The Lunar Market

We have the opportunity three or four times each year to host international guests in our Asian home. (We've been fortunate to have plucky family and friends who are willing to trek across the globe to visit the Johnson's in China about that often. And I think it is a fair assessment, to say that nothing validates our experience more than having people willing to share a portion of our experience in real time and in a very real way. Because, as Mr. Johnson always says, you don't get the smell in the pictures! No smell-o-vision on the blog either.)

For us its a little of a tricky balance. We want to provide for our guests in the best way possible (Sunday brunch on the patio of the delectable Wildfire Restaurant @ the InterCon, for example) while still wanting them to feel like they get a slice-of-life in China too. When my sister reported to my friends @ the international playgroup that she had yet to see anyone publicly voiding, they smiled and reassured her that I was just shielding her from the experience. *

So, in our attempt to offer the Real China, we spent one morning of the aunties' visit @ the Lunar Market, an outdoor market that follows the lunar calendar (thus the name) and sets up every five days in a large dry drainage ditch near the airport. At the Lunar Market vendors sell just about everything: puppies for pets and dog meat for dinner, dried deer penis (for Chinese medicinal purposes) and scorpions for deep frying. There are flowers and tea vendors, teapots and toe nail clippers. And its always good to wear closed toe shoes, if you know what I mean. We bought tea sets, a goldfish (which Bei Bei named Rapunzel), some blue & white ginger jars, and a watering can.

Bei Bei & Gu Gu set for the Market

Dried Deer Penis

Scurrying Scorpians

Dried fruits and Teas

Beautiful Roses

* As for the public voiding, the aunties did get to see their fair share. At the Jimo Lu Market they saw a baby in split crotch pants, suspended in the air and pooing onto a sheet of newspaper. In our own complex, they watched as a little boy voided into a plastic bag lined bucket-- his father supervised, wiped and then sealed up the bag (more on this family and unique situation later). The ultimate, though probably goes to the boy who peed into a plastic bag during the dolphin performance @ Polar Ocean World. Neither mom nor son wanted to miss out on the action, and really why should you, as long as you come prepared -- any flimsy plastic bag will do!