July 1, 1997--Hong Kong is reunified with China
December 20, 1999--China resumes the exercise of authority over Macau

I guess December 20th in China will forever be remembered as Macau Day. It was even declared a national holiday. By the way, Macau in Chinese is actually pronounced Aomen. Macau is the Portuguese name.

So the question is what do you do for Macau Day. Honestly, I'm not sure. Most, if not all, the students stayed up late the night before to watch the festivities on television in their classrooms. There are no TVs in their dormitories, only their classrooms.

For me, I decided to get some shopping done; however, when I stepped out the door, I couldn't remember what I wanted to get. No matter, I had been assigned to buy the Christmas gift for our Foreign Affairs Officers.

I went down to the ZhongShan Walking Street and found that a few new places had opened. A makeshift market was flourishing in a yet-to-be-completed building and a new fried chicken place called Do & Me opened for business. I guess they're going to give KFC a run for their money.

I wandered through the department stores looking for Christmas lights. I saw them at the Temple Market in Hefei, but it did not occur to me at the time to buy some. I thought lights would be a nice touch for Christmas, New Year, and Spring Festival (Lunar New Year).

The department stores did not have a speck of what I wanted to buy so I was looking for alternatives. I remember Brian mentioned a place called Long Street (Chang Jie) where there was a market and a lot of other little stores. But where was this place. I remember studying my Wuhu city map and I thought I had spotted a place called Long Street just behind the XinBai Department Store.

Sure enough, it was there. I walked around until I found some shops that looked like it would sell things I was interested in. Behind the main Long Street is an alleyway market that was full of neat and interesting shops. They sold cards, shoes, clothing, gifts, stationary goods, and other stuff. The ground was cobbled with these large, large bricks and it was definitely uneven. That means it had a lot of character. The place was sort of crowded, but not as bad as the Temple Market in Hefei. The real fun of walking down this alley market was not looking for something to buy, but to simply walk and take in the atmosphere.

Well, I didn't find any Christmas lights down in the Long Street Market either, so I went back to the YinZuo Department Store and bought the gifts for the Foreign Affairs Officers. That was two hours after I had started. Some pretty good walking time if I do say so myself. And I do.