"Gan Bei"

(Adam, center, orders dinner for all of us)

Last night we went to dinner with three of the local volunteers that are in charge of photography at our venue, Adam (his English name), the photo manager of the venue, and two of his assistants. Adam ordered most of the dishes and the food, as usual was great. We had sushi, a beef dish, whole fish (grouper I think), a pork dish, some greens with lots of garlic and vinegar as well as others. He tried to order goose, which he says is much better than duck, but they were sold out.

(Sushi dish)

After dinner (and Yanjing beer of course), he ordered a Chinese after-dinner drink for some toasts. They poured it into very small glasses (less than a shot glass) and he told us that Chinese tradition was to make a toast and then drink the whole glass at once and the more we did it, the more powerful we were. The toast was "Gan Bei" which means "dry glass". After four or five toasts (and that stuff packs a punch!), we emptied the bottle and headed back to the hotel.

("Gan Bei" toast among friends)

This morning after dropping off laundry (a laundry down the street is a lot cheaper than the hotel), we took a taxi to the Silk Market again for some shopping. While riding we travel through a very picturesque toll plaza. Kevork wanted a watch and was taken downstairs to the basement and into a room where he eventually got the watch he wanted for the price he wanted. The woman would NOT let me shoot a photo of them and all the Gucci bags, Rolex watches, etc., so...no photo! After the morning shopping we headed to the venue for the first day of medals in flatwater racing.

(Toll plaza on highway around Beijing)