This morning, Kate took Gretchen and me to the Dirt Market. It is a weekend shopping extravaganza with stalls and stalls of Chinese...everything. There are name stamps, tin wind-up toys, boxes, paintings, scrolls, clothes, coins, military paraphernalia, wooden jewelry boxes, furniture, jade, Buddha statues, cloth, chop sticks, dolls...the list goes on and on. Some of it is very cool and some very kitchy. Kate and Gretchen had great success Christmas shopping where my goal was more reconnaissance since I'll be here a while.
As the morning wore on, the market became increasingly crowded and because it is outside, I became increasingly cold. Despite long underwear and wool socks, after three hours of exposure all my toes were numb and I resorted to hopping up and down, stamping my feet and running in place to try to encourage blood to my extremities. I considered jumping jacks but social decorum prevailed considering I seemed to be the only person engaged in cold-averting exercises. But finally the shopping was complete and we made our way to the hutong area of the city characterized by one-story neighborhoods with winding alley ways. Kate took us to a rustic but warmer Malaysian restaurant where we happily scarfed down spicy, oh-so-good, food.
This evening we three along with another colleague, attended Handel's Messiah performed by the international festival choir of Beijing. The conductor and the four soloists were guest performers. It was a little surreal to suddenly be surrounded by mostly westerners after a week of feeling very much like a foreigner. After the concert we walked through the deserted Forbidden City grounds and along a river to the main streets to catch a cab. It will be interesting to return to the Forbidden City during the day when it is full of tourists, but at night in the dimly lit quiet, the buildings and thick high walls were extremely majestic.
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