Today was Jan and Al's Big Day of Shopping..... We can officially announce we have 'Don- sho-ping'! (this is an original Jan joke which only he found funny)

This morning, however, following last night's meal which had a fair amount of dried red chillies the size of small motor vehicles, Al had to make an emergency toilet stop to a convenitently positioned Chinese hospital. They thought he was complaining of a stomach tumour and cracked up when Al described he actually was going to poo himself! Quite a dab hand at charades is our Al!

After our little toilet break, we decended upon 3 markets, or was it they decended upon us? It was like being bombarded with a million requests to buy what can mostly be described as TAT. As you passed each stall, vendors shouted out "You like t-shirt/watch/North Face/ tie/girly bag for your wife?" We just told them our wives were already well spoilt and quite close by!!

Tomorrow is our last day in Beijing and we move on to Xi'an. Here's hoping we get a sleeper carriage to ourselves.

Thanks for all the comments you have posted. Keep them coming.