The Beijing 'hood

Pretty uneventful day, so not a lot of pictures. In fact, almost
everything we did today was familiar – including bargaining at the
silk market – and that was surprisingly comforting, especially as
jetlag is still messing with my head.

We all managed to sleep straight through to 5:30, when we heard Kiyomi
ask plaintively - "Is it morning yet?" I would have happily slept a
couple more hours, but that wasn't going to happen once Kiyomi
announced "I'll check guys!" and flung open the curtains.

So, we started off on the day a little fatigued, but not too bad. We
decided to hit the silk market before jetlag muddled the thinking
process. It was very much as we remembered from a few years ago –
several floors of chaos and "hey pretty lady; you need watch/t-
shirt/bag?" I knew the drill from practice rather than theory this
time, so it was less intimidating, although no less exhausting. They
also seemed a little less aggressive and in your face than last time
and the Market in general seemed slower. Almost as if they were still
recovering from the Olympic onslaught. Nonetheless, after about 3
transactions, I was spent.

A slightly different obstacle for us this time around was the number
of vendors – in particular women – who wanted to say hello to Kiyomi
and stroke her hair. I must have heard 100 times - "She very
pretty". So much so, that I even got something for FREE from a
vendor. I kid you not. For those of you who have been to the Market,
you know that the vendors will put their soul into negotiations over
10 yuan. A women in one of the shops where I bought an outfit for Ren
thought it wasn't fair that I didn't buy something for Kiyomi too, so
she gave her a silk head band. I thought she was just trying to
entice Kiyomi with the old "hook the kid, force the parents" trick.
But when I started to tell Kiyomi she didn't need a headband, this
women looked at me and said in slightly irritated English while
patting down Kiyomi's hair - "She nice girl. I give her even if you
don't buy the dress." She then laughed at my incredulous - "You mean
free?!"

On that note, I've also noticed that a number of people feel compelled
to stare and point at Kiyomi. These 'looks' aren't much different in
tone or intonation than the furtive and sidelong ones we get back in
Canada, but the cultural differences mean that the Chinese don't try
to hide them. Goes to show that culturally, there may be differences,
but thoughts and feelings can be surprisingly similar.

After teh Silk Market, we sought refuge from the chaos of barganning
in a 14th Qing Dynasty Observatory not far from our hotel. Again,
this was something we visited last time we were here, but this time it
was a tad less sweltering and we explored a part we had missed
previously. The highlight for Kiyomi wasn't the 500 year old iron
astrological instruments, but the dandelions which could be picked
with abandon. Nothing like putting things in a kinder-perspective!

Tomorrow (Sunday), we're off to Guangxi and we'll meet Ren on Monday.
There are four other families here, although none of them will be
coming to Guangxi, so we'll be on our own for the week. Very
different from the last time when we were here with a small entourage
of 17 families.

Coherency is quickly slipping, so I'm off to bed. Good night ... from
Beijing.