RTW Adventures of J&M

• Already late getting out the door, I got lost for another 20 minutes while trying to get to the ATM via what I thought was a shortcut.
• Forget Silk Street Market. XiaoYan took me straight to Tian Yi Market - the place where the Silk Street vendors get their goods wholesale! 
• Shopped from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM with a 1 hour break for lunch at the mall's food court where XiaoYan introduced me to Xiang(1) La(4) Guo(1). Yum!
• After shopping XiaoYan said she wanted to take me to a place to rest (her exact words were "休息"). I thought we were going to a coffee or tea shop, but no. We ended up at a hair salon across town where after washing and cutting your hair they give you a 30 minute head/shoulder/arm massage. THEN, she took us to get a 1-hour foot/leg massage! I'd like to rest like this everyday!
• By this time, J had crashed our girl's day out. I could hear the beginning of some whimpering over the phone when I told him we were going to get massages. So, J joined us and enjoyed some "rest" himself.
• XiaoYan's husband, Jim, met us for dinner after work.
• The night ended at our place where we showed Jim and XiaoYan our pictures from our trip. So far, they've been the ONLY people who's been able to sit through our entire "BestOf" folder of pictures from our trip.

1. The dining room of South Beauty
2. Our check
3. Cold beef slices in chili oil - 夫妻肺片 (Look at how red the chili oil is!)
4. Pork ribs in garlic oil and peppers (I forget the Chinese name.)
5. "Bull" in spicy gravy - 水煮牛 (The peppers in the foreground were removed from the bowl in the background before the dish was served.)
6. The plate of peppers from the bullfrog dish. Impressive, huh? Those peppers were promptly removed from the table and were probably reused for the next customer who orders the same dish.

Air quality in Beijing was a concern of mine and J's before we arrived. New Zealand had really spoiled us in this aspect. I'm happy to report that after 8 days in Beijing I did not see blue skies for only 2 of those days, both of which were due to rain. Friends keep telling us that this is abnormal. I hope our lucky streak continues.

• We look Chinese, but are American. People expect us to be able to speak Mandarin and already know how how things work in this society. When we don't they become put-off-ish. In this way it's almost preferable to be Caucasian and plead ignorance.
• There's always someone eager to help you yet you don't know whether or not to trust them. I can't have a second of peace to shop on my own without someone shouting at me to try something, asking me if they can help me find something, telling me how a product is good for me, offering a special deal or just following me aound the store like a loyal pet. Personally, I like the American self-service system better: leave me alone to figure things on my own and I'll ask if I have questions. This way I am in control and I buy on my own terms.
• Straightforwardness is hard to find. It hasn't even been 24 hours since I landed in Beijing and I am already very familiar with the the bait-and-switch tactic they frequently employ here. We have to be more careful about this one.

It's not all bad. For lunch we paid 3 USD total and got two large steaming bowls of delicious noodles! =)