Foolishly thinking we would counteract culture shock with a little Western Influence, we stopped for lunch at a McDonald's. I didn't realize the Western Influence would be Salvidore Dali. A pack of Mentos was included with every meal. (By the way, Mentos commercials are equally strange and marginally more incomprehensible when dubbed in Chinese).

After lunch, Mike and I explored the attached mini-mart. Everything there looked pretty much like your average chinese grocery*, except for the liquor aisle. There we found (and I am not exaggerating this) a 5-gallon jug containing four or five pickled snakes. Keeping them company were four equally pickled turtles. (Numbers are approximate; we briefly considered bringing one home just so we could sponsor a Guess How Many Reptiles raffle.)

Now I'm really sorry I didn't take a picture.