Army Surplus

In America, Army/Navy stores are a pretty common sight. They're pretty much the same all over, an American flag sharing space with a POW/MIA flag outside and racks and racks of used drab green military jackets, pants and miscellaneous home defense/survival gear that is all tended to by a slightly creepy older guy who after spending a lifetime risking his life for his country, is now awfully paranoid about its government.

Whaddya know, they have those in China too.

I never thought one could exist here, but a teammate found one about 15 subway stops over (ie, an eternity) and we went to check it out. Not so much Chinese military items, per se, although there were some standard issue haversacks and greatcoats and generic belts, pants, buttons, covers, some of which dated back to the Revolution. A lot of it was fake, made by companies that make shirts and jackets which look vaguely para military. A surprising number of it was American. On a lot of the jackets for sale in there I read US ARMY, or USMC along with rank and insignia. As I flipped through one rack, I was able to identify the insignia for 101st Airborne, 82 Airborne, US Navy Seabees, 7th Air Calvary and several more that I could not identify. Even more creepily, some still had last names sewn on. I'd really rather not think about how they got from the American serviceman wearing it to a shady Army surplus store halfway across Beijing.

My friend Nathan bought a greatcoat, which is similar to a trench coat but drab green with a fur lining around the neck and brass buttons with the communist star on them. Go watch a John Wayne movie where he's tackling the Koreans or the Vietnamese and you see a lot of them. He also bought a fur hat with large ear flaps, the kind you'd expect to see in Russia. He's now geared to go fight against the Imperialist Devils along the 38th Parallel or pose for propaganda depicting the same.

I picked up a really nice Army backpack, looks similar to the digital camouflage that the American military uses, only the flag on the back is different. I plan on using it to go to Europe here in a month.