Snakes Alive!

Going through some old photos this afternoon I came across this one taken in Shanghai in 1991.
 
The shop tried to sell me this jar of pickled snakes   but I explained there is no way I could get it through customs.
 
According to Chinese medicine  snakes marinated in wine
have great medicinal qualities.
 
And the custom is still practised. A few years ago a pit viper that had been marinating for three months jumped out of the jar and bit a Chinese woman who was using the wine to treat her rheumatism.