What to say..? I turned on the PC, intending to write another lengthy blog, but last night's alcohol has made my mind go blank!

I went to the Silk Street Market yesterday - the same one I've been to three times before. The place is huge - it has about 8 floors, and around 40,000 people visit there every day.

I used to like shopping, and think of myself as quite a good bargainer, but yesterday was quite a harrowing experience. People shouting at you from all directions, begging you to buy things that you don't even want. You go to a stall to browse, and the stall owner pounces on you, asking you about how many of the item you'd like to buy, and how much you're willing to pay for it. The stall owners are normally girls of about 18/19, and they'll use many different tactics for you to buy their stuff: initially calling out "handsome man"(!), but then actually getting quite aggressive, shouting prices at you, holding your wrists to prevent you from leaving.

I had one episode that left a particularly sour taste in the mouth - I went to look at a T-Shirt, was accosted by the stall owner who asked me how much I wanted to pay for the item. In truth, I didn't want the T-Shirt but quoted a reasonable price to elicit a response. The stall owner then succeeded in convincing me to up my offer to about double of what I originally said. Anyway, I finally decided that I didn't want the T-Shirt and left the stall, even though the price had been agreed upon, and she started saying some quite horrible things - that I had no respect, that I was wasting her time, that time is money, and that she didn't want to see me there again. I know that it was my fault for agreeing a price and then deciding against buying the item, but it wasn't a pleasant experience.

As I mentioned before, the exchange rate is still a nightmare - buying things is about one and a half times more expensive than it was last time. At any rate, I came away with a couple of pairs of trainers, a jumper, a pair of jeans, and three shirts for about GBP60. The same items would have cost around GBP500 back home, so not a bad haul I suppose!

I realise that I haven't talked that much about Beijing, but that's because I'm still quite undecided about the city. In truth, its quite an ugly place - it is filled with skyscrapers, but isn't quite the international metropolis that Shanghai, Hong Kong or New York is. Its quite easy to navigate around, the city is set out in a north, south, east, west format, with the central business district in the east, the main financial zone to the west, and various other things in the north and south.

Beijing retains this wonderful paesan culture - even though there are plenty of large supermarkets and chain stores, people prefer to buy their food from nearby stall owners. Outside our apartment block, there is a man that sells eggs and noodles, a shoe cobbler, and a bicycle repair stall. You can also see that jobs have been created where possible - most buses have a driver and two conductors, our apartment block has a woman that sits in the lift and presses the buttons for you(!), and when I went to the mobile phone store, there was someone that showed you the sim card, someone that dealt with the money and gave you a receipt, and a third person that took the receipt and actually gave you what you paid for!

The bus and train services are very efficient, and it gives you an idea of how they hosted the olympic games here last year.

What's surprised me most is the number of expats here - there's thousands of them! Everywhere you go, you see a Western face! All of the bars that we've been to so far have been expat bars, which is a little annoying. The plus side is that you have places to watch all of the English football games, even if they are on TV at stupid hours of the night!! I watched the Man Utd - Liverpool match yesterday (fantastic game of football!), and am debating whether or not to go and watch the Spurs - Villa game tonight (which kicks off at midnight!).

I still haven't really been sightseeing, but when I do so, I will provide pictures and a write-up.

Anyway,

Time to go and study!

Take care everyone,

Nihal