Outside of the Forbidden City, we were attacked by vendors. Don't believe my choice of wording? Check out the picture. Every Chinese person you can see (the two part-Chinese members of the band are not visible) is trying to sell us something. It's just the band and them. And they weren't there before... they just came out of nowhere, detecting that we were standing around waiting for a bus. A few of us unfortunately fell victim to their offers. Although my particular entrapment involved some band assistance...

Vendor: "All this, just one-hundred yuan!"
Evan: "Look, I already got one.. but that's a pretty good deal. Anybody want all these statues for just a hundred yuan?"
Me, the sucker standing next to Evan: "What the heck..."

Some time later...
My thoughts: "Y'know, I think Evan and that guy were in cahoots......"

$12 may not seem like much for a dozen varied statues (there are also a bunch of little buddhas not pictures here), but considering the quality of this crap... it was a ripoff. But I *had* wanted some form of dragonish thingy, and the other statues are things I can decorate the living room with and not worry about my roomates breaking (I sure as hell wouldn't leave my jade sphere down there). The main annoyance is just that these things took up more suitcase space than they were worth...