My China Adventure – Last Day in Beijing

On our last day in Beijing we went to a Chinese Medicine Center where we got foot massages and a consultation by a Chinese doctor who looked at our palms and then told us what herbs and shit we should buy to insure good health. These little “spending opportunities” were kind of annoying on this trip but I suppose it’s a revenue stream for the tour company and a way to keep the cost down. I’m all for keeping the cost down and didn’t feel obligated to spend money on stuff I didn’t need or want so it wasn’t a big deal.
Then, with happy feet, we visited the Hutong – the old city of Beijing, where the homes are very old and grungy and the streets are no more than alleys where garbage is strewn everywhere. We rode in rickshaws - a veritable parade of rickshaws – and then we were taken to a private home where the family cooked lunch for us – 35 people in a space no bigger than my apartment and not nearly as nice. It was an experience and we all clapped for the lady of the house who’d cooked all this food even though it was just like all the other food we’d had so far. That is to say…hmmm,

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how to say it politely…fine.
After lunch we went to a market where there were a billion vendors selling the same knock-off purses and bags and clothing and electronics. Whew! That was overwhelming. If they see a spark of interest in your eyes you are a dead man. They will not let you move from their booth until you’ve bargained your way into buying something. Once you get the hang of it it’s sort of fun and there’s a lot of really nice stuff, but you’d need an advance course on market shopping to do it justice.
After all of that we boarded a plane for Xian. Stay tuned…
Here are the rest of the posts:
Part 1 
Part 2 

Part 4 

Part 5 

Part 6 

Part 7

Part 8