Our hotel in Shanghai isn't quite as nice as the one in Nanjing, although it may actually be ritzier. The room is badly designed. Didn't they have a feng shu artist work on this?! It's a long rectangle. You walk in and there is a closet on one side and the bathroom on the other. There is a large tub, but the shower is just next to it without a door. Thus you get the tub wet when you shower. A row of shelves houses loose tea, cups and one of those fabulous heat-water-in-seconds electric teapots I fell in love with [View Full Entry]

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We were Olympic athletes in Nanjing, China -- well almost. We might not have played ping pong very well, but we were playing at the Nanjing Olympic center, which hosted 10th National Games in 2005. First pictures of the stadium (pulled from http://english.peopledaily.com.cn) [View Full Entry]

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There are many steps in a Chinese pedicure, from using a cheese-grater to remove dead skin on your heel to the paraffin treatment to the relaxing massage. See it all in this video. (NOTE MUSIC BY CHRISTOPHER BECKNELL) [View Full Entry]

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SPOILING MYSELF Today, Monday, I’m pampering myself. It wasn’t even my idea, but I’m so going with it. Joanne, the woman we dined with the night before, set up an appointment for herself and I at a local nail shop that her neighbor recommended. Apparently, she asked about it, and her Chinese neighbor insisted upon calling and then booking the appointment, which are supposedly tough to get. It was a little early for me - she picked me up at 9:30 a.m. - but I gamely roused myself in time to hit Starbucks for a frappachino and fruit salad to get [View Full Entry]

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I don’t wake up in the middle of the night like Jesse warned I might, but I do wake up pretty early on Sunday. 6 a.m. Gives me time to edit some videos. Then I head downstairs to level 9 to take advantage of his daily breakfast. The buffet is enormous and includes both Chinese and Western offerings. I find the rice gruel I ate the day before on the plane; this time it’s flavored with chicken and tastes much better. I grab a piece of the vegetable I saw so much of the day before in the market. It looks [View Full Entry]

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For the first time I'm staying in a hotel room that isn't ugly. In fact, this room is beautiful, with deep, dark wood and bamboo accents. There's lots of storage - closets and shelves tucked everywhere. I've never been impressed with hotels; they just are. You're there to sleep, usually, while you're on an adventure. I've been known to sleep in dives so that I have money for food and coffee and wine and Broadway shows. (You don't want to know what some of the places I stayed at looked like in Europe. Ugh.) And typically I just wish they'd take [View Full Entry]

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Jesse haggles for a backpack. He talks the woman down from 220 RNB to 120 RNB just like that. I am impressed by his skills, and laugh at his dramatic approach - he uses wild hand gestures and crazy faces. [View Full Entry]

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I’M NEARLY TO NANJING I am excited this morning, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2008. Soon, very very soon, I’ll see my Jesse. And that’s really why I’ve made this journey halfway around the world. I have plenty of time to wait in the Beijing airport for my flight. It doesn’t board until 20 minutes before taking off. I find a place to plug in my laptop, taking a cue from the other man in the waiting area. The plug-ins at Gate 17 are hidden under metal caps in the floor. Clever. Lucky for me, it’s an all-around plug-in, not like the strange [View Full Entry]

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JUST WHERE ARE THEY BRINGING ME? By the time I reached Beijing on Friday night I was exhausted. (Go figure, huh?) So I rambled around the airport in a daze, trying to find internet connection to check on the hotel numbers Jesse had given me. I couldn’t figure out how to get online though - all the pages explaning details were in Chinese. So I just kept walking, figuring there had to be a tourism info desk somewhere. I finally found it, and they booked my hotel for me. I even paid for it right there. The girls working the desk [View Full Entry]

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Handmade treat made at the Confuscious temple. You spin the dial and it selects the design. Cost was $5 RNB (about 75¢). [View Full Entry]

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