That night after I’d gotten back from the Lama Temple I was pretty tired but really wanted to check out the night market I’d heard a lot about.

Luckily my friends Carolann and Macrae over at One Modern Couple knocked on my door and we were able to go together! It was a 20 minute walk or so and brought us through what one could possibly refer to as ‘downtown’ Beijing.

When we finally made it to the beginning of the market area in the northern end of Wangfujing, the first alley we came to had LOTS for sale. There were so many souvenirs, items of varying kitchiness, and bags of questionable authenticity. There was also candy. Lots of candy.

Once we made our way down numerous alleys full of stuff we finally came upon the street we’d been looking for - the food street.

Now this isn’t just any food street.

True this street does offer somewhat normal food like spring rolls, crab cakes, fried calamari, dumplings, candied fruit, and fried ice cream (which we tried…yummy).

Macrae even offered to try this sketchy looking stuff I’d seen all over Beijing. It looked like milk in a little carton and was sold on the street with a straw in it. Turns out it was yogurt. Though a slightly strange tasting yogurt. Not sure what the Chinese obsession is with this stuff but it is everywhere.

However the main attraction of this market is the NOT normal offerings for the brave of stomach (which we were not). If you so chose you could sample tarantulas, centipedes, scorpions (some still wriggling on a stick for display *shudder*), lizards, snakes, and sea horse…all on a skewer for your snacking pleasure (or displeasure).

Since I had to be up at 5 am for a 6.5 hour train ride the next day to Xi’an I opted not to try any of the frankly disgusting array of insects and sea life for fear of an upset stomach on a long distance moving vehicle. Maybe I’ll try my luck at the night market in Thailand that offers the same opportunity.

I did get some gyoza for dinner however. My first attempt was unsuccessful as the vendor, having just given the same order to the Chinese woman in front of me for 10 yuan, tried to charge me 19 yuan. I had pulled out a 10 (since that’s what the woman in front of me paid) and then tried to pretend that’s all I had. After a few moments the vendor called his boss over who proceeded to take the dumplings out of my hand and wave me away yelling.

Don’t worry I got my gyoza from the vendor down the alley…for 10 yuan ($1.63 USD) thanks to Macrae’s epic bargaining skills.

And we even got a little traditional show! We all thought this was a woman at first…then we saw the hands and more closely regarded the face structure and rethought our assumption.

Regardless of the mean gyoza vendor, funny tasting yogurt, and lots of pushy people we had a blast walking around this intriguing market for a few hours.

It was sad to say goodbye to Carolann and Macrae at the end of the night. We both started our world adventures together on the same day in Beijing and that will always be special. They were amazing travel buddies and make my time in Beijing all the more enjoyable.

Have you ever been to a night market with bizarre food options? Were you brave enough to try a scorpion?