Challenge 1: Seek out a fortune teller to predict your future.

In the end we found three fortune tellers, the third of whom, Teacher Li (introduced to us by Dr. Yang), we couldn't afford to consult about our futures (fees started at 500 yuan). But he still graciously agreed to answer a few questions about his profession through which we gained a vastly expanded view of the world of fortune tellers. It turns out he's a nationally syndicated columnist and author on the subjects of fortune telling, Yìjīng, and other aspects of Chinese culture.The other two fortune tellers (one outside a Buddhist temple, the other inside a Daoist temple), who did actually tell our fortunes, were consulted separately and disagreed on almost everything including:

• where our trip will take us

• what we'll do

• who we'll meet

• Albert's future extra-marital affairs

• Adrian's impending bad luck due to his birth day

They were both, however, eerily in agreement that:

• we will accomplish exactly 9 of our 15 challenges

• we will certianly find a girl taller than Albert (narrowed down to a girl in her late 20s by the second fortune teller)

• we will absolutely, definitely not encounter any snakes on our entire trip

In other news today:

• we found a shop selling dried snakes (for medicinal purposes?)

• we browsed the "Grand Bazaar"

• we noticed that the clock at a mosque was two hours behind the official "Beijing" time (more on this later)

• Albert tried to learn some of the Arabic-based Uighur (pronounced "WEE-gurr") language

• Adrian finally found a camel