Collection plate -- or rather, collection of plates

I figured that once I blogged about the fact that I couldn't find Western-sized dinner plates anywhere, I would start seeing them for sale everywhere. You know how that goes. And, pretty much, yeah that's what happened. These plates might typically be used as serving plates by the Chinese, but they would work as dinner plates for us. I spotted these at YiWu, the large maze-like shopper's paradise I've written about before.

 But before  I saw those, I decided to search for dinner plates in Boshan, a city which is a center for ceramic wares. The plate search was really just an excuse to make a return trip to Boshan. I met my friend and colleague there and she took me to a trendy new restaurant where we had -- oh, such a good lunch.  So good in fact that for logistical reasons (we were as full as ticks) we cancelled the proposed walk up a steep hillside at the park. 

The park was full of activities for children. This isn't a huge sandbox, it's a huge seedbox, full of clean seeds that looked to me like coriander seeds or something. 

On either side of the waterfall/stairs, are the stairs we didn't walk up. Below right, the Xiao Fu river passes through downtown Boshan and the riverbank is lined with mosaics. The river, unfortunately, appears to be heavily polluted. 

We passed by roasted chestnuts for sale. Other popular street treats include candied hawthorns on a stick and roasted sweet potatoes.

So instead of hiking,  we went to the ceramic market, where you can find dozens of stores selling vases, tea sets, dishes, ornaments, and commemorative plates with Mao's smiling face. I was told the area was originally one big state-owned factory but the factory had been converted into private enterprise. Take that, Great Helmsman. It was a holiday long weekend and there were lots of tourists out shopping for ceramics. The vendors were not aggressive about selling to me, but they did, as usual, want to know where I was from and how old I was. 

China's feat in switching-over from mostly communist to a more-or-less free enterprise system, in my mind, is akin to taking out the engine of a car and replacing it with another engine while the car is on the freeway. The personal dislocation must have been huge. Gorbachev tried glasnost, and it failed, and the Soviet Union is no more, but the CCP managed to stay in power during the transition. With of course, the help of no small amount of repression. 

My Chinese friend led me into a crowded market stall where the bargains were. 

I strolled along, waiting for something to catch my eye. Most of the designs were definitely reminiscent of the 70's and 80's. Like something you'd see on a shower curtain in a cheap motel.

And then, for some reason I can't explain, one particular set of plates did catch my eye. So a bargain was struck, some plates were wrapped in newspaper and twine, and I got to carry the bulky parcel home on the bus. The color of the plates complements the colors in our living room/dining room, so maybe that's what subconsciously drew me to these plates. 

And yes, those are bunnies. But what the heck. Maybe I'll go back and get those nice goldfish plates too.

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