Morning Market

For exotic sites, you can't beat a trip to the Morning Market! This multi-block market is one of my favorite places to go. One of the first sights is the meat section.

Masses of food are trucked in each morning, sold for a few hours (6-9am), and then packed up and whisked away.

It's all very fresh. I buy my vegetables here. And eggs.

But sometimes I have to guess. Or ask? What are those?

Carrots? or what?

Dandelion greens

These are clearly labeled, but still not helpful:

Various sea food:                                                            Various grains:

Sometimes I'm fascinated and repulsed at the same time:

This guy had quite a crowd around him - all men. That's quite the assortment of items:

And lots of other stuff that you might like:

It's always fun to see what there is to buy at the Morning Market!

Beijing - Day 3

On Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful blue skies.  We met Tang our tour guide who took us to the Hutang district, the old section of Beijing. Tang's on the right. Isn't he cute?  He's an English major, trying to earn a little extra money and improve his English by giving tours. 

He took us to an old drum tower. At the top of the hugest flight of stairs  in the world (~50 steps) is a collection of ancient drums and other artifacts.

 We got to watch seven guys do a drum ceremony. Very impressive! You could feel it in your bones!

 

Here are some of the old incense/timepieces. They would burn through in 24 hours.

 Across the courtyard was the bell tower. The bells woke the workers, told them when to report to work, when to stop work, etc. We didn't get to see the bells, but we were invited to see a tea ceremony on the bottom floor. We told them we didn't drink tea, but they let us smell some very aromatic teas and then we drank a delicious fruit tea. 

We then met our pedicab driver who showed us the sights of the old neighborhood. As you can see it was a beautiful spring day.

Lots of shops

A shoe repair person with sewing machine

 

 Some of the beautiful doorways along our path.

The stones in front of this door indicate the home of an a military man. The four blue circles mean he was high ranking. I'm so glad they have preserved this old section of Beijing. It has so much more charm than the thousands of hi-rises in the rest of the city.

 Finally, we got to walk around the courtyard and charming home of a family who still live in this area.

After a lunch of dumplings and steamed vegetables, our wonderful trip has come to a close. 

Back to the subway. Back to the bullet train. Back to life in Qingdao.

Beijing Acrobatic Show & Hotel

Friday night we got to go to an Chinese acrobatic show. Not the best in town, but very entertaining.

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You'll have to turn two of these sideways. Don't know how these will do. Kinda blurry.

 We stayed in a lovely hotel in a perfect location for $75 American dollars for the two of us. We couldn't believe our luck. Just found it on the internet. Some of the beautiful sights in the lobby:

An exquisite ivory carving