You want buy, yes?

I spent the late afternoon exploring areas of Jinan I haven't seen yet. We went shopping in one of the typical places around town. In China, most stores are either teeeeeny tiny or are giant warehouses with booths and stands that spill out onto the street. We stuck with the latter. These places are filled with clothes, jewelry, tupperware, sink faucets, whatever. Although I could probably find just about anything there, not much of it was too my liking. Seriously, you would not believe the amount of ugly they can squeeze into China. Ugly plastic crap that sellers hold up in attempts to lure you into their booth. Oooh, you want this? I know you do! And it's like, no actually, I do not need plastic flip-flops with giant Hello Kitty heads on them, and thanks anyway, but I'm going to pass on the bright pink jumper pair of overalls awesomely indescribable article of clothing. Tragically I didn't buy anything.

Afterwards we took a nice walk below the busy streets and along the river that goes through town. I took a few pictures along the way.

These ladies are booked, like, months in advance.


To counteract the little emperor affect, parents are raising children in pens until their 16th birthday.

Eventually we found ourselves near one of Jinan's springs. Although still the city's claim to fame, they're not exactly what they used to be.

There's a spring in the little cave and the water empties out here. Everyone was crowding around the mouth of the cave, pointing to the water and remarking on how clean it was.