I'm back in Beijing for a brief stint, before I head to my final destination, Mongolia.

I had come to China in order to get a visa for Mongolia but as it turned out, when I arrived at the embassy I was told that American citizens don't need one. This is unheard of!! Most countries LOVE requiring visas because then they can charge you $15-80 a pop for entering their lands and getting two stamps in your passport. Countries especially like requiring higher fees from Americans because it's commonly known we're all hopeless rich.

So, when I was turned away from the counter with my $40 still in hand, I was confused and had to call my super sauve host (and former Intrepid leader who calmed me down as I had a bleeding and punctured thigh), Kim, for reassurance that this was correct. He remembered that yes, it was true that Americans didn't need a visa. WOO-HOO!!!

So, I took my $40 with me, and caught the subway to the Beijing International Hotel, where the office of the CITS (Chinese Idiots Travel Somethingorother) where they supposedly sell train tickets to Ulan Baatar. I found the office without a problem but the woman there in usual Chinese fashion didn't have the answer to the simple question I asked, or rather, couldn't putting herself out to help me.

I knew that the train to UB left on Wednesdays, but being that I am meeting my friend Maria here in Beijing, I didn't want to leave before she got here. My plan was to leave for Hohhot, a city 11-12 hours away on Saturday so I could catch the Sunday night train to UB from there. The woman in the office told me she knew nothing about trains to or from Hohhot or if and when they went to Mongolia. Mind you, this was the international train ticket office, supposedly the only place to buy tickets to Mongolia in Beijing. If there are only two cities in China that have trains that go to another country (and only one a week in each city at that), you'd think that the times of both. No such luck though and after getting frustrated I left.

Kim had suggested flying because the flights depart 4-5 times a week. They had a price tag of about $250 one way according to my outdated and useless Lonely Planet (they didn't know about the visa exemption and it made me less confident in the rest of the info I've read). So, if anything, I expected to be quoted a price of $300+. I got to the CAAC (China Airlines Anarchy Center) building which was conveniently also on the subway line, I was overjoyed to find out that the flight was $211 and was available on Friday. It was a super speedy and efficient transaction, which only added to my positive CAAC experience. I quickly handed over my Visa and took off to find the Friendship Store.

The Friendship Store is an evil place. It's filled with a strange assortment of stuff, usually geared at foreigners and overseas Chinese with cash to burn. Much of the first floor was filled with horribly tacky jade carved turtles which are emerging from the inside of a geode and uesless electronics. I wondered who bought of the electronics because they were obscenely overpriced. I saw discmans that are made in China and imported to the States selling for more money than they do in the States. Same thing with calculators. What Chinese businessman goes to Beijing to buy some stupid calculator that he could get in his adopted country for $3? They were going for massive sums!!!

I also found a section of the store that sold nifty kites. Chinese are highly into kites but for boatloads of yuan, you got a dragonfly or crab made out of the equivalent of tissue paper. They looked pretty on the wall, but I can't imagine they'd last long in the sky, especially not in New York where there are massive flying rats (otherwise known as pigeons) the size of 747s.

I did perk up when I saw there was an "imported books" section which meant there were English books. This is exciting stuff because China doesn't have many secondhand book shops or even hostels that have book exchanges with books in a script I understand. I had reduced myself to buying two cheapie Penguin classics at the Xinhua Bookstore but who knows how long Benjamin Franklin's autobiography and a compilation of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories will last me.

I wanted to figure out how to amuse myself in Beijing until Friday morning so I figured I'd look for an English China guidebook. I rounded the corner and saw one of the biggest collections of Lonely Planets I've ever seen. You'd figure they'd have the LP China, but no such luck. Instead, they had every outdated book on every other country in existance. They must import unwanted old editions to see if they can pawn them off to stupid tourists. I actually found three separate editions of the LP Egypt, with the oldest being the most expensive. I can't imagine paying $31 for a seven year old guidebook.

I moved on to the games section- the real reason I had come to this tourist trap of a store. I wanted to find a travel sized mahjong set to bring back to the States for Anthony. I'd buy a big one, but they're just too freakin huge. There was a whole mahjong section, but none were small or in my price range. Instead, they had tiles the size of playing cards and ornate wooden storage boxes to match. There was one set that no one else wanted because the tiles were the color of urine, which I could afford, but I didn't want it either. I left and had a coffee beverage at the attached Starbucks.

While at Starbucks, I people watched. China is a good place to do this because the people have interesting habits. A typical example of something you might see is a woman, dressed to the nines in an outfit covered in designer labels (Prada, Dolce and Gabbana, and Louis Vuitton seem to be the kings of this and therefore super popular), the real stuff too- not the knockoffs, work up a massive loogey and spit, without blinking an eye.

I also love some of the fashion choices women make. The women love to wear labels (as mentioned above), and will mix and match three or four in the same outfit. Another common site is a woman wearing sandles with ankle high stockings that cut off her blood supply and look like a condom that's pulled up around her ankles. However, my favorite sight is of the rhino sized underwear on a woman the size of an eight year old. It sticks halfway up their backs and can be nearly tucked into their highly unnecessary bra straps without giving them a wedgy.

It's not like I'm some fashion plate myself, but I like to see other people's fashion burps because well, it makes me feel less of a dirtbag in my wore out hippy gear. I seem to get this paranoia in major cities were people have more style. I felt extremely self conscious today walking around in my busted $4 flip flops that had me slipping and sliding in the pissing down rain. I could feel people staring at me while I was trying to stay vertical and thinking "Why is that dumb long-nose wearing flip flops in the rain and getting soaking wet??"

As you can see, it was a mixed bag of a day. I'm going to relax now but making some scrambled eggs, tea, and watching DVDs until my eyes bleed. More updates soon!