Today we explored on our own. We had some local RMB to get food or supplies.  The exchange rate is close to 7 RMB to 1$.  We walked up the road maybe 15 minutes to a fairly large department store and grocery store with an adjacent KFC. The most fascinating thing about walking along the street is noticing all the large trucks hauling things. When I lived in Hong Kong 45 years ago, we called trucks like this lorries.  Some people drive cars but most people seem to be on motorized or battery powered scooters and some bicycles.  You can't believe what all they haul on their scooters or how many people ride on them. And sometimes they have colorful blanket-like fabric draped over their arms and laps, maybe to shield them from bugs.

Shopping for a basic cup-of-soup is fun as all the ingredients are in Chinese!  It is exciting to find English to know which flavor you are considering--pork, beef, chicken, seafood...  And when we tried to find a short paring knife to cut up fruit, Rod was really working on his Chinese vocabulary to try to explain to the ladies working in the store what we wanted.  He finally was understood and we got a nice knife.  Later, we decided to get lunch at KFC.  We had to look at the pictures and again Rod tried to come up with Chinese words like "fingers" and "chicken"...and then the words for small, medium, and large french fries.  Of all the workers at KFC, only 1 knew a little English.  So, here are a few photos to help you visualize our day

local currency is RMB

Scooter & motorcycle parking outside the department store

I wish you could have seen the front of this driver.

Such a sweet family!

             

See the fabric drape over the front of this driver?