was so happy, in fact, that he even agreed to come to the night market with me if I really still wanted him to.

Fortunately Lady Luck had finally found us, because then we randomly stumbled across a night market that happened to be right there. We found a couple of other things that we had hoped to get, and returned to our Hostel of Horrors with our major tasks accomplished. (And it was pretty funny watching the Chinese vendor-lady hold up underwear in front of Kieran so that I could admire how they were just his size...)

Neither of us slept very well (Kieran said, "Goodnight mom. I hope that a cockroach doesn't run up my back in the night") but we managed. We were both happy to pack up our stuff this morning and get out of there. We then took the harbour ferry across to the main island of Hong Kong, and also took the funicular tramway up to the top of Victoria Peak to look out across the city. More stories there, but this is already far too long!

Needless to say, we made it back to Guangzhou and now it is almost 10pm on Sunday night. I'll sign off here with a few more pictures.

Shannon

The Canadian Contingent at UN Day 2 weeks ago

This is the waterfall on our compound right behind our apartment. I walk past it every day going to and from the bus to school.

I totally forgot to mention Tai Chi man in the forest from my hike last week. That's another story.

The buildings on the left are my compound, as seen from Baiyun mountain where I was hiking.

Kieran went camping with a school group last week.

An example of a cab driver playing video games on the fly with Noémie and me in the backseat.

This is the Primary Talent Show. (Note the Korean mother who ran up to the stage not once but THREE times to yell at her kids to get into the right positions in the middle of their dance.)