China!!!

Ok, this one's going to be quick. I'm in Kyoto Japan right now, and its, well, expensive... just like all of Japan. I'm also running out of money and instead of spending my money on things I need, like food, I put you the reader first by writing a post... this is costing me 1 meal right now... not to make you feel guilty or anything.

China was awesome!

China Highlights:

Hong Kong was great, totally not what I expected. It's a beautiful mega-metropolis with plenty to do. But at the same time you can travel 1 hour on its superb public transportation and arrive at a beautiful, practically deserted beach.

Traveling 30 hours on a train in China was interesting... especially sharing a hard sleeper with a Chinese chain-smoking elder who has no idea what second-hand smoke is.

Xi'an- 2000 year old terracotta soldiers... thousands of them being unearthed one by one- simply amazing!

Floating down the Yangtze River on a goofy river cruise... fun, but like I said, goofy. The best part was traveling through the locks of the Three Gorges Dam Project, the largest engineering project in China since the Great Wall.

Climbing an ancient holy Buddhist mountain, was physically demanding but an extremely fun day, especially when the locals want your picture taken with them. (apparently, they don't see many white folks)

Beijing- Unbelievable food, Olympic stadium was crazy, the Great Wall was even crazier! And just trying to get around dealing with the language barrier made it all that much better!

And now for some photos...