More shopping

I forgot to mention in my post below that we did get to WangFuJing last night. We walked there from our hotel, with B in a stroller that Lily has loaned to us. It was a mild night, so we quite enjoyed it. We went to the Children's Store there, but the prices are not as good as I remembered and they don't seem willing to come down too much when bartering. I ended up buying one pair of shoes each for the girls, but that was it. After the work that went into getting what I consider just an okay price on those, I just didn't have it in me to start again with negotiations for another pair each. (Although, who knows, maybe the price I did get is good, and I'm just out of touch on the price of kids shoes in Canada.) You all know how much I like shopping (not!)... well shopping where I have to wheel and deal is even worse. I am looking forward to getting back to Canada where the price is the price.

Here's a shot of WangFuJing at night. Given that we've been told a few times now that no one from Beijing would shop at WangFuJing, only tourists (the prices are too high), there sure were a lot of people there last night. And a lot of Chinese people. So I guess there are a lot of people from other parts of China in Beijing for the Spring Festival starting next week. :-)

But that said, today we set out for more shopping. We went to the Pearl Market and to a Silk Market nearby. In spite of the fact that I didn't plan to, I ended up buying pearls at the pearl market. And I almost bought a quilt at the silk market. They had a very interesting set up in the market that demonstrated how different silks are made. The silk quilts were beautiful and so soft, and they showed me how they vacuum seal them in bags to compress them for travelling. I resisted though. :-)

Here is a picture of DoT and I trying our hands at pulling the silk to make a quilt. They said we need some practice.

After the shopping we had a late lunch at a noodle restaurant.

Then it was nap time. Actually, it was past nap time. Normally, B would nap around noon or shortly after. Today it was about 3:30 p.m. when we got him down for a nap. Yesterday he had a late nap too, and didn't end up going to sleep until after 11:00 p.m. last night. I think we're in for a similarly late night tonight.

Tomorrow we fly home. As I mentioned previously, I am anxious to get home. However, I'm dreading the flight. When we first got B, I thought the flight wouldn't be too bad since he's such an easy-going, laid-back kid. However, over the last few days, he's become a bit less patient. Apparently he's now comfortable enough with us to be a bit whiny when he's bored. And somehow I think a 12-hour flight is not going to be nearly exciting enough to keep him entertained. Hopefully he'll sleep for a good part of the flight. We'll see.

K...