Day 6 afternoon - Tai'an

Travelled by bus to Tai'an which took most of the morning. After lunch we had time to walk through the local market which had an astonishing variety of things for sale! The first photo is lotus root which we had for dinner the previous night - kind of crispy and yummy. There were sacks of spices that you would recognize (red pepper, star anise), and a million kinds of eggs! Those long skinny "fish" in the last photo are eels.

In the "art-is-everywhere" category, check out this streetlight shaped like Chinese Knotting.





Had some free time later in the afternoon and some of us (not me) had a massage at a place recommended by Han. Marian and I went to the big department store down the street which looked very much like a Macy's except there were SO many salespeople! We found a bargain bin and Marian bought a couple of things. That was an adventure...it took several steps and help from a couple of salespeople to figure out how to pay for the items. No English. Very involved process.

But the really big discovery of the day was the restroom at the restaurant next door to the massage place. Note that it's a squat-type which we'd gotten used to. BUT it was immaculately clean and there was incense burning! What a great idea!