Museum, Shopping and Edible Bugs

We got quite a late start this morning so instead of heading to the Summer Palace, we decided to wander over to the Chinese National Museum. Museums aren’t my favourite place and this one was no exception, but we got to see lots and lots of bits of clay pots and tools and what not. I spent a while sitting on a bench writing postcards while my dad walked slowly though so it was a productive couple of hours at least. J

 

 

 

After we finished there, we took the subway over to Yashow market to pick up some LeSportSacs that had been requested by my mother. I bargained strategically and we also got a gift for my Grandpa as well as lunch at my favourite hole in the wall behind the building. My dad had never been to a Chinese market before so it was a bit of an experience for him – five floors of “Lady, lady…look, look…you want t-shirt? I give you good price” – but I think he had a good time.

I had read about there being an English bookstore (called “The Bookworm”) near there and had tried, unsuccessfully, to find it a couple times before but last time I went by on the bus, Tana told me exactly where it was so we decided to go check it out. It had a nice selection of books and looked like it would have been a decent place to sit and have a warm drink but the prices were fairly expensive so we headed back onto the subway (during rush hour, another new experience for Ter) toward Wangfujing and the night market.

The night market is different from a regular Chinese market. It has only food, and not your typical food at that. Of course there are noodles and dumplings and what not but we also had deep fried pumpkin, scorpions, silk worm pupas and crab buns. Yum!

We made it back to the hostel for a couple of games of chess and a nice e-mail from Tana saying that she is not dead (since I wrote to ask this morning as she hadn’t answered my last two e-mails).

We’re going to attempt the Summer Palace again tomorrow and hopefully the zoo market as well. Only two days left!