Day 4 ~ Chinese New Year's Eve

We slept well and got up at our usual time - 6:30 am; wow, the time change couldn't be this easy, could it? (More to come) We had the day on our own and after a sumptuous buffet we dressed for the elements - much colder than Florida - and sallied forth to explore. We headed for Wangfujing Street, the pedestrian street close to the hotel. The Apple store was on the corner, there were tea shops, a traditional Chinese pharmacy (didn't recognize a thing! All jars of herbs labeled with Chinese characters.), high end department stores with Gucci, Tiffany, Prada, etc, supermarkets, foreign language book store, Bank of China and street food including scorpions, sea horses and star fish on a stick - living! And any number of unrecognizable delicacies Patti & John did not try. There was red everywhere and everyone wore a touch of red for the New Year. On either side and above each doorway there were red banners with auspicious wishes for the New Year. There were boxes of candies, traditional sweets and drinks available for sale everywhere. Red lanterns were hung in sets of two or more above doorways, or entrances to buildings. I found a silk store with the most incredible rainbow of colors and patterns it would have been hard to chose, but I had my heart set on a dove grey and found the perfect color. I'd planned on  having a dress made but unfortunately the tailors were off from Feb 15 to March 1. Oh well, we'll see what they can do back home. We headed back to the hotel, made reservations for a special New Year's dinner, left a message for our friends the Murphy's  and promptly fell asleep, missed the reservations, but had a grand reunion in the lobby bar over cocktails and planned our tour to the Great Wall the following day.