Yesterday I went to WangFuJing with Morna. WangFuJing is a busy shopping district with many high-end shopping malls that sell luxury items. However, they do sell more affordable items and it is worth a trip to walk along 王府井大街 to explore the many sights. There are food streets in this area which sell exotic delights like scorpions, starfish, pupae, grasshoppers etc. The scorpions were on a stick ala scorpion sate without the meat and certainly without peanut sauce. Although I suppose peanut sauce over scorpions would mask the otherwise nasty taste. Some of the scorpions were still wriggling around and it was certainly an interesting sight to see. The scorpions are deep-fried just before you eat them. Yum yum. I was rather tempted to try the scorpions but was put off by the fact that it costs around RMB 15.00 for a stick of scorpions, which I likely would not scoff down. That would certainly not be money well-spent. However, I will certainly bring my parents and brother here when they come visit me in January. My dad has been keen to try scorpions and I suppose it really is a once in a life time event. Morna also told me she had tried the scorpions previously and that it would be better if I bit off the crunchy bits i.e. legs. But she warned me not to bite into the body because some foul, insect-tasting liquid would spurt out. That would not be nice - not nice at all! Imagine why anyone would enjoy eating scorpions?

I bought quite a few items during my shopping trip and was particularly thrilled that I bought a really warm sweater for only RMB 45.00 since the store was having discounts. Morna and I spent around 3-4 hours shopping, browsing around and walking along the streets. It was a a good opportunity to share quality time with Morna since she is leaving to Indonesia soon. I will miss her quite a bit when I start my next term as she is one of my closest friends here in Beijing. I feel so blessed to meet new people and make new friends. God is awesome!