Buying beer in Xi'an

After much sightseeing and shopping in Xi'an, we all decided it would be nice to have a beer and let the kids run around and play. Katie asked a taxi driver if he knew of such a place, and he said yes. So, we got three "sambars", or little taxis which are basically motorcycles with a two seat cab in the back. What a ride! We arrived at a place where there was a tiny shop, and a door built into the wall. The door led to what looked like a park, so Katie, Irene, and the kiddos went that way while Jon and I tackled the task of getting beer. We went into the little shop and asked for beer - which they had! Twist our arms, all they had were the local equivalent of "forties." We bought four for ten yuan, or about a dollar and thirty cents! Now, to open the beers. This took a little chatting with the two ladies at the shop, but soon they produced an opener, which we begged them to let us photograph to no avail (we think they were embarrassed - while Jon and I thought it was the most creative opener we had seen). The opener was basically a thick, tongue depressor sized piece of wood with a bolt and several nuts do figured at one end to fashion an opener - worked just fine! Chinese ingenuity...