Day Three: First day in Shenyang

We took a bus to Beiling Park which was quite lovely in it's pseudo-deserted state. It was starting to get rather cold in the area so most of the park attractions were either closed or empty, but we were admiring this boat when somebody asked us if we wanted to go for a ride.

It took us a while to agree on a price, but finally we agreed on a particular boat and that a particular man would row it for us so we could relax. But then they took $20 extra than agreed upon and said it was a deposit and when we returned they would give us that $20 back. This would make perfect sense if we were taking the boat out by ourselves but since we had one of their rowers taking us, the only thing we could figure was that it was a deposit on the man.

I'm not sure what they thought we were going to do with him but I do feel bad that they only thought his safe return was worth $20 RMB.

Us on the lake.

After the boat ride we were heading toward the tomb entrance which was the real reason for being here, but on the way we saw an artist and decided to have our portraits done. I swear up to this point I'd seen 4 people in all of the entire very large park but as soon as the foreigners sat down to have their picture done, there was like twice that many people just around us, including this lady disguised as a present.

Now, whenever in China, Gordon and I get told quite often that we look like sisters. Given the fact that actually we don't (she is one of those super white-skinned redheads and I am one of those olive-toned with crap brown-colored heads) I think I can safely say that to those without a lot of exposure "all round eyes look the same". And this experience serves as further confirmation.
So Gordon was drawn first, all the while with onlookers commenting on how similar it was, and me agreeing with them all in Chinese and telling Gordon in English that it looks nothing like her at all and she is going to get the biggest kick out of it. When the artist was done with Gordon she struggled to keep from peeing her pants after seeing her representation. It was a bit of an awkward moment as she was trying so hard not to laugh. So I'll let you guess first who is who:

When we showed it to Shawn after returning home he actually guessed wrong. But I am on the right and Gordon on the left. I actually think it looks a little bit like me (except for my upper lip totally isn't that big) but it really looks nothing in the world like Gordon.

So on to the tomb. . .actually now that I think about it, it wasn't that exciting. Let's skip over that. So we finally got some really late lunch at this place where some slightly inebriated, more-than-slightly annoying guy kept trying to talk to us by saying "Hello" over and over again. Gordon finally told him we were Russian (then later blew our cover by telling him he was correct in pointing to the tomato and saying really loudly, "Tomato" in English).
So we went over to Shenyang's "walking street" where we each scored ourselves a new pair of glasses using the latest technology, checked out the night market where we finally started to catch on that it was not just one or two girls who had adopted the Tina Turner hairstyle, but that it was actually everywhere.

We also realized just how much these people love McDonalds and KFC. You can't see it from my poorly taken picture here, but not only are there 2 McDs within a block of each other, there are also two KFCs equally as close. KFC is definitely the winner in most towns though, from what I can tell. In some of the bigger cities like Beijing there were more of those on a block than you might find Starbucks on a block in downtown SF. So sad.

And speaking of depressing American influences, I also noticed in Beijing that the Wal Dynasty has begun. Yep, they now have a WalMart. The night ended by going to the scariest internet bar I have ever been to.