Rained out

Actually posted on Thursday, September 13th at 10:55PM

We were supposed to go to visit the 'hutong' today in rickshaws. These are old villages in Beijing that are slowly being destroyed in order to build more highrises. Did you know that most of the cranes available in the world are here in China? There is construction everywhere and I'm talking major, major projects. Anyway, we didn't get to visit these villages as it raoned most of the day. As a last minute change, our guide took us to Yashow Market. It is an indoor 5 floor shopping mall that sells everything from traditional Chinese items to knock offs. Of course, time ran out before we could finish and we had to rush to catch the bus. That has become our famous parting words to any vendor we are trying to negociate with. We make it sound like we have no time and start walking away saying that our bus is leaving. This usually works and we get the price we want.

Our next stop was Peking Duck for lunch. Mmmm good! I have been waiting for this since our last trip to China. And the restaurant was just beautiful. Most restaurants that are fancier have many different private rooms for different number of people. The room we were in was just exquisite in its decor. A great way to enjoy a fabulous meal.

Once back at the hotel, daddy put Alexia down for a nap while Cara-Li watched a movie. Laure and I went for a walk in search of a tiny alley that leads to some sort of market. We found it and what an experience. The merchandise was the same but we found some sort of outdoor food court where people were eating all sorts of different kinds of meats on skewers. You had the usual fare... beef, chicken, fish. But upon closer inspection, they were starfish, seahorse, grasshoppers, larvae and live scorpions on skewers ready to be grilled. OMG!!! The scorpions were wriggling on the sticks. Yuck!

Funny story. Did you ever think you can have your Crocs shined by a shoe shiner trying to sell you the shoe shining cream? Yes, you can! Our Crocs are spotless and the fellow even took the time to go around all the little holes in the shoes. What a funny experience!

We had our final happy hour tonight as the group leaves for home tomorrow. We are staying one extra day. We are still trying to decide what to do with our day. I sense that shopping is at the top of our list. It is so much fun walking around the city, especially through the markets and dealing with the locals. Maybe we'll even try the scorpion shishkabob!