Mai Dong Xi should be my new name, all I do is go shopping!

I went to this totally awesome alley way market place today, just like the old days and ways of China when the currency was imperial and China was the center of the world. If ever there were a place for Ivan Zavortink it was there. Within 15 feet I could eat fried scorpions, buy a urinating action figure, see live "Beijing crosstalk" which is somewhere between abbot & costello and that episode of smartguy were TJ joins the arguement tv show, and of course my favorite, play a videogame about trapping and skinning dinosaurs before thier friends kill you, while also fighting off rival trappers. Yeah, it's pretty much the greatest place on earth.

There was much more; a guy would make candy action figures while you watched, mountains of every imaginable product for sale, beggars, musicians, resteraunteurs, car dealerships, arcades, a DENTIST, even a place advertising for "Yong Girls".

I also had a hilarious breech of bargaining protocol, normally you ask the price and ask for one quarter that price, untill it works out to the middle. In this case, I stated outright what I would pay and I refused until I got it exactly - 2 bucks. It was pretty gratifying to not budge and still get what you want.

So another gift in the old completed bin. I just saw the coolest thing in Beijing and I feel pretty good about that.