Asia's best kept secret…

Headed down Jianguo to return my library books, I wasn’t paying attention to the sidewalk.  It was there; I was walking on it. I was thinking about what flowers to get at the Holiday Flower Mart. Then, about 100 yards in front of me I saw two ladies – it looked like a Mother and a daughter – look down and swerve when nothing obvious was in their way. Hmmm, maybe a bad dog owner not taking care of his pet’s “souvenir”? ewww! As I got closer to where they had swerved I nearly jumped back! On the sidewalk was a greyish-brown SPIDER as big as my hand (I kid you not)! Had I not looked, I would either have stepped on it or…..I hate to think of the alternative. It might have been a tarantula although I wasn’t getting close enough to see how hairy it was (it looked kinda hairy) or even take a pic (though I wanted to). The thing had FANGS. Maybe it was an escapee from a nearby pet store? Maybe it was disturbed when the storefront it was in front of got cleaned out? Why was it out in the sunlight, albeit in the shade on that side of the street? Who knows. What I do know is that I will be a whole lot more careful in checking out the ground where I walk, especially when wearing sandals.