Since the eighth year of the Reign of Emperor Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty

Yesterday, Molly and Victor (Hannah's host brother) took me and Hannah around Beijing. Our first stop was Tiananmen Square. They explained how it is surrounded on all sides: at the head is the Forbidden City (with Mao's famous picture at the entrance), on one side is the Congress building, the National Chinese History Museum on the other and Mao's tomb on the other head. Ten years ago Mao's body was still preserved so that people could see him lying in his glass coffin, but Molly wasn't sure if that's still the case. We went to investigate, but it was closed for the spring festival.
On the way to our next destination we passed a famous Peking Duck restaurant. Victor explained that the restaurant's sign is wrong. The calligrapher who made it had too much to drink that night, apparently, and wrote the last character incorrectly. The place became so famous, however, that the managers decided to keep the sign.
Molly listened to her ipod the entire trip. She likes the Backstreet Boys a lot because she thinks their "voice and mood are really real." She also broke out into "Love Story" at one point and Victor started singing a lot. I guess Taylor Swift has hit China already. Both Taylor Swift and Hannah Montana are really popular here, especially among the boys.
Around the corner from Tiananmen Square is a street filled with traditional stores. The street's maintained the style of a traditional Beijing street, as well. Every other store sign reads, "Since the eighth year of the Reign of Emperor Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty" or "Since the 22 year of the Reign of Emperor Dali in the Ming Dynasty." Hannah and I bought silk dresses in one of the oldest silk shops in Beijing. We received discounts for being "tall and thin."
We went into tea shops and shoe shops and a Chinese pharmacy decked with traditional Chinese medicine. One root was being sold for 1,800,000 yuan, about $257,000. They were also selling dried sea cucumber (a kind of deep-sea slug) by the dozens.
To tie us over until dinner we bought tong hu lu -- about eight crab apples stacked on top one another covered in dried sugar. It resembled a candy apply, but waaayyyy better.