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Dad:  Today was quiet for the kids. They stayed at the house with the Ayi while Carolyn, Tricia, Melissa, Sandee and I went down to HangQiao. HangQiao is a famous market right next to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It’s most famout for the 3rd and 4th floor pearl market. The high end stores have pictures of many dignitaries visiting there.

We went to Sharon’s store, also frequented by The Queen Mother, and W’s Mom.  They have a huge selection and suffice it to say we spend a few hours there.

HangQiao is mostly full of Westerner’s. I saw more here than anywhere else. This is the place where your bargaining skills really get put to the test. We seemed to have a great day, getting pretty much what we wanted at the prices we wanted, and for the most part those prices were pretty good. Tricia finished the day quite happy with her purchases, as was I.

We got some special items there that we weren’t really planning on. We’ll have to wait for later to put up pictures of those.

We got back late from a long day of shopping, and Tom took Carolyn out for a birthday dinner. We ordered in.  Since there are no delivery charges and no minimum here, we ordered from three different restaurants, so everybody could get what they wanted.

That’s pretty much it. Sorry no pictures at the moment. The pictures are on another PC that I don’t have access too at the moment. We’ll add pictures later.

Zai Jian!