Shopping ... Beijing Style

Well, we seem to have moved a little backwards sleepwise, but have managed to find our way to the Silk Market. I found myself awake at 3 am this morning, waiting for dawn. Kohji slept a little better, but still not as well as our first night when we both slept the sleep of the dead for a good 7 hours.

It may have been the anticipation of heading out to the Silk Market - a 6 floor shopping plaza where the name of the game is bartering to the extreme. There are people calling out "hey pretty lady, you want ...?" over miles of aisles. Everything from luggage to pearls to designer clothes can be found in small stalls that line each row. Bartering is a sport here, and your best advantage is to be willing to walk away. If you can do that, you will invariably be chased down with the price dropping with every step. It's mostly women working the stalls, but don't think that means they are less aggressive. They can get a vise grip on your arm and draw you into a web of goods that you simply "must buy" according to them. The bartering is 90% game playing - and Kohji and I seem to be the only ones in our group who came away emtpy handed, although I did successfully negotiate the sale of a polo shirt and a wallet for others in our group.

A few others from our travel group have arrived over the last couple days, so I think we are about 6 or 7 families now. Our guide, Mary, arranged for those of us who were here to take in a Chinese acrobat show. We had to take a taxi to the theatre, and so we got a first hand view of traffic China-style. Crazy weaving in and out of traffic with what appear to be near misses as cars seem to squeeze into what appears to be un-open spaces. And of course, there is a certain level of gridlock. Our driver decided to take advantage of the downtime, and bought himself a paper from a street vendor wandering among the traffic while we were in the car, and proceeded to read it, and work on the crossword puzzle while he drove us to the theater!

The show itself was interesting, although the music did sound like it had been pulled from a Communist propoganda film. Contortionists and tumblers with jelly spines. Definitely the source of any Cirque de Soleil production. Well worth taking out lives into our hands via taxi cab.

Got our first real taste of heat today as temperatures were blistering in the mid-day sun. Thankfully, not really humid yet. It's supposed to be even hotter and more humid in Nanchang. Ah boy...

We haven't been too adventurous with food thus far, sticking mainly to the hotel restaurants. There is a real concern about traveller's sickness, so we're all trying to avoid contact with local water and bugs, and we are all armed with our little bottles of purel. No one wants to risk getting sick just before we get our daughters.

I'm actually falling asleep as I write this, so I'm off to bed now. Only two more sleeps ...