dulemba: Custom Dress

Chinese culture and the language are so different, it was challenging and intimdating to be there, and I felt quite brave to leave the hotel each morning. But leave, I did, because I had adventures to have! Friends shared lists of things I should do while in China and on that list was "have a dress made." So I headed to the fabric district (via taxi). It's a large building with tons of "stalls" or mini-store fronts each manned by a talented team of seamstresses (mostly women). I had my measurements taken, picked some fabric, and gave the woman a drawing of what I wanted. It was delivered to the hotel later and needed a few adjustments, so they delivered it to Hangzhou. I finally got to try it on at home. (I'll do up my hair and wear nice jewelry for it). I don't know if I would have bought it off a rack, but boy does it come with a STORY!

I mentioned I was going to buy souvenires at another location on my 'must do' list and before I knew it the seamstress had dragged me to her cousin's booth to buy the scarves I was after. They have us tourists figured out; but I was tired and the scarves were pretty and decently priced, so I was game. Afterwards, I asked the woman where her favorite noodle shop was and she walked me over to a little hole in the wall, a place I never would have picked out on my own, and had this:

. I got funny looks from the people in the restaurant - they obviously weren't used to seeing a person like me in there. I just smiled and waved.
From there, I went to The Long Museum... This is what I showed the taxi driver to get there (and why I didn't take the subway). Could you figure this out? Even with my translation app that worked offline and was a lifesaver, getting around was challenging!