I love shopping in supermarkets, especially in Qinhuangdao. Unlike shopping in Wal-Mart, Carrefour and such like, there are things that must be learned in the more localised supermarkets. Prices vary dramatically from one to another, delivery times of goods, especially meat, where the 'specials' are to be found and how often they reconfigure the shelves. The last one happens too often and leaves the average shopper lost!

My new, local supermarket which I mentioned before is underneath the Qinhuangdao Olympic stadium. I learnt a while back that for fresh French baguettes you must join the breadline at 11a.m.. The loaves appear and the scramble begins at 11:15. Every time I've been to the store I noticed that they never had any beef albeit the clean and empty stand was there looking like it had never been used.
Last Tuesday I arrived to buy some essentials and saw a full-on melee in the meat section. There must have been over a hundred shoppers fighting for pole position. Le beouf est arrive!
When I finally muscled my way to the front -no ticketting systems are in place as yet- there was still some nice stewing steak left among what looked like eyelids, innards and possible a testicle or two.
I was back again this Tuesday before the masses had arrived and bought some excellent beef as well as Sichuan La Rou 四川腊肉 which is as good, if not better than, Danish smoked bacon.

I've not eaten too much beef during the past five-plus years. A fraction of what I used to consume in the west. So, with my new findings I've been able to dust off my old recipe notebook and make some delicious beef dishes. If you're looking for good mutton (lamb is impossible to find in Chinese supermarkets) then your best bet is to find a local Muslim butcher. It's the only meat they tend to sell.