Day 4 – Shopping the Scorpion

10/11/2009 02:53:00 AM Tully Mars

Our free day allowed us to start thinking about things like washing clothes and replacing the camera. The buildings around our hotel look like offices or apartments with heavy advertising on them. We figured the first couple of floors were shops and the upper floors offices, apartments or other types of business suites. Boy were we wrong! You enter either on the first floor or second floor via the outside walkways and realize there are 10-12 stories of shopping to be had. You would think that there would be electronics galore or computers or other electrical goodies, but everything is about fashion. Clothing stores occupy just about 80% of all the mall spaces we found in the buildings. With an average income of $10,000 per year and pricing just about 85% of what we pay in the states, we wonder how they can afford to be out shopping.


These places were literally packed all day long! Mostly the younger generation with their stylish western cloths, no glass (just rims) glasses, spiked hair styles, and the occasional suit and tie were the typical shopper we saw in the malls. I am using the term mall very loosely, meaning a large multi-story building with numerous shops located within. It was a fun experience, as Sean was in search of knock-off (fake) shoe styles and other gifts for his friends back home.

Sean and I just had to have Sushi in China and found a restaurant that met our needs. The food was pretty good and pricing was decent, but we surely missed Sushi Garden’s type of Sushi. We ended up eating some things we had no idea what they were and getting our fill of raw fish, squid and what not for around $35 for the both of us. Tricia spotted a Pizza Hut on one of the lower levels and told us we had to take her there for lunch. This was probably the most interesting part of the day, because the Chinese version of Pizza Hut serves much more than pizza and pasta! Crab croquettes, chicken stuffed pot pies, green tea shakes, dim sum dumplings and much more that is not offered in the states. To tell the truth there was only two pages of the menu that offered traditional Pizza Hut fare, the other 14 pages (yes – 14 pages) were full of interesting stuff.
Both Sean and I have been fighting the pollution in our own ways since we got here. My face has been stinging like I have a slight rash under my eyes and around my beard. While Sean has had allergy type symptoms; the runny nose and watery eyes. Sean comments about my eyes every evening being red and blood shot. We gave Sean a Advil Cold to relieve his symptoms and he ended up going out like a light when we returned to the room. Tricia and I decided to let him sleep and recover while we headed over to the night market at Wangfujing.

Wangfujing is Beijing’s most famous shopping area with high end shopping stores and a “China Town” in China. Literally an adverturous food lover’s paradise! Along one of the streets they have the outside food vendors lined up with all kinds of “stuff on a stick”. Everything from lamb, beef, chicken, pig’s penis, scorpions, silk worm larva, crickets, sea horses and lizards … if you can skewer it on a stick and deep fat fry it, it’s at this market. I can’t wait until they make cameras with a smell a vision option. The photos just can’t capture the aroma coming from the entire market!

I was in search of the scorpions to have a go and see what they are like. Tricia on the other hand had other ideas for me. She told me I can’t try any of “that stuff” until after the wedding! She’s too afraid that I will get sick or something, so I ended up with 3 fried crabs on a stick and some really cool pictures. Now we need to find the night market in Shanghai!
I videoed the live scorpions on a stick and hope I can get them uploaded shortly!.

Everyone is employed and they have 9 girls to handle this counter.



More goodies

Cha for sale - in all flavors and tastes!


The most common fare at Wangfujing


Seafood - shrimp, small lobsters, squid


Scorpions that I can't eat!!!  Crickets, silk worm larve, bee larve - yummy!


Crab with silt worm larve in the back ground


Good marketing! Put enlish names on everything and you will sell more!


Sea urchins with the "usual fare" - the pigs penis are under her hand!


Softshell crab was the only thing Tricia would let me eat!!!


Lizards and sea horses - wonder if they taste like chicken?


China Town in Beijing - go figure!

It's a little crowded!  You really need smell-a-vision in this market!
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