It's been an intense week.  Over the jetlag and have my brain (or something like it) back in my skull, but still not a lot of time / space for narrative.  Hope to post a much more complete narrative when I get my photo's sorted and posted. For now, more moments from here and there.

Oh, and Facebook is outlawed in China, though whittles may be able ( Read more... )

Spent almost all day with a throbbing headache and feeling slightly queasy.  It finally occurred to me that it was almost certainly from all the MSG in the food.  Conveniently, our tour guide has assured us that MSG is good for me.  The Chinese government says so, and they would never approve something that was bad for people. Perish the thought ( Read more... )

No brain for any kind of coherent narrative yet, just some moments and impressions and funny things ( Read more... )

When traveling in China, some important things to know how to say ( Read more... )

The railroad track is miles away ( Read more... )

So, in just less than a month, now, I will return home. It's been a long, strange year, and I will write about it when I get back. For now, I am writing to let everyone know a few things ( Read more... )

Ok, quick update.

+ Spent the weekend out at a place called Cuan Di Xia, an unrestored Ming Dynansty village in the mountains outside Beijing. I don\'t know exactly when it was built, but it could easily be twice as old as the United States. Pictures are here.+ I have just been brought in on a project to help translate a book written in Chinese ( Read more... )

Traveling through Inner Mongolia, and most of the Chinese countryside between here and there for that matter, felt like what I imagine passing through a series of semi-abandoned midwest towns in the Dustbowl era of the early 20th century might have been like. For the most part, villages are minuscule conglomerations of one-story buildings, all ( Read more... )

I was very nearly the father of a child I would have never met, the other day ( Read more... )

So this last weekend I made another trip out to the Great Wall. This time, thankfully, to a much older section, unrestored, and almost completely devoid of tourists (besides the yokels from CSU that I had the dubious pleasure of going with). But, I got to do some amazing climbing, and then Saturday evening they took this, and made dinner for us ( Read more... )