There’s a big problem over here with counterfeit money.  Every time you purchase something, the clerk or cashier scrutinizes each yuan. She holds it up to the light to see the water mark and other signs of real currency, snicks it to listen to the sound it makes, and turns it over several times.  Finally it is accepted.  Well, I guess they are so used to fake money that they don’t trust American money either.  We have had money rejected several times when buying yuan with U.S. dollars.  Once there was a pinkish stain on the top of a twenty dollar bill; another time there was a small tear.  We had two types of fives (the old style and the new) and we almost had all those rejected.  And they definitely don’t like old bills.

Lessons for future international traveling: (1) only take crisp, clean bills and (2) leave the traveler’s checks at home.  No one knows what they are and won’t even consider cashing them.  Bring an ATM debit card — but make sure it’s one of the major networks. Even then you might have trouble; some only accept local cards.  China is pretty much a cash society.  Only two times in two weeks have we been able to use a credit card.  And when you do exchange your dollars for yuan, you get a great big, fat wad that barely fits in your wallet.  One "ten" is only worth $1.40 and a "100" about $14.  When you’re paying for something big like a deposit on your hotel room (2,000 yuan), you feel like a millionaire peeling off all those notes.  And, yes, even the real ones look like funny money.

So many of the city busses are “double” — one driver, two busses.  Public transportation is the way to go because there simply is not enough parking spaces.  There are 70,000 taxis in Shanghai.  Not sure how many are in Beijing…probably about the same.  And there are almost as many bicycles and motor scooters (not motor cycles) as there are cars and taxis.  In Suzhou and parts of Beijing, there are separate divided lanes for bikes.  At each traffic light there may be 50 bikes and scooters waiting for the light  to turn green. People carry groceries, dogs, and kids.  The kids don’t even hold on; we’ve seen them eating or reading a book as they sit behind their parents zipping along at 30+ mph.

In the sections of Beijing, the scantily-stocked shops are tiny.  They are called xiaomaibu and often the owners specialize.  One may sell paper products, another bottles, and the next one bamboo steamer baskets.   Very often vendors just spread an old blanket on the sidewalk and sell their goods from there — picking up and moving if business is slow.

We won’t be blogging again till we get home.     LAST DAY:   one more adventure in Beijing then the sleeper train to Shanghai.  A final day in Shanghai before flying out in the evening.  All without any sleep!

Pedestrian-only streets are very popular in the cities we’ve visited.  Bicycles and motor scooters are also allowed on some.  Wangfujing Lu is a Mecca for locals and tourists alike.  You’ve got to watch the video John shot of one of the eating stalls on this famous "snack" street.  Kabobs are ubiquitous but the scorpions, star fish, sea dogs, and lizards "take the cake".  Watch closely and see what I mean.   I thought I was being brave the other day when I had fried fish heads.

The market stalls were packed with shoppers and the vendors were very aggressive there.  Several of them grabbed John’s arm and literally pulled him over to see their wares.  I kept hearing, "Lady, lookee, lookee" as they would thrust some little trinket into my hand.  Shopping was never so exhausting.  Our friend, Rui, just thrives in this environment and she negotiated a few more deals for us this afternoon.  I guess you have to grow up doing this kind of thing…but to me haggling is stressful.  Give me Wal-Mart.

We got our first view of the Forbidden City from across the street in Tian’anmen Square –  the site of the infamous 1989 student/police clash.  The City is a complex of palaces, halls, gardens, towers, and gates that form the world’s largest surviving palace.  It has 9,999 rooms and was completed in 1420 and served 24 emperors for 500 years.  No commoner saw the inside until the the last Dynasty (Qing Dynasty) fell in 1911.

John and I spent about three hours wandering the halls and courtyards.  It is immense, and they say it would take you 27 years to go into every single room.  We were in the outer courtyard when some American students told us that McCain had conceded and Obama had been declared the next president.  What a surreal moment that was there in the Imperial City to get that news.

Like everywhere we’ve been in China, the Forbidden City was full of crowds.  There’s always pushing and shoving and jockeying for position.  Let me give you two illustrations from today’s experience.  In the ladies’ rooms, women in the U.S. typically line up and the first in line gets the next available stall.  But in China you line up in front of each stall.  Today there was a western toilet among all the squatty potty stalls, so I stood with my nose to the stall door.  If I had been back a few paces, ladies would have just cut right in front of me.  I watched a few foreigners. who thought they were in line, look in amazement as Chinese ladies walked right past them and queued up in front of stalls further inside the room.

John has experienced a phenomena quite a few times over the past two weeks; today being no exception.  For some reason, the older women are particularly aggressive with him.  He gets literally pushed and bumped.

As we were wading through the crowds in front of the Palace of Harmony, a little old grandma elbowed him right in the side.  There was actually plenty of room for her to get by but she purposely jabbed him.  It’s happened so many times that it’s now amusing.  No one has done that to me.  I certainly get cut in front of and pushed a bit, but no kung fu jabs.