John and I had a good night of sleep last night. We managed to stay up until about 11:00 pm and then crash. The room was very hot when we checked in. Apparently they started to run the heater a few days ago. In typical American fashion we asked how to turn the A/C on. Their answer? “Open the windows!” Which we did.
We turned off the heat and kept the windows open the whole time. The room at the Sino-Swiss Hotel is nice but it's not exactly a four star hotel. It's clean, with two beds and a desk. The bathroom has some mold and it could use to be renovated but it's still a nice hotel room.
Steve and Sherry called around 9:00 asking us if we wanted to go to the Pearl Market with them. John was a little disappointed but he got over it quickly. He was really hoping Steve would want to go play golf at the hotel course. We went downstairs to the breakfast buffet and then got into a taxi to go downtown to the Pearl Market.
The taxi ride was not bad at all. I think the driver knew we were foreigners and was holding back. He dropped us off at the market and told us he would wait for us. We tried to explain that we'd be there for several hours but he insisted so we left the taxi without paying his fare (at his request).
The market had several floors. The basement level was a fish market, the first floor had many stores with all sorts of trinkets, the third floor hosted the pearl market. Steve and Sherry were there yesterday with our guide and got some really good deals on some pearls so we went back to the same vendor. We got a set each of white and black pearl necklace, bracelet and earrings to give to Annalisa when she grows up. After you pick the pearls they string them in front of you. They did a beautiful job.
We turned off the heat and kept the windows open the whole time. The room at the Sino-Swiss Hotel is nice but it's not exactly a four star hotel. It's clean, with two beds and a desk. The bathroom has some mold and it could use to be renovated but it's still a nice hotel room.
Steve and Sherry called around 9:00 asking us if we wanted to go to the Pearl Market with them. John was a little disappointed but he got over it quickly. He was really hoping Steve would want to go play golf at the hotel course. We went downstairs to the breakfast buffet and then got into a taxi to go downtown to the Pearl Market.
The taxi ride was not bad at all. I think the driver knew we were foreigners and was holding back. He dropped us off at the market and told us he would wait for us. We tried to explain that we'd be there for several hours but he insisted so we left the taxi without paying his fare (at his request).
The market had several floors. The basement level was a fish market, the first floor had many stores with all sorts of trinkets, the third floor hosted the pearl market. Steve and Sherry were there yesterday with our guide and got some really good deals on some pearls so we went back to the same vendor. We got a set each of white and black pearl necklace, bracelet and earrings to give to Annalisa when she grows up. After you pick the pearls they string them in front of you. They did a beautiful job.
After that we walked around and did some souvenir shopping.
It was fun to bargain with the vendors. Some spoke some English others didn't. Mainly we communicated via a calculator. They typed in the price. I typed in my counter offer, they shook their head no and typed in another price. I shook my head no and typed in another number and so we went until we both agreed on a price. All in all I think I did pretty well. John laughed at me the whole time but then got in the action himself. Guess what he bought? A silver dollar for about 30cents. So while I spent money John made some :)
People here are very friendly. Everybody goes out of their way to help you. When we told one of the market vendors that we were here to adopt a baby girl she was very pleased. We showed her Annalisa and Olivia’s pictures and she told us that she was happy we were adopting them. She has a five year old daughter, her husband wanted a boy but she wanted a baby girl and she was obviously very proud of her. As we were showing her the pictures another couple overheard the conversation and started to look at the pictures and talk in Chinese and smile at us.
As promised our taxi driver was waiting for us (about three hours all together). We could not believe it! We thought he would have left and come back to pick us up but he told us that he just waited there the whole time. We paid him 250 RMB (about $30). I guess that was more than what he usually earns for one day and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to take us back at the hotel.
The weather is nice. We are comfortable with just a sweater. We barely saw the sun though. It’s very smoggy here. It looks like a really thick fog that never lifts up. Steve swears that he saw a bird but I haven’t seen any signs of wildlife here besides a few mosquitoes. We wondered how people can constantly live in this type of conditions and how high the cancer rate is in these large, industrialized cities.
Obviously we didn’t have any problems with the internet connection. We paid about $15 to have access from our room for our entire stay in Beijing and had no problems accessing any web sites. Pictures are slow to upload. I think I’ll lower the resolution in the digital camera to see if they upload faster (it took me about one hour last night and another hour today to post).
We are now back at the hotel to rest a little before our guide comes to pick us up to go the Acrobat Show. Actually John is snoring taking a nap while I am posting this :)
Here are some pictures of our day!
It was fun to bargain with the vendors. Some spoke some English others didn't. Mainly we communicated via a calculator. They typed in the price. I typed in my counter offer, they shook their head no and typed in another price. I shook my head no and typed in another number and so we went until we both agreed on a price. All in all I think I did pretty well. John laughed at me the whole time but then got in the action himself. Guess what he bought? A silver dollar for about 30cents. So while I spent money John made some :)
People here are very friendly. Everybody goes out of their way to help you. When we told one of the market vendors that we were here to adopt a baby girl she was very pleased. We showed her Annalisa and Olivia’s pictures and she told us that she was happy we were adopting them. She has a five year old daughter, her husband wanted a boy but she wanted a baby girl and she was obviously very proud of her. As we were showing her the pictures another couple overheard the conversation and started to look at the pictures and talk in Chinese and smile at us.
As promised our taxi driver was waiting for us (about three hours all together). We could not believe it! We thought he would have left and come back to pick us up but he told us that he just waited there the whole time. We paid him 250 RMB (about $30). I guess that was more than what he usually earns for one day and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to take us back at the hotel.
The weather is nice. We are comfortable with just a sweater. We barely saw the sun though. It’s very smoggy here. It looks like a really thick fog that never lifts up. Steve swears that he saw a bird but I haven’t seen any signs of wildlife here besides a few mosquitoes. We wondered how people can constantly live in this type of conditions and how high the cancer rate is in these large, industrialized cities.
Obviously we didn’t have any problems with the internet connection. We paid about $15 to have access from our room for our entire stay in Beijing and had no problems accessing any web sites. Pictures are slow to upload. I think I’ll lower the resolution in the digital camera to see if they upload faster (it took me about one hour last night and another hour today to post).
We are now back at the hotel to rest a little before our guide comes to pick us up to go the Acrobat Show. Actually John is snoring taking a nap while I am posting this :)
Here are some pictures of our day!
I think I see a familar sign peaking through the smog:
Yes! The golden arches of McDonald!
Pictures of our Taxi ride and the local streets.
The fish Market.
We could not recognize most of the things that were on sale.
This is some sort of dried fish or fish fins. I am sure that if my dad was here he would tell us that it's BACCALA'!
Live snakes anyone?!?!?!?!
No idea what this is but it looked pretty gross!
This looked like tripe!
Your guess is as good as mine!
Live crabs!
These looked like cow tongues coming out of clams. They are huge!
Sherry and I posing with one of the vendors!
Waiting for the pearls to be strung!
2 comments:
Great pics! I'm glad you guys are doing the daily updating and loading of images. Will be following along!
Rina!! that was Baccala if I ever saw it! MY FATHER LOVES THAT STUFF!!!!!!!!!!! ;) hehehehehe He was not so excited about the 'live snakes' however LOL I guess Italians WON'T eat anything! I always thought my dad would eat just about anything you put infront of him, but apparently not! (After all, his first date with my mother, his mom, My Nonna, made them a picnic lunch and it was fried & unidentifyable but my dad said " just eat it it's good, my mom made it" ... so she did. A million chews and much face making later, she found out it was FRIED COW BRAINS! UGH!
I'm SO GLAD YOU TWO ARE HAVING FUN! THOSE PEARLS LOOK BEAUTIFIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will be following your trip right up until the night before I leave, the 16th!
CIAO!!!!!
-Amy
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