PEI XIN JIE

Pei Xin Jie/Peixin Street, my street, is narrow and only two blocks long. But it is a busy street. Within those two blocks you can find made-for-you shoes, clothes, movies to rent, two laundries, books, a dentist, coffee, a hotel, a bakery, hair accessories, water, a podiatrist, telephones, popcorn, baked sweet potatoes, roasted chestnuts, fried bread, fruit and on and on.

The east end of Pei Xin Jie is the shoeshine corner. Outdoor restaurants and snack carts are always at this corner. You can catch the #2 bus at this corner.

This is also where my hair dresser is. His shop is long and narrow. The first time he cut my hair back in May he said he was very nervous. My hair was different. At that time his wife was pregnant and due any day. Now their son is 6 months old.
There must be a dozen hair salons on this street. Sometimes stylists are outside the shops practicing their styling skills on mannequin heads. Practicing? Maybe showing. At one of the shops the stylists gather in front for a morning update, reminiscent of their school days, and then a jog through town chanting.

Traveling west on Peixin you pass a restaurant that makes very good chaomian/chow mein. Usually the man on the left is standing over the large pot, holding a brick of dough in his right hand, his left hand rhythmically slicing fresh noodles into the boiling water.

A few doors down from that restaurant is another restaurant with decent fried rice. To the right of it is a comic and video game store. And to the right of it, behind the wood framed opaque glass doors, is a b-r-o-t-h-e-l. Yes, that's right a brothel. My school is in one of the red light districts of Ankang. Most of the brothels are on the next block but there are two on our block. There must be a dozen in total. The story is that when the school was built 70-80 years ago the market was on this street. The government asked the market to move because it interfered with the school traffic. And then the brothels moved in. Guess the traffic to the ladies of the evening doesn't interfere with the school traffic. You do rarely see the girls. The block where most of the brothels are located is predominately tea stores. There must be a dozen. I can just hear a husband saying to his wife, "Honey, I'm going out to buy some tea. Be back in 5 minutes."

Several doors down from the noodle restaurant is a milk outlet. This is where I buy my milk. There is a cooler at the door but it is filled with soft drinks. The milk is on the store shelves. It is ultra heat treated and need not be refrigerated until opened. You can also buy ice cream bars here. They are in deep chest freezers.

Across the street are some jiaozi/dumpling restaurants. I've eaten at the one in the middle. Their jiaozi are almost as good as the Zhang's. Next to them is a tailor. The bright silk rolls are very appealing but this tailor only makes burial clothing. These shops are all what I call "garage stores" because they are about the size of a single car garage. And at night the metal doors, like garage doors, are pulled down and locked before the proprietors go home.

About now we are at the gates to PeiXin Xiao Xue/Peixin Primary School. You know you are near a school by all the student centered shops. They sell paper, pencils, snacks and toys, the kind students can't walk by. To the left of our gate is a Chinese doctor/pharmacist. That seems very handy for a school, too.

The cross street is about 5 doors to the west of the school gate. That is where the market truly begins but it always spills over onto this section of Pei Xin Jie.

And beyond this corner are some houseware shops, toilet paper shops, and the other b-r-o-t-h-e-l-s. Oh, yes, and the tea shops.