Tale of a Swatch

Swatch came out with a line of Beijing Olympic watches a while back. I didn't realize it until about a month ago when I passed by the shop in Coastal City. I picked up a nice one with a Beijing opera mask design for my mom.

While in Hong Kong, I was talking with my parents and uncle about them. We found that every Swatch store in Hong Kong was sold out. Upon my return to Shenzhen, I headed over to Coastal City again to buy a couple more. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that they don't take credit cards, only Chinese bank cards. I walked home in the heat and got my bank card. Again, I had problems. I forgot that prior to my vacation I emptied most of my account to deposit my pay in our savings account, leaving me with only enough money to purchase one watch. Fortunately, I went back the following day with cash to buy a second one. I think it was worth the hassle.

Now I have one Olympic souvenir that isn't a fake.

Fake Fuwa

Over the past couple years I've been collecting fake Olympic merchandise. The only authentic Beijing Olympic merchandise I own is a pen that was given as a gift. I've also purchased a few genuine articles for others.
This set of rather ugly Fuwa toys for 30 kuai comes from Children World--a huge market near Haiya Baihuo that's logo has a knock-off of Woody Woodpecker. This set looks like a rather good fake--there are no hugely obvious mistakes. In the top right corner, however, it says "Chinese Olymepic Cmmittee."

It's not as amusing as the Beijinag 2008 pen I bought a while back.

Chinglish-lympics

Yesterday I came across this interesting piece of Beijing Olympic memorabilia--I know, it looks rather ordinary. But you have to take a good look at it to appreciate its wonder.
At first glance I thought it was a real product, but quickly realized it was just a funny knock-off. Since it's difficult to see the details from the photos, here are the descriptions: At the top, it says "Beijing 2008 Olympics" in Chinese. The English below reads, "BeiJinag 2008" with a poor rendition of the Olympic rings below that (it's only four rings and they're all in a straight line). The store had this pen in three colors. I doubt I'll try to collect them all.