Amazing Race update – Still in China

If you remember last week's leg, this is a continuation leg: teams arriving at the mat were surprised to learn from Phil that they were still racing. Teams arrived in this order: Team Ginger, Team Say What, Team Esquire and Team Sistahs. After finding the Beijing leg is still not over, teams headed to a store to find a Travelocity gnome. They carry this product placement to the Forbidden City.

Once at the Detour, teams may choose: Beijing Opera or Chinese Waiter. The first involves getting made up in traditional Chinese opera costume while the latter involves taking orders in a restaurant in Mandarin and correctly repeating them to the cook. Tammy & Victor speak Chinese so guess which one they chose. Victor says: "If we can't do this task, Mom and Dad will kill us." Team Sistahs and Team Say What are both lathering on opera makeup. Team Ginger, who left the mat first, are bringing up the rear.

Team Esquire finish the Detour first and head to the next clue box which is also the U-Turn. This is an opportunity for a team to make subsequent teams go back and do the other Detour. Tammy & Victor decide that Kisha & Jen are too athletic and they don't want to be involved in a foot race at the end. They U-Turn Team Sistahs which is going to hobble them seriously on this leg. Team Esquire then arrives at the Roadblock and it involves eating some street food which includes fried larvae, grasshoppers, scorpions, and starfish. Yum!

Of course Team Sistahs can still come from behind because Team Ginger can't get a taxi and when they do they go to the National Opera House instead of the Beijing Opera. Throughout the Race, they've been perpetually annoyed that people don't speak English and taxis won't stop when they beckon. I'm sure the ex-cheerleaders are used to getting cabs in America but their charms are lost on foreign cabbies.

Tammy & Victor finish their Roadblock and head to the Pit Stop at the Bird's Nest, the site of the 2008 Olympics. All the other teams are searching for the clue box. Eventually Margie & Luke find it and they're quite relieved to see they were not U-Turned. Team Ginger still can't find the next clue box back at the opera house. Team Sistahs find they've been U-Turned then do the Chinese restaurant task. It takes them several turns but eventually they finish taking orders, then head back to the clue box, before continuing to the Roadblock. In the interim, the clueless duo of Jaime & Cara still can't find the clue box; they claim it's been "three hours" since they left the opera house.

After finally finding the clue box, Team Ginger arrives at the eating Roadblock just as Jen is halfway through her meal. Team Sistahs finishes first but Team Ginger isn't far behind so it looks like it's going to come down to who gets the better taxi driver. Jen drank so much water during the Roadblock she simply has to stop to go to the bathroom. As a result, Jaime & Cara slide into third place coming "just seconds" (according to Phil) ahead of Kisha & Jen. Team Sistahs are eliminated.

Final standings:

#1 – Team Esquire – Tammy & Victor
#2 – Team Say What? – Margie & Luke
#3 – Team Ginger – Jaime & Cara
#4 – Team Sistahs – Kisha & Jen - PHILIMINATED

Next week – Season finale in Hawaii.