"Dinosaurs Along The Silk Road" -- Sinofossa 2009 16: Beijing Night Market & Karaoke

From Dunhuang, we returned to Beijing (with a slight detour through Urumqi because the direct Dunhuang-Beijing flight was cancelled). Most of our happy group left for home, but a few stayed on. Jack and Christie wanted to venture to the fabled Donganmen Night Market in Beijing (on Wangfujing Street), and Jessie, Matt, and I went with them. The Night Market is basically a few city blocks lined with stalls selling...well, things that in the West could only be very loosely called "food," and then pretty much only in the context of discussing either Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom or Fear Factor. Jack, brave soul that he is, was pretty much fearless and tried any number of exotic things. Matt had slightly fewer (despite having filled up on Pizza Hut immediately prior). I had a somewhat less-than-pleasant alimentary reaction last year after consuming duck brain and duck eyeball, so I was taking it tame this year...the only weird thing I ate at the night market was the head half of a seahorse. Despite its name, the Night Market seemed to shut down around 9:30 or 10 PM, so we retired to the Party World franchise near our hotel for caterwauling...er, singing...