Lost in Beijing

Sometimes in life you have to lose yourself, before you can find the right way. I spent the morning wandering the streets of Beijing. I was on a mission to find the Pearl Market. I had a map with me--that was written only in Chinese. However, there was a picture of a pearl where the market was located, so that came in handy when asking for directions. Of course, I got lost and found myself walking past local hutongs. I ran into a fellow teacher in our group who was also lost, and was looking for the Underground City. We decided to try and look for both places together. We hired a rickshaw driver who told us (in Chinese) that he would take us to the underground city. When we got there, we saw a sign that said the underground city was closed. The rickshaw driver quickly drove away, and we were lost in Beijing once again. With our Chinese map, we pointed to the "pearl" and some nice ladies pointed us in the direction of the Pearl Market. When we finally found the market, we were overwhelmed with the huge amount of vendors selling pearls. I bargained at shop #158, where I bought pearls for many friends and family. The vendors were nice enough to double-knot the pearls for me, and I considered my mission a success.
Later that same afternoon, a few teachers in my group and I were approached by some "art students." They wanted us to see their artwork. Maryanne was very trusting of the students, so Jerry and I followed Maryanne and the students to the "university." To make a long story short, we think we almost got lured into a hotel. We could've been kidnapped--but we walked away before the "students" had a chance to get us.
That night, lots of us walked down to Wang-Fu-Jing street. It is like Times Square. It is also close to the famous Night Market, where Andrew Zimmerman filmed an episode of "Bizarre Foods." We saw people eating beetles, starfish, sea horses, and various types of meat. Overall it was an incredible day. Getting lost is sometimes exactly what you need to enjoy the journey along the way.