Tian Jin, China

Today we decided we would capture some scavenger points outside the city of Beijing. We jumped on the bullet train and went to another city about an hour away called Tian Jin. The bullet was very modern and clean but lacked the type of speed we were anticipating, nothing over 200 km......was a little disappointing, but we managed to maximize our scavenger points in this city with stops at one of the first and original roman catholic churches, an historic & colourful shopping mall/sidewalk fair.

Then we found a Starbucks, which was almost empty - heaven in the midst of all the humanity here! We took a China break and had some lattes and a sandwich. Then we had to find a pet store, that turned out to be 4 stories and carried whatever you wanted from pet lizards, mice to an monster stockpile of fish. There isn't even a pet store like this in Beijing apparently.

From there, we waited an hour to catch the train back to Beijing and happily people watched over a few lukewarm Budweisers.

We wrapped up the days adventures with traditional hot pot, sort of like Chinese fondue. We know some of you would love this style of eating, and you know who you are!

One thing we learned today is how to gob, spit, or hork in every situation and in any place......yuck! For all you guys, this place could be heaven for spitters, burpers, and farters.

The weather's still great, but the smog seems to be thicker, like soup....we can start to taste in the back of our throats.

Everyone here is really working hard to gear up for the Olympics this summer. With so much construction still going on, it looks like it will be touch and go if it all gets completed on time. There is so much other construction going on here due to their accelerated economy, wherever we go, there's something being built or remodelled. We don't how this will all end for China, but its changing rapidly.