Amateur Adventures #54: Donghuamen Snack Market - How do you like your scorpion?

Hello Lovely Steemians

Today it's time for our last adventure in Beijing. And I've left the ickiest one til last. I hope you enjoy this look around the Donghuamen Night Markets - and I hope you are not squeamish!

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Our last night in Beijing we wandered off to do something different for dinner. Little did I realise just how different that was going to be!

I love wandering city streets at night - with the buildings lit up. It really is a sight to see - and Beijing is no different - though the streets are a tad busier!

Eventually our little group found ourselves at what turned out to be one of the most famous streets in Beijing. Wangfujing Street. Exploring the city on foot does make one rather hungry so we were pretty pleased this was called Donghuamen Snack Market. Sounded just like just the thing we were looking for. A few snacks, a cold beer and a relatively chilled out evening before we headed out the following day towards Xi-an and the Terracotta Warriors.

Donghuamen Snack Night Market is, was it turned out the number 1 snack area in the city and is popular with locals and tourists alike. The vibe from the bustling crowd really adds to the atmosphere. The stalls carry a large assortment of tasty treats from both southern and northern China.

So my definition of tasty treat - and the Chinese definition of tasty treat - clearly lost something in the translation.

As we headed into the markets, the vendors hawked their wares.

Scorpions, crickets, centipedes and seahorses on a stick are just not my thing!

I looked at Michael, our guide and he shrugged his shoulders. He admitted he'd never eaten a scorpion - and in fact didn't know any of his friends or family who had. I questioned this further, to which he replied (with a cheeky grin) he was pretty sure that only western tourists were dumb enough to eat the scorpions.

Turns out this actually isn't that far from the truth! In 2016 Donghuamen markets were closed down - a little under a year since we had visited. As reported by The Beijinger,

So, it is with great pleasure we report that Wangfujing's Donghuamen Night Market will be closing imminently, ridding the city (for now) of one of the biggest tourist ripoffs this side of the teahouse scam.

Scorpions on sticks are just not a thing for anyone here but tourists. In fact, after lots of research, it seems like there aren't that many scorpions around Beijing anyway.

Okay so the local delicacies were not local delicacies at all and the vendors were probably laughing all the way to the bank at tourists handing over their cash for an overpriced cockroach to munch on!

But that aside, I love places were there is a real vibe, lots of noise, strange smells, not so much strange tastes in this case - I couldn't even bring myself to touch the dumplings!

I'm a sucker for Chinese silk lanterns so spent most of the time staring at roof admiring the shapes and colours.

The only place in the world besides China, that I could remember being so vibrant in colour, was Morocco.

The place just seemed teeming with life!

We spent maybe an hour wandering around before we decided it was time to go find some proper food and that cold beer. The next day would be a big travel day to Xi-an - where I could tick off another UNESCO World Heritage Site!

Hope you enjoyed this adventure and it inspires you to get out and see this fabulous rock we live on!

Til next time, steem on with love and light

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!steemitworldmap 39.9154473525397 lat 116.41057491303036 long Donghuamen Night Market - D3SCR