random pix: depressed fox, terrific cops & slomed salads

Why is this children's character about to hang himself?!

Songyuan traffic police are terrific!

If this doesn't help explain plumbing in Beijing, nothing will.

leg #2: travel China, Shanghai (again)

After Beijing, we returned to Shanghai for about a day. We hit the Pearl Market again and went to a British bar for drinks, where we met a man that may have made my trip. He used to book bands, so he filled us in on where the good live music venues were in Shanghai.

My friend and I used to live together in the States, and at one point we were going to see almost a show a week. I absolutely love live music, and I haven't seen any since the day before I left for China. We went to the club that night and saw some great musicians, it was the perfect end to our trip.

Ben Houge

Daniel Hart

At the shows we go to in the States, the universe seems to have some unspoken rule, that there will be some Asian guy (likely the only one at the show) that will try to attach himself to me for the entirety of it. When Ben Houge was on, he said something that prompted me to yell, "You sound like you're from Wisconsin!" at him... and then it happened there too. This guy that was also apparently from Wisconsin, but working in Shanghai and of Chinese heritage, used that as his opening and hung out by us until we left. It cracked us up.

leg #2: travel China, Beijing

After Haikou, we flew up north to Beijing to see the Great Wall. I hadn't seen it yet, after nearly seven months in China, so I was definitely due, and it was on my friend's "must" list.

There are a few different places near Beijing to see the Wall. We didn't really care where we went as long as we saw the thing, so we just asked the front desk at our hotel if we should go in a tour group or just go by ourselves. They didn't speak great English, but they gave us directions by city bus (only one transfer!) and told us it would take an hour. And then they wished us good luck. Never a good sign...

We actually made it there without any problems, though it took two hours instead of one. We ended up at Badaling and actually passed two other spots to get on the Wall on the way. We were talking to ourselves/the driver the whole time saying, "Sir? Um, sir? I think you missed our destination... sir?" I actually would have rather stopped at one of the other places, as they were significantly less crowded, but Badaling had both newly restored Wall and old, decrepit, no-tourists-allowed-Wall, so that was cool to see.

Soooo many people. And it was a Tuesday.

Someone should tell them that this probably makes most Americans WANT to commit a nuisance.

Like so many other things that are really hyped up, it was cool, but still just a wall. Probably don't need to ever see it again. It was a really good hike though. The inclines and steps and whatnot were ridiculous. I managed in flip flops, but sneakers would have been the smarter plan.

Doesn't this look a bit like a roller coaster just before a drop?

Aside from the Wall, we hit 798 (we stayed at the art hotel down the street that I always stay at) and that was our two days in Beijing!

So, bathroom space isn't the hotel's selling point...