Holiday Inn Beijing Moon River Hot Springs

... more flowers and trees too, and less construction in progress, so it was nice to get a surprisingly positive first impression...

I met Ali and Keith at the hotel at 2pm, and we went walking in the hot sun towards the Forbidden City which had left me underwhelmed last time, but on this occasion it sparkled a lot more and was definitely impressive. This was also true of the view from the adjoining park, which offered a chance to appreciate the Forbidden ...

... peacefully away. But one day, from a seed blown from no one knew where, a new flower had come up; and the little prince had watched very closely over this small sprout which was not like any other small sprouts on his planet. It might, you see, have been a new kind of baobab. The shrub soon stopped growing, and began to get ready to produce a flower. The little prince, who was present at the first appearance of a huge bud, felt at once ...

... a eating place, a golf shop, a luggage store, and two clothing stores. The stores were old but adequate for a few shoppers to browse the merchandise. Most had backrooms that you could go to see the real bargains. This was where the knockoffs were kept behind hidden doors in the shop. I say hidden but it was such a well known practice that hidden was not a truly descriptive term. The shopping at these small establishments is as much a negotiation as a selection process. You ...

... woman walking down the street and ask them in Chinese how to get to Xixhimen Station.  The younger woman speaks English and asks me what line I'm taking.  She apologizes for her English not being very good (I hear that quite a bit) and I apologize for my Mandarin not being very good. Then she says to follow her. She asks a teenager who's walking down the street where the station is and the girl tells her, then the woman points me in the right direction.  I walk in that ...

... complexes, and vehicular traffic is totally out of control --- with cars, trolleys, heavy construction equipment, motor scooters and pedestrians all fighting for the right of way on streets as narrow as those in lower Manhattan. If this city were in the U.S., it would be our largest city. In China, it means nothing to most Americans. Just another example of how HUGE China is.

... reading this blog some might think that is not an impossible feat. But spoken English is tough. Although most have been learning since 1st grade, they do not pick it up like Germans or Sweeds, who can sometimes speak so well you cannot tell they are foreign. The reason for this disparity again deals with the Chinese education system which I briefly touched upon last entry. Teachers teach for tests, students learn for tests, and colleges select from tests ...

Hej Travelpoden! Tagresan upp till arlanda gick ganska smartfritt om man bortser fran, "simon : Mongomojjena" fran Linkoping som satt bredvid oss. Dessa tva medelsaldersmaen 35+... och tva damer (23) borjade diskutera att det nastan var 10 ar mellan dem. Resan fortsatte med hogintellektuella diskutioner och dunkande fjortistekno fran mannens mobiltelefon ...

... to Ulaan Baator, and the absurdity of it all gave me several good laughs, but if this is any indication of what is in store for me during my stay in mainland China, the laughs will become, I predict, a bit more hysterical with each new episode of institutional silliness. By the way, I can read email in my cascade.org account right now but I can't reply, so if you pinged me and haven't heard anything back, please be patient. I'm guessing that the ...

... have a hallway with bottled wat** and a refrig**ator. Also a way to heat wat**, so you can eat v**y cheap if you like. Leslie makes "ice cubes" in plastic cups so that at the end of the day she can have iced tea. Oh, we're traveling in style alright. Right now we're in the Hong Kong airport (free int**net s**vice). We fly from h**e to Bangkok. Layov** for a few hours and then to Rangoon. Let me see if I can paste something on Burma into a next post ...

Seeing the "mighty Yangzi" and the even mightier Dam Project, it is easy to see why it has become a symbol of limitless power in China. Although a country with such a vast population needs to harness its natural resources,the dam will provide 10% of the country's needs, one can't help but be saddened to see such a dramatic area brought to its knees, as it were. The flooding is by no means finished, and at this stage the Gorges still present a formidable ...