Lilies

Bought these at the flower market last week. Caught them in a rare ray of sunlight. I bought orange ones since they reminded me of the lilies at home; visitors here have been commenting on how rarely they see them in orange!

Flower Town

San Sheng Xiang (say that three times fast) is a flower growing/recreational area on the outskirts of town. People come here on the weekends to eat, relax, play ma jiang, and wear flower garlands. There is also a big flower market and the flowers are very fresh and cheap compared to the ones sold outside my apartment complex.



This girl is peeling an early season pipa (loquat). In the next few weeks fruit shops will have boxes and boxes of these for very cheap, and then the season is over as soon as it starts.



These folks are selling astoundingly fresh greens, herbs, and preserved vegetables.



The little Y5 turtles are almost sold out.



Bedding plants (flowers) and ornamental cacti for sale.

The Great Duck Line Up

Thirty people are standing in this line, which forms every day starting in mid afternoon. The attraction is Beijing style duck. In a city so full of amazing food it's remarkable that people would stand in line for an hour for duck in the middle of a Monday afternoon, so I decided to join them. Each person in line is only allowed a single duck. After an interval that feels like twelve or so minutes a new tray of ducks comes out and a handful of people walk away with their treasure. The line therefore only moves forward every 12 minutes. The money and duck exchange is so quick when they do come out that I didn't get to do my 'keep the head' routine and so got to experience eating a duck head for the first time. Liked the bill (crunchy, really easy to eat); didn't like the brain (weird textured and flavourless).