Market Day

We headed out shortly after breakfast on Saturday to the Panjiayuan Antiques Market (a/k/a the Dirt Market) to see what they had to offer.


There were a lot of paintings and other 'hand-made' artifacts - some wood furniture as well that all looked new.

Anybody need a giant stone statue for their front yard?


Lunch was at Beijing Noodle across from the Pearl Market. They keep a live snake in a glass container by the front door (not reassuring). We made a bit of a spectacle of oursleves trying to get a table by the air conditioner. A Chinese family stepped in on our behalf to negotiate the relocation (they had to sit with us to make it happen).

After lunch we focused on jewelry, particularly pearls and ended up with several purchases from Sharon's store (below).

By mid afternoon we were ready to escape the heat and headed back to the hotel. Room service brought a surprise snack of rice milk and fried meat pie pastries. The pastry filling was kind of sweet and somewhat of a miss in my book.

For dinner, we met up with some co-workers fresh from the States and hit the Sanlitun area:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanlitun

I tried to stay out with the late night contingency but started to fall asleep again and had to use my "Take me back to the XYZ hotel" card for a cab. Luckily I made it home without having to provide any further direction. By the way cabs are cheap here ---- $4 to go probably 8 miles across town.