This is the first time I've been to the barbershop in almost two years. It feels good, to have someone professional, someone who knows how to handle thick Chinese hair, to give me a decent haircut.

There are barbershops on the Peking University campus; well, that shouldn't be surprising, since the campus is already rather blatantly commercialized: there are convenience stores, fruit vendors, small grocery stores, copy shops, souvenir shops, and all kinds of businesses. So barbershops are quite natural. Like most Chinese barbershops, moreover, this one offered also services in manicures and pedicures, massages, facial conditioning (I guess mostly for women), etc. It feels more like a general beautician's shop. But of course, the barbershops are still barbershops: the first thing I got is a shampoo. Then a hair cut. Then another wash. The whole thing took less than 30 minutes, and cost me 11RMB.

If there's anywhere in Princeton that I can get as professional a hair cut (meaning, not done by 19 year old interns) for as cheap (say, 10 bucks US) and as efficiently, I would happily get a haircut every two months.

This is not the best hair cut I've received, granted (the best one would be of course still Mr. Lai in Chiayi City), but I am extremely satisfied with it.

...

On the way back from getting my hair cut, I saw a crowd on the Triangular Square in Peking University. I turned, and found out rather quickly why a crowd has gathered: the medical students at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine are offering, using their l33t acupunture skillz...

... free ear-piercing.