March 21, 2012, Beijing Pedestrian mall and spicy shrimp.

It seems like all we talk about is eating and shopping but they are both forms of experiencing this culture. Mary's morning was spent in a meeting with Martine and Holly discussing three papers they are writing. I ventured out to the ATM. (Roy, my new 'banker' is selling me Hong Kong money with Chinese money.) We had been advised to bring American money but in their experience, the local money is easier Since we have added a day to our Hong kong experience, we need more anyway. Now I have a third exchange rate on the back of the little calculator Roberta gave me. Roberta...I couldn't have lived without it! Thanks! I also walked to Park N Shop to purchase replacement sundries for our hosts. After lunch Roy went to teach at the university and we (including Holly) travelled on the ( you guessed it...) the Metro to go to the Beijing Pedestrian mall. We were still in the district of Tianhe, Guangzhou  but the mall is named Beijing. For the first time we don't have to worry about crossing the street. In China pedestrians are the lowest transportation class so even if we have permission to walk (green walking person) cars, bicycles, motorcycles and scooters will turn the corner very quickly and ignore us. We became very comfortable holding up our hands in front of the oncoming traffic in order to cross. In this outdoor street mall, the streets are closed off for blocks. We can cross with ease. We saw the most incredible piece of history. In the middle of the street are several excavations (glass windows in the ground) that reveal original roads from the Ming dynasty. I took lots of pictures of advertisements...so western and massive and never ending. We always people watch. All the girls are wearing my shoes from the 70's and 80's...high heels and wedges...I've never seen such exotic shoes.  Craig...I have used my pedometer every day since we arrived in bangkok. It just zip it into my pocket. Only one day have we walked less than 10 km. Today we walked 16 km. Mary bought the most incredible shoes ($22. Canadian) Think of a pair of slip on Merrills except they the top is woven and shocking pink with a few lins of geen and blue. She wore them immediately for the rest of the day and they were extremely confortable. We travelled back to the university to pick up Roy and two colleagues we met earlier, Tierry and Claude, and went to eat spicy shrimp. Again, heads tails and shells were still on. To eat them, you used the chopsticks to tightly clamp over the tail and head and then you just bit off the middle, shell and all! Wonderful! I have become quite at ease with my chopsticks...mary was already experienced with them before we arrived. Both of us have been healthy...knock on my head!. I expected to see lots of people with paper face masks but Martine told ut they wear them when they have a cold, not to protect themselves from pollution. So many misconceptions....came home, re-adjusted the suitcases again. We leave tomorrow morning for 2 days in Hong Kong. We will be sad to leave our wonderful hosts but are excited about this third leg of our adventure.