The good news--David woke up this morning feeling much better! The bad news: I woke up with a sore throat and I'm coming down with a cold--crap! I think we've just worn ourselves out, but what a trip it has been!

We managed to get a fairly early start this morning, we ate a quick breakfast here at the hotel, and walked through the park to the subway for our ride to the Panjiayuan Market. The subway was really crowded this morning, and we had 3 line changes--but we made it! Coming out of the subway station we weren't sure which direction to go, but decided to follow the crowd, and that got us there.

The market wasn't quite what I expected--but it was great fun. I had been expecting a big, tourist oriented market selling mostly souvenirs with maybe a little of the good stuff thrown in. I was so wrong! We didn't see another caucasian at the market--it was all locals. There were no stalls or booths, each vendor just threw a tarp or blanket on the ground and laid out their wares. It was about half old tools, clothes and household goods, and half wonderful antiques and interesting items. I'm quite sure many of the antiques were "I bury them in my backyard for 6 months and then dug them up, so they look really old" variety. But I did see some lovely items, and engaged in some pretty hard bargaining for a few treasures. We wandered the 3 block area, up and down between the rows for almost 2 hours--it was great fun! Don't tell David I told you, but he enjoyed it, too!

We walked back to the subway, passing up a huge antique "mall" along the way--I figured it would be mostly furniture, or too rich for my tiny budget! We headed back to the Nanluoguxiang hutong, where we had a relaxing lunch of panini sandwiches and a cold beer. We walked through the hutong again-it was much less crowded today than last week. We bought a souvenir Starbucks Beijing mug (stop rolling your eyes, Matt!) for our "worldly" collection, and walked back to the subway--I think we must have walked 10 miles today!

We came back to the hotel to unload our "treasures", and I went right back out to hit an ATM and do a little last minute shopping. David stayed at the hotel to start packing--hmmmm, we seem to have a little (a lot?) more than we came with! Good think I always travel with an extra duffle bag!

Our guide from The Great Wall, Joe, is picking us up at 6 pm for the Peking Acrobat Show this evening. We though we should have a quick bite of dinner, so we ordered a pizza from room service--did I mention we are both tired of Chinese food?? The pizza was just OK, but at least it wasn't greasy stir-fry!

Joe was here right on the dot, and it was a pretty slow drive in rush hour traffic across town to the theater.

He already had our tickets for the show, so he parked the car and showed us right to our seats--what a great guide! We had really good seats--just a few rows back from the stage and right in the middle.

The show was certainly different that we expected--I think we both were expecting it to be just like when the Chinese Acrobats did the Ed Sullivan show in the 60's. Things have changed a little since then! The acrobats performed in front of an animated screen--somewhat "cartoonish". The show started with a clown making balloon animals for kids in the audience--kind of corny, but fun for the kids. Even though we both thought it a bit over-rated, the acrobats are incredibly talented, and some of their routines were pretty spectacular. No photos to share--not allowed in the theater.

After the show we walked a block or so to the subway and made our way back to the hotel. We're just plain tired--but did manage to just about finish our packing--we're leaving very early Monday morning.

It will be an early night for us--we have an early start planned for tomorrow, our last day in Beijing. Joe is picking us up at 8 am tomorrow to drive out into the coutryside to Chaundixia, a small old village west of Beijing. We'll spend a few hours wandering and exploring with Joe, then head back into town. We have a VERY early ride to the airport Monday morning.