Seeing Green

Well, we're in Chengdu, one more long train ride later...

Just a note:  Yesterday, Darren and I were talking about how even though we're in another country, and there is a noticable cultural difference, something about being in China hasn't quite sunk in yet and we couldn't really figure out why.  We thought it might have to do with being in the cities.  As Darren put it, "modern is modern is modern"; the cities are just that, in a way that wasn't really what we were anticipating.  I mean, we understood perfectly well the population density of most of China and just how "modern" China was, but when we envisioned travelling to China, I think we both had a slightly different idea in mind.
When I woke up (at 5 am from the snoring above, below, and beside me) I looked out the window of the train and I felt what I had been missing so far this trip.  The China Darren and I both longed to see was just down the river bank.  For a couple of hours, the train tracks followed the river, and on the other side of the river was lush green mountains, and, what I have been waiting to see, rice fields terraced into the sides of most of those mountains.  Now, it may sound cliche to most of you, that what I had envisioned of China included rice fields, but come on... who doesn't think rice when they think China?  I have this strong desire to somehow be involved in the whole rice cultivating experience.  I would love to help plant rice, but I'm pretty sure that season has come and gone, but maybe I can help with the harvesting?  We'll see.

Otherwise, Darren and I have both longed for a Chinese landscape that wasn't covered in concrete, and waking up this morning to the green hills was exactly what we needed to really get into the last leg of our trip here.  The Wolong Nature Reserve and Panda Breeding Centre, which we were hoping to visit while here, has been closed because of the earthquake in 2008 (the year in which our book was published, but before the closure), so we're going to the one here in Chengdu tomorrow.  No nature reserve, but Darren and I will both get to see a real live panda bear for the first time... and if we're willing to pay 500-1000 RMB, we will also get to "hug" one.  As much as I'd love to snuggle with a little baby panda, I don't think 1000 RMB (almost $200) is going to be in our budget ;).  We will be taking a four day tour to Huolong Park and Juizhongou (sp?) Valley in the next couple days as well, which are supposed to be some of the most breath-taking natural sceneries in all of China.  After that, it's in villages such as Dali and Lishang that we'll be spending a good chunk of our time; so, the remainder of our trip should be seeing a lot more lush green and a lot less cement, and we can't wait!

In the Heart of Xi'an

(This will have to do for now until I can get the pictures uploaded.)

So our trip is really moving along now, not as many lazy days, or weeks spent doing nothing.  We're almost half way through our visas now.  Don't think of it as rushing, but being more efficient.  Consequently, we are already leaving Xi'an though we just got here Monday evening (it's Wednesday).  We're headed out on the train in a few hours here.

Our first night, we walked on over to the Bell Tower, just to get a feel for the city and take a look around.  I think right away Darren and I both noticed that Xi'an had a very different look and feel from the other cities we've been in, especially coming from Beijing (with a short stop in Luoyang).  The people here seem to be much more handsome (women and men alike).  It sounds shallow, but as we've discussed with other travellers, something seems to go terribly wrong with a lot of Chinese men (somewhere around puberty maybe).  They start out as such cute kids, and somehow turn into disgusting old men.  Xi'an however, has some decent looking people.  The men and women are both more attractive in general.  The city also seems much more laid back than the others.  Not sure what it is, and despite that I was more or less shoved into the side of a moving bus, they are otherwise quite easy going.  Darren is especially drawn to the history of the city.  For him, it somehow feels like there is more historical integrity here than in the other cities-- it could possibly be the presence of the city wall.  In other ways, Xi'an is no different-- like everywhere else, there is a pluthera of excellent street food right outside our door.  One of the local dishes, one that Darren really enjoys, is lamb/beef kabobs wedged between two pieces of steamed flat bread (it's not really flat bread, but it's a dense bun of sorts).  And of course, every morning, you can count on delicioius "pancakes" for breakfast.

Our first night here, we also booked a show through our hostel to go see the "Tang Dynasty" performance.  For the first time this whole trip, I forgot my camera, and for that I apologize.  Some of the dances were quite beautiful, others comical.  The womens' dances reminded me a lot of Mulan.  They do this "sleeve dance", where their costumes have long sleeves, made of a very light material.  It's more or less like a glorified ribbon dance, maybe the original ribbon dance.  Some of the warrior dances were a little more comical, with giant masks with glowing, flashing eyes.  There was another performance that was actually called "Ducks Quarrelling" and it sounded like ducks quarrelling.  Ha ha ha.  It was interesting and a nice way to begin our time in Xi'an.

Given the mentality of jumping right in, we of course spent our first day visiting the Terracotta Warriors.  We chose to do it on our own, rather than with a tour group (as tours are approximately 200-300 RMB/person).  We got a bit of a late start, and were worried about being crowded by said tour groups, nevermind everything you have to actually go through to get to the warriors.  The bus dropped us off in the parking lot, and it was a couple hundred meters to the ticket office, no big deal.  We were able to pull the student cards out and get in for 45 RMB/person rather than 90 RMB which was nice.  From there, it was about a kilometer walk, lined with shops and vendors, to the entrance of the "museum".  Once at the entrance, like everything else, we had to go through a security check point (which is a little ridiculous since they scan your bags but don't watch the scans, and don't care if you beep through the detectors).  Finally, we were in, and headed straight to Pit 1.  We walked in, up a few steps, and there it was-- a mass dig site with hundreds of clay warriors lined up in battle formation.  We've heard that the warriors are a little anti-climactic, but we certainly didn't think so.  It's overwhelming how vast Pit 1 is.  Pit 1 alone is said to house 6000 of the 10000 warriors (I think), and not even half of the Pit is unearthed yet.  It is quite incredible.  I only wish I could've bypassed the red tape to get some better shots, though the zoom lens came in handy.  The reconstructed warriors are pretty impressive in their numbers, but what Darren and I really liked were the ones that were in mid-assembly, as well as the ruined pieces that were still half burried.  Pit 2 and 3 are smaller and have a bit of a different feel, but are also excellent.  Pit 2 is where some of the nicer finds are encased behind glass, but displayed for a 360* close up view, which is cool.  Both Pit 2 and 3 are more "in progress" in terms of the build of the actuall warriors, and it's cool to see what looks like ruins of a battle scene strewn about in the dirt.  We absolutely loved it, and Ruth and Harold, I know you said that you guys didn't get to spend much time there, and I would say it's definitely worth a second trip to really get a feel for it!

For later that evening, Darren and I got wind of another free water/light show (quite literally got wind of it actually).  It wasn't like the one in Suzhou, this one was an actual fountain show, and Daren and I picked, not the smartest place to watch from.  There are several pools/fountains that cascade in front of the "Good Pagoda" and we chose to watch from the narrow divides between the fountains.  It was a perfect view, until the wind began to blow; and, especially with some of the higher fountains, the wind blew the water right at us.  We (by that I mean "I" because Darren was hiding behind me) got quite soaked, but not as soaked as all the people running through the fountains.  It was a fun night and our viewing area made the fountain show that much more exciting.  I was only really wet on the backside, but the water totally dripped down my back and into my underwear and from the front I definitely looked like I peed myself.  We had a blast though and it was a great way to end a wonderful day.

I guess we sort of did things backward a bit cuz today we spent all day wandering the city and seeing the local sights.  We started off with the 8 Immortals Temple.  It was nothing exciting really, but it was cheap, and even more important, there was supposed to be a nice little antique market in the alley leading to the temple.  The market was alright, not as good as the dirt market in Beijing, but Darren sure liked it.  For those of you who haven't already figured it out, he did buy a sword (despite the fact that we weren't sure if he'd be able to get it home).  He's pretty excited about it though.  From there, we headed to the History Museum which was pretty cool.  The museum runs through each of the dynasties, showcasing different arts/artifacts from the Shanxi district.  It had everything from stone, to bronze, to porcelain, jade, silk and gold artefacts, plus some different examples of digs (other than the Terracotta Warriors) in the area.  It was quite informative, as well as interesting to see the tools and daily items from civilizations hundreds, even thousands of years old.  From there we headed to a post office so Darren could try and ship his sword out.  There was some sceptisism because it was a sharp sword, and issues with sending something more than 1 meter long  to Canada.  Apparently there's a length restriction shipping to Canada.  We were however, able to ship it to Hong Kong (after much debate and uncertainty)-- thank goodness.  From there, we headed to the Muslim quarter and the Great Mosque.  The Mosque was a bit of fresh air compared to a lot of the temples we've seen.  somehow it seemed more genuine and integral.  Maybe it's just not as popular, but it wasn't as commercialized, and seemed quite peaceful, considering the mass markets right outside its doors.  It was also interesting to see the fusion of the Chinese languge and architecture with Arabic script and culture.  Afte the Mosque, we walked the streets of the Muslim Quarter, trying nibbles of all their local sweets and snacks.  Some were delicious and others were good, but were dry and looked like balls of hair.

So now, we wait until it's time for our train to leave.  About three hours to go.  It's off to Chengdu next to visit some Pandas and one of China's most beautiful natural reserves.  We'll keep ya posted!

Luoyang

Our trip to Luoyang has been short, but sweet, and salty, steamed and fried, and generally delicious!  Our plan for this area was to go see the Longmen Caves and the Shaolin Temple, we detoured slightly.

We arrived Saturday morning, and the train ride here was fantastic in comparison to the last.  We got on the train, we fell asleep and got off the train.  Wonderful!  We took a short, indirect (the street signs in China seem to be haphazardly placed) walk to our hostel, checked in, showered up, and got onto bus no. 81 to the Longman Caves.  The caves/grottoes are a series of carvings which were founded by an Indian monk.  They are separated into the west and east sides by the river. The caves on the west side are pretty cool and house one of the largest carved Buddha's in the world.  Her/His earlobe alone is supposed to be almost 200 m.  There were three major caves which were quite phenominal.  For some reason however, which we never did find out, a lot of the carvings are missing faces.  It looks as if someone deliberately broke them off.

(Not too sure what type of deity or Buddha he's supposed to be here.)

(I think this is the pose for the Budhavista of Mercy, but I'm not sure.)

The east side of the river had a bit of a different feel to it.  Both sides were fairly restricted with railings stopping you from going into the caves, but the east side also restricted any pictures as well.  Not only were there railings, but each of the carvings were barred off like a prison cell.  Also, the east side smelled unexplicably like cucumber (certainly not the worst smell in the world).  The east side also housed one of the temples, but I think by the time we made it over to that side, we were pretty exhausted.  It was a beautiful hot day, but we had already spent almost two hours on the west side of the river.

Once we got back to our hostel, we napped (of course) and walked a little way down an alley between our hostel and the bus station.  We had stumbled here earlier for breakfast and found a noodle place, and thought we might venture here for dinner.  Turns out, in the evenings, the little alley comes alive with street food vendors.  One of our favourites so far in the street food market, are these pancake/crepe type things which are have a thin layer of egg (I think), and some you can also get

with green onion.  They are delicious, and so cheap.  For half of one, and they are huge, was 2-3 RMB.  (Definitely stopping by for breakfast before the train tomorrow.)  There are also these other things, which are like a wrap, but folded with green onion, eggs and noodles, which you can also get in a fried version, also delicious.  And, of course, there is a pluthera of meats and kabobs to choose from, pork being the most popular (and the easiest to identify with its pig face staring at you).  There's also a pluthera of fried fish, and whole fried/roasted birds (baby ones), a few escapees of which we saw earlier in the day and were admiring (unaware that they would become someone's dinner).  Fish, pork, and chicken/bird is the most discernible of the meat, and probably the safest.  When you see a cat tied up with a massive bowl of fish parts to feed on, right beside the guy selling unidentifiable grilled something or other, you really have to wonder what he's grilling (or maybe it's obvious).

There's also like a fast food version of Hot Pot in these markets as well.  You'll stumble upon a vendor, who has a giant skillet in front of him, as well as a pluthera of meats and vegetables.  You point and pick, he cooks, and away you go with your paper bowl!  It's fantastic and a little classy.  Usually you just walk away with your noodles/soup in a plastic bag.  Right before our wonderful alley of street food, is a huge outdoor hot pot restaurant.  A little less classy than the one in Beijing, this place has a series of tables with holes in the tops and propane tanks at the bottom.  You get a metal pot of broth and all your fixins, and you're good to go.  On the walls inside, they had posters with predesigned meals and prices.  Each poster had a picture of an animal, and a picture of a hot pot-like meal.  The animals varried: one had a rooster, another a goat, one a bunny rabit, a lamb, a cow, a pig, and of course, a dog-- pretty sure it was some sort of lab.  Each of the animals in the posters were cute and alive and in full colour.  The dog and bunny looked more like pets than food for sure, at least to us.

By the way, we didn't end up going to the Shaolin Monastery.  The more we heard about it, the less inclined we were to go.  The place is apparently one large tourist destination, over priced and over crowded.  Even as we got off the train we were bombarded with people soliciting us to take a bus tour to the monastery.  It has little/no authentic appeal apparently, since it was burnt down during the cultural revolution, and only recently rebuilt once they realised they could profit from it.  It fetches quite a hefty price, so we opted out.  Aside from a demonstration or two, most of the monastery apparently consists of shops and monks who aren't really monks.  We did however get a little kung fu show with dinner.  While we were waiting for our food, some local children seemed to be practicing for their Kung Fu debut.  They were pretty cute.  The four of them would pair up, two against two, and get all ready with their poses, and then just start running at eachother and punching and kicking eachother.  Not pretending, but actually beating eachother.  Then they'd stop, all make disgusted faces at the pain they had just endured, look as though they were going to cry, and do it all over again.  It was hilarious!  This went on for quite some time and provided ample entertainment before dinner.

Earlier today, since we didn't go to the temple, we went shopping (of course).  Another local market, which the receptionist called the "Old Market" but which sold mostly clothes.  Well, I thought the Silk Market was cheap!  Man!  You can't really bargain here, but you don't really need to either.  Darren picked out a cute jumper style dress for me, and it was only 45 RMB.  I've also been searching everywhere for a nice vest, finally found one (they were everywhere here) and it was only 35 RMB- that's almost half of what I ended up paying for most of my clothes at the Silk Market.  Needless to say, nothing we purchased at this "Old Market" was "old".

So with a little bit more shopping, and a lot more eating done, next stop is Xian.  We're pretty excited for the Terracota warriors, and History Museum sounds amazing too.  We'll keep ya posted!

(PS- Having some serious issues uploading photos.  The rest wont attach properly, including the coolest Buddha one, so this will have to do.  You can check out the slideshow at the bottom of the page for the rest.)

Random Points

Just a few things we've noticed that I thought I'd share:

First, pending the actual arrival of our package, China Post rocks!  It is so cheap to ship things (we shipped to Hong Kong) and they package everything for you.  We went in with some clothes and a few souveniers, including some framed paintings, and this lady went to town, bubble wrapping and using my clothes as padding.  She didn't have a box big enough so she taped two boxes together, and then they use this machine that puts those plastic bands around the box to hold everything in place.  I wish I had video taped it because it was quite amazing.  I don't think you're even allowed to prepackage your own stuff, because the lady thoroughly checked through everything we brought to the post office.  Her face upon seeing some of the stuff we were trying to send (tea pots and the framed paintings) was not amused.  I think she knew she was in for a tough pack and seemed rather disgusted by the amount of effort she had to put in.  But she was fantastic.

Second, hard sleepers compared to hard seats on an overnight train make a world of difference.  Ten times better.  Our trip from Beijing to Luoyang was fantastic.  We laid down, fell asleep, woke up, and we were in Luoyang.  There were two old men below us (who fell asleep immediately) and a younger couple above us who were hygenic and clean and didn't smell.  It was fantastic.  No random picture taking, no stinky feet in our laps, all smoking was in a designated area away from our beds, and the toilets were actually clean and usable.  It was amazing!  We even booked hard sleepers for our five hour trip to Xian (even though it's not overnight).

Third, no matter where we go, if I wear my hair down, the number of random people who ask to take pictures with us seems to double, almost triple.  It's strange, however, there also seems to be a mass amount of women with perms, extensions, and sometimes even wigs.  I think it might be because my hair, is the exact OPPOSITE of theirs- not sleek, smooth and straight, but course, curly and huge.

Also, does anyone have any guesses as to what this traffic sign is supposed to mean?  Darren thinks it means that you're not allowed to drive your exploding car down the street, or that you're not allowed to burn your car down that street.  What do you think?

More oddities to come.

The Great Birthday

Today was the greatest birthday ever!  Before we even left China I told Darren that I wanted to spend my birthday on the Great Wall (since we were going to be in the area anyway).  Though it may sound a little cliche, the Great Wall has always been one of those things high up on "my list".  I've always wanted to see it and knew that when I finally did, it would be amazing... and it was!  Blue skies in Beijing are rare, and to have two in a row was a blessing.  Mind you, as per the rules of nature, it never rains on my birthday (*knock on wood), so I knew that that wouldn't be an issue, but I never dreamed we would have such clear skies.

Our day started early.  We booked a tour through our hostel, called the "Secret Tour", and our bus/minivan left at seven thirty.  (Before we left, one of the girls, Sophie, from the front desk, who is the sweetest, happiest person you'll ever meet, gave me a melon and told me she wished me a "sweet" day.)  We drove for three hours, without air conditioning, and it was hot, which didn't help the general sense of fatigue.  Our driver seemed as tired, if not more so, than I was--I think he had just finished a night shift driving a bus--and he kept hitting himself on the head and making loud yawn-like noises, and he spent the entire drive singing, seemingly to keep himself awake.  At one point, Darren said the driver seemed barely able to keep his eyes open he was so sleepy, which could account for his inability to keep the van running properly.  He would stall just before any sort of bump in the road, and it there were a few times I worried that he wouldn't be able to get the van started again.  The drive was long (but after that train ride, seemed like a breeze) and we passed the two-three major tourist sights for the Wall and they were packed.  All you could see were masses of brightly coloured hats moving along the giant stone steps (you see, the tour groups here all comically wear the same coloured hats and/or t-shirts in order to identify themselves, so you always see masses of people in red, yellow, blue, etc. baseball hats following a similarly coloured flag and a megaphone).  So we drove past these few busy sights, not sorry that we were because it didn't seem all that enjoyable, and stopped in a small village at a playground to pick up our itty bitty tour guide.  This woman we 79 years old, and apparently does this tour every single day!  She was easily under 5 feet tall, and was wearing these polyester (?) blue pants (the kind that old women wear), and a blazer... it was over 30 degrees out!  Anyway, we drove five minutes further, just past the village, and were dropped off at the mouth of these hardly discernable trail through the dry bushes.

 

It was about a 45 minutes trek up through the hills to get to the actual wall.  There were only seven people in our tour group, two of which were an older Belgium couple so we took our time and went fairly slow to start.  Our guide was adoreable and gave the other woman, who must've been ten-twenty years younger, her walking stick, and would randomly stop and grab branches to turn into more walking sticks for herself and the older man as well.  She would also make sure to give ample time for everyone to rest, in the most convenient places (under trees, wherever there was a decent rock to sit on), and at one point she even pointed out a place for the women in the group to stop and take a pee.  She didn't speak English, so she just pointed to the large rock, sort of gestured around it, then squatted and made a whishing noise while gesturing the flow of pee with her hands... it was extremely amusing, and none of the men understood what she meant.  Eventually, but surely, we reached the mouth of the wall, and it was rubble.

The whole appeal of the "Secret Wall" is that little/none of it (supposedly) is restored.  It is supposed to be a truely authentic experience, with the original and authentic wall, and for the most part, I totally believe that it is.  Compared to the parts of the wall that we saw on our drive up, our hike was completely different.  You rarely found a piece of stone in one piece, and there were loose pieces of stone everywhere.  For the most part, I believe that what we walked on was the foundation of the wall, most of it seemed eroded away.  There were a few parts where I think some reconstruction has taken place, but most of it seems fairly untouched.  At one point, we had to take a small detour off the wall because the wall was too eroded to walk on in some areas.  It was amazing, slightly strenuous, but wonderful.  Even though it was fairly hot out, once you got onto the wall, there was a nice, refreshing breeze which helped combat the sun (though my shoulders might tell otherwise).

The level of tourism/influence of tourism was also minimal, especially in comparison to some of the other hikes.  We were the only tourists on the wall at that time, we didn't encounter anyone but the people in our group, and the one salesman at the only pit stop on the wall.  At the peak of one of the stretches was a man selling water, cookies, and cold beer, along with some souvenirs.  (We didn't buy anything since the prices at these places are usually jacked), but that was the extreme of our commercialisation.  At the other sections we passed on the way up, there were endless stores and shops selling who knows what!  It was so nice to be so secluded and unbothered by the mass commercialization we run into constantly (as a side note, for example, there is a woman at one of the shops down the lane from our hostel who calls out "Hey Lady" every single time I pass her, which I do sometimes six or seven times a day).

After the hike, which took about three hours or so, our guide brought us back down into the village where a local family prepared lunch for us.  It was excellent, there was rice (of course), two types of sauteed lettuce/greens, some sauteed greens with beef, some sort of dumpling, a chicken stir fry, and sauteed onions, all included in our tour package.  Needless to say, (with five guys and only two women) our group had worked up quite an appetite.  There was also a slew of icy cold beverages on the table (for an extra charge, but very reasonable price) which was more than welcome.  Normally, drinks (beer for instance) is only sort of cold, but these were actually cold, the water was even a little frozen.

With our bellies full, and our thirst quenched, we made the drive back to Beijing (which I slept through as much as I could); after which, we got cleaned up and took a nap.  Later, Darren and I met up with Nan to go out for dinner at a Schezuan restaurant (a fancier one this time).  The food was amazing.  Darren and I tried catfish for the first time and it was pretty good.  It was nice because even though there are bones, the bones are larger, so it's not like carp where you're constantly spitting the damn little things out.  The dish was massive though, way bigger than we had anticipated, and there was way more food than we could finish.  We also had a great mushroom dish... apparently they're called tea mushrooms, and they were unlike any mushroom I've ever had.  They weren't as soft as regular ones, and were almost meaty.  It was all around an excellent meal.

(Mushrooms)(Catfish)

After dinner, we came back to the hostel, and met with Nathalie and Shiri (two Israeli girls we met in Suzhou).  We headed down the lane to Sakura (the local, popular ex-pat joint) for a little cake.  Nathalie and Shiri were super sweet and bought me some cheesecake from a secret little bakery in town, and Nan also bought me a giant (though he said it was small) chocolate fruit-like cake which was delicious.  (I know, I'm spoiled.)  On our way to Sakura though, Sophie (again, from our hostel) ran into us and stopped to give me a present.  She bought me a watch for my birthday.  The best hostel receptionist ever.  I will never forget her.

We ended the evening with mass amounts of cake and a couple drinks.  It was the Great Birthday (get it? the Great Wall?).  It really was excellent, and I'm so grateful to have had so many people make it such a wonderful day.  Even though we're so far away from home and all our friends, it hardly felt like it surrounded by so many special people.  Never had I anticipated that I could fly across the globe and still have so many people to celebrate with.  I guess the girls at the hotel made a note on the calendar because all day the staff have been wishing me a happy birthday.  It really has been such a wonderful day, and I couldn't have asked for more.

It's off to Luoyang next, the Buddhist grottoes and the Shaolin temple.  Happy birthday Aislinn (yay, you're actually 12), and I hope everyone is well!

A Little This, A Little That, A Lotta Shopping

The last few days here in Beijing have been fairly liesurely.  We've spent most our days taking in a sight or two and just taking the evenings easy.  What we've really been doing a lot of however, is shopping.

On Sunday we went to the dirt/weekend market.  It's an antique market/flea market that only takes place on the weekends.  On the one side, is all the sellers with their stuff/antiques spread out on a blanket or matt on the floor.  The "antiques" included broken pieces of porcelin and pottery, vases, trinkets, tea pots, etc.  We had a lot of fun walking around and trying to sift through all the old treasures.  Darren found himself a pretty nice hand knife (he stops everywhere we go to look at swords and knives), and I found (but did not buy) some interesting (not so old) stone "carvings" (see the picture below for clarification).  Surely not what I expected to find amongst traditional jade and wood carvings.  On the other side of the market was actual stalls; an entire section for art and paintings, and a section of your typical nick-nacks- jewellery, 'silk' items, tea pots, chop sticks, etc.  We did find an amazing painting, an actual original compared to some of the mass produced pieces out there.  I was so close to purchasing it, it was expensive (hence the hesitation) and when I went back, conmmited to buy it, but,someone else had beaten me to it.  That was a sad day for me.  Otherwise, the market was pretty incredible, and Darren and I were able to practice our bargaining.

The next day, was the ultimate day of shopping.  Yes, we went to the Silk Market.  Like my own heaven on earth.  For those who don't know, the building is divided up by product, by floor.  The first couple of floors were all clothes, the next floor crafts and art, the next jewellery and accessories, sunglasses, etc.  It was intense.  It took us (ie. me) three hours to get through the first couple floors.  It was intense and excellent.  I must say, I've become fairly good at the bargaining.  I averaged about 20% of the first price (though the first price included what we call the tourist tax).  Whenever you'd walk by a stall, they'd call out "Hey Lady!  Come look at my store.  Just take a lookee!"  It was pretty hilarious.  Some of them would get pretty aggressive.  They'd physically pull you into their stores/stalls and wouldn't let you go until you either physically broke away or bought something.  I remember I walked into one stall just to look, and it definitely wasn't my style, and the girl looked so disappointed as I started to leave.  She told me I was breaking her heart and just kept blurting numbers out at me.  The market is great for your ego as well.  It's interesting how everything and anything about yourself can be the motive for the "best deal".  "You are so beautiful.  I give you best deal because you are so pretty."  "I want to be your friend.  I give you best deal Friend."  Or my favourite, "For an American, I give this price (shows 2000 RMB on the calculator), but because you're Canadian, I give this price (shows 1520 RMB on the calculator)", priceless!  Darren's bargaining skills are priceless.  We split up for a half hour to roam the clothing sections.  In half an hour, I think I bought six shirts.  In half an hour, Darren bought one vest.  He spent the entire half an hour working down the cost for this one vest.  They would not come down to his price, and the clincher: he offered to buy the two girls a popsicle if they gave him the vest for the price he wanted.  Ha ha ha.  They did try to bargain him into buying three though instead of the two he said he would.  Baha ha ha!  We were going to go back to the market the next day, since we were too exhausted to go through the shoes/purse section, but for the sake of our budget we decided it would be better that we didn't.

Yesterday though, instead of the Silk Market, we went in search of some electronics, which we didn't find.  However, what we did find was another great side-street market, with some "interesting" array of skewers.  (Again, see the pictures for clarification).

(The scorpians were still alive).

Speaking of food, other than shopping, we've been eating.  A lot.  We've met a lot of people, and with them, has come a lot of food.  Nan, our wonderful Beijing tour guide, has been taking us to tons of excellent restaurants to savour the local cuisine (some of which you may have already heard about).  We've also found some great back alley vendors who make wonderful pancake like breads to snack on, and a place to get lychee black tea.  It's excellent.  I want to go back on Friday to grab some more for home.  We also met a couple other girls who took us out for hot pot, which is excellent.  The way they do it here is awesome.  It's not electric, but heated using coals.  You can also get pots that have two separate cooking sides.  Here it's so you can do half spicy and half hot, but with a picky, semi-vegetarian like myself, and a meat eater like Darren, I'm thinking genius.  I'm also thinking perfect for camping?!  It's brilliant!

The most ingenious hot pot ever!

Today, by the way, was the most beautiful day we've seen since we've come to Beijing.  The sky was blue and beautiful, and it was hot, around 30 *C.  We spent the day with Nan at the Summer Palace.  We walked around the lake for four hours and it was excellent.  There was a light breeze coming off the lake which made the heat bearable, and everything was green and lush.  Our feet were swollen and so sore, but it was great.  We climbed a couple bridges, walked a ton of stairs and got some great views.  It was such a perfect day!  I think the haze, maybe the lack of oxygen, is the reason I've been so tired; but, with the sun and clear skies, I felt great today.

Here's hoping tomorrow is just as wonderful.  It's a special day tomorrow... tomorrow we're climbing the Great Wall!  I'm so pumped... it also happens to be my birthday tomorrow and some of our new found friends are meeting up with us to celebrate in the evening!  Yay!

Hope everyone is happy and healthy, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Ruth and Amanda!