I was in the middle of editing my post earlier to add one more thing but my internet was being super crappy. The night market in Beijing is worth checking out. It's like the Chinese version of the Iowa State Fair except it's a bunch of packed, narrow alleyways with shops and food vendors. They have seahorses, scorpions, cochroaches, snakes, you name it on a stick. A guy in my group ate three live scorpions off of a stick. They typically fry them first but he wanted them alive.
I only knew a few words in Chinese before going. We had three students who were from China and they certainly helped when it came to ordering food and things like that. I ran into very few Chinese people that could speak fluent English. Some spoke none at all which made it difficult to communicate. Lots of pointing at things and using gestures. I was surprised by the lack of English speakers there. We also had a tour guide in each city and a bus that took the group everywhere during the day which made it easier to get around. At night we were on our own. I wouldn't worry too much about it because you'll be able to get by I think.
My next door neighbor went to China a couple of years ago. He ate pigeon and donkey while he was there.
You must now refer to cstrunk as Sho'Nuff, the shogun of RTT
