Picture of persistence

I'll start this post with a cliche which I have come to believe applies to my life in Beijing: 'Good things come to those who wait.' Yesterday was a pretty great day and included three successful cab rides-- yes, three, in one day! We went to the Beijing Zoo, anxious to see the native pandas as well as the other creatures. When we arrived, I was thrilled to find out that there was even a Penguin House!

I'll admit I was a little shocked at some of the animal enclosures. Not what I expected for the largest zoo in China, housing some of the most endangered animals in the country. I love animals, so of course I wanted to help them all. We had fried chicken for lunch, which seemed to be a popular lunch choice for a day at the zoo (a little more appetizing than cuttlefish on a stick, if you ask me). There were also these Pringle-type chips that tasted like they were basted in V-8 juice. They were okay.

The aquarium adjacent to the zoo was pretty neat; very new. There were some fish that were big enough to eat a small child. I don't know where they find these things.

Afterwards, we wanted to keep up with our lucky day and decided to visit an Olympic store. (It's a goal of Val and me's to visit all the official stores.) We met a few new friends and learned of a huge store further down the road. We decided to go for it, so Val, Kelsey and I trekked down to Wangfujing Street, where there are many large hotels and stores. And then we saw it. Amazing. The flagship store for the 2008 Beijing Olympics aka retail heaven for those of us with gifts to buy for friends and family. We spend a good two hours in the place, it was so large. Then we ate at an authentic Chinese food court downstairs which was very entertaining. Basically, you walk around (and since you're American, people all want you to buy the food from their shop-- don't ask me why) and choose what you want and pay with it using a prepaid card. When you're done, you return the card and receive a deposit and any excess yuan back. It's somewhat inefficient but I'm sure they have their reasons.

Today, we hit up a t-shirt store we'd been wanting to visit in a hutong (charming, narrow old alleyway communities) area. This street turned out to be one of my favorite places I have visited on the trip so far. It was so quaint, with fun shops and cafes to enjoy a beer and snack. We took our time checking out the shops and chatted for awhile at a little bar. I got a sweet pingpong player t-shirt.. very Beijing. I also found some pottery for my apartment, and bartered like a pro today. The strangest thing I saw: dead bugs posed as people in different sports scene. See my photo album for a soccer one.

Taking a cab back instead of the subway turned out to be very worthwhile. We saw the city all lit up, and it was a beautiful sight.

Goodnight!