Day 3: Hutong and Silk Market

Lay ho!

We started today by.......SLEEPING IN! Ahhhhhhh so nice!

After dragging ourselves out of bed we went to a Hutong, forget the name (sorry!). Now basically a hutong simply refers to a lane or alley in the older district of Beijing with many being near the Forbidden City. The day was bright and sunny and I loved just strolling along looking into all the small shops. We went into many many stores and I even bought myself an adorable dress and some presents for folks back home. We stopped and ate lunch at a restaurant called Zomo's. Don't know where the name comes from, but the food was really good. We had ge da soup, fish head with noodles and lettuce with fish. The fish head was fairly spicy, but I did try gill and even ate the fish eye! Sara just put it on my plate and said, "Here! For you!" What did I think of it? Well, it wasn't bad. The texture was grainy and it didn't have much of a taste. Do I need to eat another? Nah. Now the ge da soup on the other hand, was AMAZING. Ge da is this powder thing they take and make into a little dumpling type thing. ard to explain but oh so good. I could eat this soup for days on end.

The hutong was so nice because it is made up of all these one story, gray stoned buildings. I loved the vibe the whole place had.

After lunch we shopped some more, and then headed over to the silk market. We made the mistake of getting off one subway stop to early, so had a bit of a walk, but we stopped at McDonalds for a snack. I know it sounds like we eat constantly but really it had been a good two hours between lunch and now. It was odd because none of the menu was in English. Sara admitted she had never even notices this fact.

We spent an hour and a half at the silk market. My biggest purchase was three silk scrolls. One had a drawing of the great wall on it. I knew that I'd want something with the Great Wall on it. One had golden fish on it. I got this one because Sara loves fish and we talked about fish a lot. The last one I bought was a very pretty one with Mu dan flowers on it. Not sure why I like these so much, but something about them just seem cool. They are traditional, and yes while mine aren't hand done I like them. I was very proud of myself. The seller wanted CNY600 and I paid CNY195.

After the hour and a half we both were sooooooo ready to get out of there. The silk market is very cool, and I reccomend it to anybody who wants to buy cheap anything, but there are so many people it's overwhelming.

We took a subway and then a taxi back and had Chinese snacks for dinner. They were really just like a fast meal. The portions were definitely not snack size.

It was off to Ariny's after that for some TV watching and showers. This night we watched a game show called Single Man. The show had 24 single girls and one single guy. The guy comes out and gets to show three videos introducing himself to the girls. If any of the girls aren't interested than she can switch her light off. The process goes on until after the third video. If some of the girls still have their lights on the guy gets to choose his three favorite. They talk some more and then he chooses his favorite. They when a trip to Hawaii and then skip off into the sunset. It was entertaining.

Back home and to bed! Next up: The Great Wall!!!!!!

Signing off! Promise pictures will come soon.