In the months leading up to my trip to China, I did a bit of bragging with regards to my international plans. At first I bragged because of how excited I was, but that quickly changed to telling my plans to hear the reactions of others.

Responses to hearing that I was planning to visit China ranged from “oh wow, that is going to be amazing, it is growing like crazy over there!” all the way to “I hope you aren’t scared to poop in a hole in the ground, there is very little plumbing there” to “are you going there for a community service type project to help fight the poverty?”

Hmm, talk about some differing frames of reference huh? Though, it was hard for me to really speak out against any of these statements. China has, after all, been scorned by the US government for longer than I have been alive, and they make no argument to their government being labeled as Communistic.

Well, now I have been there! Sure, I am no expert after being there for 10 days, but I can tell you what I saw, and perhaps more significantly, what I did not see.
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One last quick one!

Chris and I arrived back in Shanghai via the overnight train from Beijing, and are relaxing for a bit before we hop our flight back to the states.

Photo galleries 7 and 8 are uploading as we speak, so if all goes well, by the time you read this, you will also be able to view the cluster of pictures that we took in Beijing and at the Great Wall yesterday.
Gallery 7 - Mostly Beijing
Gallery 8 - Mostly Great Wall

When I get back… and when I have time, I intend to organize all the pictures into more logical categories rather than just the mix of sequence and cameras that Chris and I teamed up on while we were here. Also, I’d be glad to answer any specific questions all you readers have… I’m sure many of the pictures need some explanation, you want to what our favorite part was, what was most unique, what the communist presence was like, etc…

So, feel free to post a comment mentioning what you want to ask me, that way everyone can read it.

Makes sense eh?

Alright, off to the airport, see you on the flipside.

One last update before I head back state-side!

Chris and I arrived early yesterday morning in Beijing and toured through the Imperial Palace, the Forbidden City, Tianenman Square, had lunch at a famous duck restaurant where President daddy Bush ate one time (I had fried duck and scorpions), and then trekked through the ENORMOUS Temple Of Heaven Park. In about 5minutes we will be heading to the Great Wall for our last hurrah.

Hey, yesterday was so amazing here in Shanghai that Chris and I didn’t even have time to churn out an update for the blog here… and sorry to say that I really am not going to spend much time on this update either… but I do promise to expand upon the list below…later… maybe.

What we did yesterday (Monday in Shanghai)
-chris and i hopped on the subway alone and went to people’s square.
-wandered people’s square including a think.commit.do trip up to the 38th floor of the JW Marriot for some pics
-ate lunch at the ritziest pizza hut we’ve ever been to
-went to the AMAZING shanghai urban planning museum
—saw the visiting art gallery by Omar Galliani… pretty interesting
-came back to the apartment and met up with Mike (alex’s roommate) and Brad (a guy in Alex’s exchange program)
—went with them to C’s Bar… a whole in the wall hip hop bar… played dice.. pretty fun
—went with Brad to get our first massage (sorry, no happy ending, but a good / relaxing time none the less)
(PICTURES FROM MONDAY)

What we did today (Tuesday in Shanghai)
-hopped on subway to Pudong (similar to what manhattan is to NY)
-took pics of buildings, parks, and gardens while wandering towards jinmao tower
-went to 88th floor of jinmao tower (currently the 3rd tallest building in the world)
-went to shanghai aquarium… very cool
-ate lunch at the mall… i had roast duck noodle soup… delicious
-went to shanghai stock exchange… got to see the nice lobby, and the bathroom (see above regarding roast duck)… not much else.
-came back to apartment and met up with Santana and Carlos (another guy from alex’s exchange program) and went to dinner at a place I think called “Char”
(PICTURES FROM TUESDAY)

And in case you missed them, there are also PICTURES FROM SUNDAY and of course the first set - PICTURES FROM SATURDAY

Our morning got off to a rather slow start as Alex was being a sleepy head. So much so in fact that Chris and I got impatient and decided we were going to make our first solo venture for food. Santana, one of Alex’s roommates (who is a Sun Devil as well) taught us how to “correctly” order what we wanted… “iga tsai bao zi, iga juru bao zi” for me and “iga tsai boa zi, suga juru bao zi” for Chris which means, “one vegetable bao zi and one pork bao zi” for me, and “one vegetable bao zi and four pork bao zis” for Chris. This was a pretty cool experience knowing that we could pretty easily make fools of ourselves, and if the conversation went in any way astray - we were pretty well screwed… anyone else thinking “you want fries and a drink with that?” Luckily the only deviation was when I tried to order a sticky rice thing. Basically I pointed and put up one finger, the lady said something, I repeated it, another lady who was trying to order looked at me and repeated it with some different emphasis, and I tried to mimic her, but decided it was time to take my $0.30US worth of food and leave when everyone around broke into laughter.

After enjoying them back at the apartment, Alex got up and at ‘em and we decided to bus it down to Alex’s campus. The bus experience was pretty interesting inefficient, as there was the driver (if you want to call him that) and there was a cashier (if you want to call him that)… basically double the necessary labor force. None the less, for 2kuai ($0.25US) we got a lift to East China Normal University and a bus ticket… which Chris and I ate… I don’t know why… Neither did the lady sitting right next to Chris and I.
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