THE SILK MARKET AND STICKY RICE

This morning we left around 1030 and took a 45 minute bus ride to the Silk Market. This is a 6 story building with venders crowded into every inch of the space. They have......well......everything!!! There is so much going on that it is overwhelming. You don't know where to start. There are 3 walled booths packed full. The vendors try to get you to come and look at what they are selling.

"Lady, hello lady, come in and look, I give you deal. You need chopsicks? jewelry? painting? just take look". Then if you do see something you are interested in and you ask how much?? they say "how many you want? I give you better deal!" Then they get the calculator and show you an outragous price and say, "but for you I give you discount" and they give you a lower amount. You say no, no too much and they say, as they hand you the calculator, "how much you want to pay?" So, of course in return you give them an outragously low price. They look at you and say "Oh, no too low. Look at the quality, all hand painted! I make you better deal. How much you want to pay?" So you tell them the price again and then they come down a little and say "I gave you good price and you tell me this price, how about this much?" No, you tell them too much and start to walk away. They do everything they can to get you to buy from them. "How about this much? For you, you are good friend, I sell for this much." This can go on for 15 minutes or more. Finally they keep going down until you get if for somewhere between half of what they wanted and a little higher than you started with. CJ jumped in a few times in Chinese and they were shocked that he could speak Chinese but they also seemed to go down more when he did that. I think they know that he knows they will haggle.

There were so many nice things. I would love to bring everyone something back but it is hard and takes a lot of time. You really need more time to go around and look at everything and more money to buy all that you want and then another suitcase or two to bring everything home in. We did have fun buying a few things.





We took a little break from shopping and had lunch at a Subway next to the Silk Market. I realized this was the first time since I have been here that I didn't need to eat with chopsticks.

This is a picture of one of the strange things that I had no clue of what it was. CJ knew it was called sticky rice but never had it before. I bought some and all you do is boil it for 10 minutes. Inside is cooked rice with red bean paste in the middle. It was really good. We will have to have it again.
See, I really can use chopsticks!!!!

TIANANMEN SQUARE, THE FORBIDDEN CITY, JINGSHAN AND BEIHAI PARKS

What a busy day we had. We left around 11 and caught a bus to Tianamen Square. It was about a 40 minute ride. Tianamen Square is just a large public square across from Tiananmen which is the Gate of Heavenly Peace. The Gate of Heavenly Peace is the Entrance to the Forbidden City.
After we walked around the Forbidden City it was about a 15-20 minute walk to Jingshan Park. It was a beautiful, peaceful and cool area. We then went on to Beihai Park. Behihai Park is a beautiful park that surrounds a large lake. We spent the entire day walking all through these areas. We came back home around 7:00. It was in the high 80's but in the parks there was a lot of shady areas and cool breezes which made it much more comfortable.

Here are my pictures for the day:

I don't know what this is but it was right near the bus stop.


These are workers cleaning the sidewalks of Tiananmen Square. Notice they do not have holes in their pants.



These were taken in Tiananmen Square.




These are of the Forbidden City. The Gate of Heavenly Peace is the doorway under the picture of Chairman Mao.











This is a souvenier shop at the Forbidden City.








These are on our stroll to Jingshan Park.









Jingshan Park









Beihai Park

YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE

Well you probably can but we didn't!!! CJ took a day off of school and we decided to go the the Great Wall. The day I went to school with him we had asked one of the teachers about the buses to take to get to the Great Wall. She wrote it down for us and CJ checked before we left to make sure he had the right directions written down. The 1st bus we caught was 109. It was about 7 stops and we had to get off to catch the 919 bus. That one took us over an hour and 1/2 to get to Yanquing. From there we got off with the intention of catching bus 925.

As soon as we got off a taxi driver came over and started talking to us. He was trying to get us to take the taxi. We figured he just wanted the fare and saw tourists and figured we were an easy mark. Now we realize he was trying to help. A young Chinese girl had heard some of the conversion and asked if we speak English. She said, "I just called my uncle and he said the bus we needed wasn't running." She said you can go over there as she pointed around the block, and the little bus will take you. She then walked away and came back with a ride for us. She pointed to a man on a bike pulling a flatbed cart. It was about a 4ft x 5ft board, padded and covered with a bright red velour blanket. The driver motioned for us to sit down which we did. He took us for a ride down the street and around the block. He pulled over and pointed at the little bus which was actually a van. There were 5 people in it already and once we climbed aboard away we went.

I think the driver and his front seat passenger were husband and wife. At one point the van pulled over at a little store and they got out and bought a couple bags of what was either lime or cement or some type of powder. About a half hour later they pulled over again. This time the lady next to me handed the driver some money. He and the front seat lady ran across the street to a vendor stand. They came back with 2 watermelons and handed one to the lady in the back. We took another very long ride along a back road. There were farmers field and trees and mountains all along the route. The driver then pulled over to a man with an orange jacket that appeared to be a road crew worker. The woman in the front greeted him as "baba" which means dad and handed him the watermelon. They chatted a few seconds and we continued on. This ride took about an hour. As we pulled into the entrance to a little town, the driver told us this was our stop. CJ asked which way to the wall and he pointed and said look for a large "men" which is a gate, door or entrance. We proceeded in the direction he pointed.

We were in Sihai, which is a small town lined with small houses and little stores. Some of the childred would look at us and start giggling. We walked for a while and did not see the Great Wall entrance. We turned around and took another road with the same result. We saw a van like the one that had brought us there. That driver told us the Great Wall was very far away. He may not have known about the entrance we were trying to get to.

We decided to head back to Yanquing and catch the bus home. This driver took the main road back and picked up a few passengers. One lady sat next to me and CJ was on the other side of me. We drove a little while and then came to a road block. The road up ahead was being worked on. So we had to take a detour. We made left turn down this dirt road. On each side were very old one story brick buildings. They were long with 3 or 4 archways each. It appeared that if you went in the archway on either side were doors to the insides of the building. This was a very bumpy road. After we passed the buildings the dirt road continued through a field which got even bumpier. We traveled this road for a few more miles. It was bumpy and dusty and the driver appeared to be in a hurry. I believe the 3 of us now have whiplash, bumps and bruises and battered backs. There was a lady hearding goats. I couldn't take any pictures on this route because I would not have been able to hold the camera steady. Finally we got back on the main road and the driver got us to the bus stop. We caught the next 919 bus back to Beijing.

Although CJ felt bad because he thought it was a wasted day because we never actually got on the Great Wall, we still had a great experience. We said we wanted to go somewhere together that neither on of us had been and I think that was it. We are still going to get a real trip to the Great Wall because as CJ said, "you can't come all the way to China and not see the Great Wall."

It was hard to take good pictures on the bus, but I still feel I got some really great pictures.

As you get out of Beijing, you can start to see the mountains in the distance.



These are on the route headed towards the Great Wall.






Snapped a quick picture of this guy in Yanqing.