I'm in Xi'an right now. I have to pay for the computers in this hostel, and these computers have been extremely frustrating in terms of outdated browsers and slow internet speeds. So we'll see how far how I get with this post.

We all know that China blocks Facebook and Youtube. Guess what else they block? Blogspot.

People have expressed surprise when I say I'm only in China for about 11 days. Well, on (full) day 3 in China, I feel like I've done a vacation's worth of walking and experiencing already. It's totally sensory overload here, and since it's early in the trip and I have energy, I've been doing a lot.

Before I left Shanghai, I walked down Nanjing Road at night, a busy pedestrian area full of huge malls and bright lights. Supposedly it's also full of people harassing you to get massages and ladies trying to trick you into paying for really expensive tea. But I didn't really get harassed. Yay for looking Chinese. For dinner, I had yummy Peking duck where the guy brings out the duck to your table and slices it up like a master.

The next morning before catching my flight to Xi'an, I did part of a self-guided walking tour around the French Concession. At one point in time, a bunch of Shanghai was divided into international concessions, and the French one probably remains the most intact. It's a really nice area to walk along, pretty architecture, tree-lined roads. They've done a decent job maintaining some of the buildings, and some that have fallen into disrepair are being restored as luxury residences and shops. I also stopped at a park, and being Saturday morning, all the old people were out. This sort of thing makes me really happy for some reason, seeing hundreds of old people out and enjoying life. I'll have videos to share later, but here's what they were doing: ballroom dancing, badminton, shaking maracas (sp?), singing, etc.

Argh, out of time. More later.