Shopping trip

Yesterday we had a shopping excursion with our group. Lee stayed at the hotel with Mary Clare. The place where our hotel is and where most adoptive parents stay is on Shamian Island. it is a man made island seperated by a canal fom the rest of the city. It is connected by bridges. It was originally the place where foreign diplomats and businessmen would live and work. many of the buildings are western style colonial like. Most of them are in disrepair though and are empty or have been turned into apartments, some are used as souvenir shops. There are lots of big banyan trees that remind me of live oaks. Overall it is a pretty westerny place to be while we're here.

Our guide led us accross one on the bridges and over to a big shopping district. Those guys are selling animal parts, claws and horns, for medicines I think. This area is very different from the island where we spend most of our time.

The scorpions are for soup. They are alive and the ladies will grab the ones you selet with chopsticks. They are very quick!

We continued down the alley. And then went around a corner and
were on this modern pedestrian shopping walk. It was like entering another century!