Beijing. Going to Shanghai in a few hours.

This is the end of the first tour and I'm off to hook up with the next tour in Shanghai soon. It was really leisurely today, had a wake up call at about 9:30. I went out with three of the young guys to grab breakfast at a place a little down the street. It was nasty by North American standards, but fine by Chinese ones. Ate some noodles, which didn't fill me up, but didn't want to push my luck with the food there so I headed back to the hotel while the three guys grabbed a taxi into town.

They asked me to join them, but I turned them down because listening and having to speak solely in Chinese was becoming really draining. I'm guessing it's because I'm not truly bilingual, and all the Mandarin isn't helping either. It'd be different if I totally didn't understand the language, but because I can grasp most of it and speak at an acceptable level it's like reading a book that's missing every 8th word, or having to write without using the letter L.

At 11, we all gathered at the lobby of the hotel and and went to see some Buddhist temple. It was your standard incense and red walled deal. Mleh. On the way to the airport though, we saw some woman being forced into a black Jetta by three guards in the middle of the road. The tour guide said that she must have been caught pickpocketing or causing shit at the restaurant this was happening in front of.

My aunt told me that they will tie you to a tree in front of the place until the cops come sometimes, just to humilate you publically. It sounds horrible, but at least they don't drag you into the back and beat the snot out of you with sticks anymore.

A shot of the Tang Cheng hotel, where we stayed. It was nice, but far from the city center.

This is what the convenience stores look like in Beijing. You can't go inside an browse through the magazines, instead you just shout out what you want to the guy inside the window. More like a gas station than a store.

My parents, when they visited China a few years ago, were so impressed with this method of making vases that they actually lugged a 30lbs vase home with them.

It's painstaking workmanship, I'll give them that, but you couldn't pay me enough to drag one of these suckers home. They're made of copper and porcelain. I think I'd slip a disc if I attempted to carry one in my back pack.