Yesterday, for the language/culture practicum (fun activity after the weekly test) the third year students went to Niujie Mosque, which is the oldest and biggest mosque in the Beijing area. It was very nice weather due to the rain the previous day, so they sky was blue and the ground was washed clean. After the visiting the mosque we went to try traditional Mu1si2lin1 (Muslim) food. I had some sort of noodle dish, but others were more adventurous and tried cow's stomach with peanut sauce.
Today, a teacher took a bunch of us to the Temple of Heaven Park (tian1tan2gong1yuan2) and then to the hong2qiao1 pearl market. The park was quite lively because of the good weather, there were lao3bai3xing4 (regular people) singing, playing instruments, flying kites, painting characters with water on the sidewalk, dancing, playing cards...
After the park we went to Hongqiao market, which is a very westernized market. The first floor is all cell phone acccessories and electonics and such. The second floor has clothing and bags and the thrid floor has chuan1tong3 (traditional) items like scrolls, fans, chopsticks, jewelry and of course oodles of pearls. Because the market attracts so many westerners, all the vendors try to speak english to us and some of them are a little pushy. They are usually a little nicer when they realize we can speak Chinese. I ended up buying a carved seal of my name- you pick out a stone and write your name (Chinese or English) and come back in ten minutes and they have carved you name into the block and it can be used as a stamp. I also bought a Mao propaganda poster. We found one vendor who had lots of original photos, books, posters, etc. from the Mao era. He was quite nice and willing to show us all kinds of pictures and photos.
Then my roommate and I tried corn juice (hot corn juice). There is a store near us that sells only corn juice of many different varieties.
Lots of photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/