Filed under: Tantalizing Travel
Our second full day in Beijing on the 11th I wanted everyone to experience the markets. First we headed to Panjiayuan, but ended up at the antique market, but I was smart enough to realize that was not what I had seen on the internet so we asked around and were told that the “dirt” market was about a 10 minute walk away from the antique market. We stopped and had lunch ad Mickey D’s and then headed over to the market. Being that it was not the weekend the market was only about a quarter full with vendors, but it still presented a nice warmup for Hongqiao Market. After we finished at Panjiayuan (which was unbelievably cold by the way) we headed to the world-famous Hongqiao market where mom, Donna and Melanie lost their minds bartering for deals. I was able to snap some shots of them with their spoils, and they left the market like I imagine fishermen do after a good catch. All was right with the world until Donna dropped her vase and broke it into pieces. She remained pretty bummed out for the remainder of the trip until we got home and Melanie lost her purse with our passports in it. Praise God that someone at the airport turned the purse in and it only cost us an extra bus ride back out to the airport to pick it up. We did have a few bumps along the way in Beijing, a taxi driver gave us a 5 cent bill rather than a 5 dollar bill one time in change, and we got in an argument to get a sufficient taxi for the ride out of Beijing back to the airport (they wanted us to take two), but all in all, we couldn’t have asked for a better trip. Ezri did wonderfully, and the trip gave us a deeper appreciation of the beauty, ease, efficiency, weather and class of Hong Kong.
