Chinese Money:

The curency of China is the Renminbi (RMB) which translates to mean 'the People's Currency.' In China we don't use dollars, we use yuan or jiao (smaller than a yuan).
Canadian money goes a fair way here. For every Canadian dollar you can get approximately 7 yuan in China (6.5 yuan when you're in Canada) and, depending on what you buy, $20 Canadian can go very far. Our favourite restaurant is called Yang Yang's. It's a dumpling place down the street and you can have 12 dumplings, a plate of vegetables and a large beer for 24 yuan.

This is a picture of my first shopping trip. I bought cleaning products, drinks and food, as well as some chopsticks to eat with. The total bill was less than $12. Though things are cheap, we've all become rather cheap since getting here. We search for the lowest price, the best bargain. We complain about a few yuan and we all think we've overspent. The truth is, what we've spent in over a week is what we would have had to spend in a few days in Canada.

Shopping in Suzhou is interesting. The food is very different from Canadian food.
This is a picture of a store just down the road. Besides the fact that the employee is sleeping (that happens alot in China--people sleep everywhere, especially at work. It could be that they work alot, or maybe like us, the heat just gets to them) the items for sale in the window are chicken/hen feet. This is a very popular food in China and can be purchased just about anywhere.

What doesn't seem to be popular is just regular cuts of chicken breast. It's strange the things that you miss. I ordered curried chicken and rice from a Restaurant yesterday and received mostly bone, with some skin and no real meat. I won't be ordering that again, although the curry sauce and rice was good. As far as foods go though, things are pretty tasty, although alot of what I eat is a mystery, since I don't feel that hunting out comfortable western food is helping me to experience China. One day I might need something that reminds me of home, but don't worry, I know where to find it. Pizza Hut and McDonald's are pretty popular and KFC is EVERYWHERE!!!!












I went to a street market a few days ago. Here are some pictures of what a typical street market looks like.

This is inside the market. There are tons of vendors lining the lane, you can buy anything you want.

Like chicken

or frogs and fish

or even doves.

Yep, those are snakes in the bowl.....Yum Yum

Hungry yet?