last night, last Beijing kaoya. ... read more

ooohhhh... read more

So we thought that the plan was to fly from Hangzhou to Chengdu, hug some pandas, see some temples, eat some spicy food, and then go to Tibet the next day. Instead, the airport in Chengdu had an unexplained power outage, which meant our flight could not take off. Here's the rundown: 8:30 am - leave hotel in Hangzhou for the airport 10 am - board the plane in Hanghzou 11:15am - de-board the plane in Hangzhou 12 pm - eat instant noodles and airline-provided chicken feet and rice lunch in the airport 2 pm - board airline bus bound for a nearby hotel where they say we can "relax" 3 pm - "relax" 4 pm - board airline bus to return to the airport 6 pm - re-board airplane to Chengdu 7 pm - wait ... read more

West Lake is the best lake... Then we took a little excursion out to the canal town of Wuzhen - a hamlet along the Grand Canal that was very prosperous during the Ming and Qing dynasties and is now sort of romantically decrepit. 2 parts of the town underwent a serious preservation effort a few years ago and they now charge tourists 100RMB per person, per part-of-town to go see it. But we thought it would be more interesting to see the un-preserved parts of town, where nice families charge you 1RMB per person to go into their beautiful old houses. Our guide knew all the great glamour shot opportunities too...... read more

Shanghai has been rainy and delicious so far... read more