Sunday we decided to make a market day. We woke up a little late to make it all the way to the dirt market so we decided to go to the Southwest part of the city and look for an animal / insect market. On the way to the subway we saw the beginnings of something I will expound on later that I call the John Henry phenomenon.

We got out of the subway and set off in the direction that we thought the market was and amazingly turned out to be right. It was mostly animals that you could look at with out being worried about how they were being treated in the market proper. So fishes, bugs, grubs, worms. The fish were pretty cool, they had live shrimps and manta rays even. The also had a lot of random Chinese goods like scrolls and jade. The stuff here though seemed to be of better quality though than what you generally find in the other markets. There also was a lack of other noticeable foreigners.

Outside were some cool things but you also got into the mammals which start making me question their treatment. There were a lot of plants and artwork. This artwork though appeared to be pretty authentic and was being bargained for at about $500 - $600 US so I feel like if it was fake it was a really nice fake.

There were some random things like these jugs of spiders which I can only imagine were for your garden and not harmful to humans. There were also a lot of rabbits, turtles, chipmunks, dogs and cats. There were also a lot of chinchillas which struck me as kind of surprising for some reason.

They gray market area was mostly centered around birds, cats and dogs. There was someone selling puppies out of the space below his seat on his moped. There also was a guy selling puppies out of his trunk which is what Yachi is staring at along with everyone else. There were quite a few husky puppies in there that took a lot of willpower to turn down.

On the way back to the subway we stopped at another Chinese pizza place which was not as good as the one outside of the pearl market. The one there is the best I have found here so far. The dough is nice and thick. Yum, it is making me hungry typing this.

We wandered around Sanlitun during the day which presented it in an entirely different light on our way to the Yaxiu market (Also known as the last of the big western fake markets I had yet to visit). There were lots of good signs as this is the bar district and has lots of drunk idiotic people there at night (maybe myself, why are you asking? Think I would get drunk and idiotic? Shame on you.).

We stopped at a grocery store to satisfy my kit-kat craving and saw this display of female sanitary products. After seeing this I had so many questions. Is a woman going to come in and try a hanging pad like this? I laughed picturing a woman trying to match the correct area to the hanging pad to see if it fit right. If not what was the point of hanging it out, so you could pour water on it and see its absorption rate? So that you could feel the quality and see how it is put together? Yachi had to drag me away. There was also a woman clad in vinyl (vinyl skirt, vinyl shirt, vinyl cowboy hat) who was selling yoghurt. Not even beer but yoghurt, I was speechless. I tried to snap a subtle picture but was caught and it turned out fuzzy as they all do.

The market was pretty much the same as the other ones but had a larger selection of random household goods on the top floor. It was like a Ruby Tuesdays or whatever that store is called where you can buy random things for a pretty good price. I even found the source of all calculators at this market (aka the main method of bargaining). We also saw a couple of guys haggling over a Speedo with a saleswoman. I had to know where they were from and asked them. Brazilian of course.

After the market we tried to find a restaurant called Mediterrano that had been recommended by Holly and Jason. We walked about the entire length of Sanlitun street and could not find it. We stopped to look at the map yet again and decided to ask a couple walking towards us if they knew where it was. As the woman was telling us it was closed another woman on her bike got run into by a car behind us. It was the first time I had seen that and I was amazed that after watching for 15 minutes and talking to this couple the cops never showed up.

We did not necessarily believe this couple so we stopped in a bakery near where we thought it was supposed to be and the woman working there confirmed that it was indeed closed. We decided to head towards the Metro Café which was billed as the oldest Italian restaurant in Beijing. This time we decided to take a cab and after he dropped us off we realized that there was no café in sight. At this point both Yachi and I were pretty close to defeated but we wandered around some and through a stroke of luck finally found the restaurant.

I am glad we found it. The food was outstanding and the décor was very nice as well. Overall it is my favorite non-Chinese restaurant in Beijing. I decided to get a steak as I had not had a big piece of meat since I have been here. That was a mistake. Who knew that my body would be unable to process meat after not eating it for a while. I finally understand everyone who says that beef is too heavy and hard to digest. I ate 190 grams of beef and my stomach killed for the rest of the night. Who knew China was going to emasculate me in this way?

We decided to wander over to Bodhi after finishing and get some full body massages. On the way there Yachi had what might have been here most eye-opening experience even though it was not that crazy. We decided to cut through an area that was heavily guarded and just looked like it was not somewhere you were supposed to be able to walk. However we were able to walk right past all the guards and through the stadium to get to Bodhi much quicker. Yachi thought we were not going to be allowed through at all.