The back alleys of Wangfujing

The back alleys of Wangfujing are where the real excitement is. There are lots of street vendors selling a wide range of Chinese trinkets. Some trinkets are interesting, some trinkets are junk. Haggling is required. The merchants yell at you as you are walking down the street. The merchants will grab your arm and ask you to stop. When one member of the group is engaged with a merchant, another merchant will grab the other members of your group. Server merchants tried to get Connor involved in discussions.

We were deep in negotiations with one of the street vendors for some trinket when we heard a large BOOM. We initially thought the sound was thunder. The street vendors started shutting down their carts. The negotiations were over. A few minutes later, we heard another large BOOM.

Since everyone else seemed to be worried about rain, we decided to walk back to the hotel. It started raining before we could get back.

We later learned the BOOMs were not thunder. The BOOMs were from rockets! The Beijing Weather Modification Office had decided it was time for rain. The clouds were seeded and it started raining. The rain lasted over 24 hours.