Another visit to the Muslim Quarter and a walk around the Great Mosque. It's an interesting mix of Islamic and Chinese architecture and art and is set out like a Chinese temple, but with an Islamic prayer hall and spires decorated using pagoda style architecture.
I get chatting to a shop keeper outside who at first I think is just trying to sell me something, but it turns out he thought I was Muslim and just wanted to chat. It happens a second time round in the evening and a guy I buy some food from is convinced I am Muslim, after he probes and finds out I went to an Islamic school for a year, he latches on and keeps asking.
At night time the Quarter transforms into a circus of people selling food, artists offering to draw your portrait, people selling kites and other entrepreneurs wanting to cash in on tourist money. The kites are amazing, consisting of many small kites tied to one another in a long string, they must stretch at least 100m into the sky and you could buy 5m sections for around 50p. The best example of money making were the guys with full on telescopes mounted onto the back of motorcycles, who for just under a pound will let you look into the sky at the moon or Jupiter. When I say telescope I don't mean a small hand held thing, but massive white industrial telescopes that have supporting frames and are turned using wheels and gears. I'm not sure how good it is for the optics, being driven around on the back of a motorcycle and being bashed around going up curbs over bumps and I'm sure if any astronomer saw it, they would have a heart attack.
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