Pink Pandas on Parade

When I went to Beijing in February of 2009, I happened to visit a silk factory (while on a tour of the Great Wall of China); the showroom had thousands of hand-made silk ties for about USD 5 apiece. For whatever reason, I bought only one tie while I was there. One.

I've kicked myself ever since. When I went to Shanghai over the Chuseok holiday, I was determined not to repeat such a dumb move, especially when fellow expat Oliver informed me of the tailoring bargains to be had at the South Bund Fabric Market. So, I bought a half-dozen ties for 95 Yuan, about 2,700 W each. (Thanks, Oli!) Including this lovely pink Panda tie. The Pandas aren't pink, the tie is:


Fast forward to today. I attended the annual SMOE NSET Workshop, at a university campus all the way on the east side of Seoul. Afterwards, I am going to dinner (samgyupsal, natch!) with the regular suspects when I see a pink Panda walking toward me on the sidewalk. I fumble for my camera, but only manage to capture the receding image (you can see a blue one at right, with his head off):


I was disappointed, but thought no more about it. Well, we finish eating and head back to the subway for our trips home (tomorrow is a work day, etc, etc) when there s/he is, selling or huckstering god-knows-what. I get Nick to take my picture with him/her:


So, I think this is the end of the story, until I get home and dl the pictures. I remember that just yesterday I took some video of another Panda huckster, this one a mechanical dancing model outside a new-ish SK phone store. It's not pink, but still ...