Ni Hao! My mandarin is slowly improving. I can greet people, say thank you and goodbye, apologize, and explain that I don't speak mandarin. It's about all I need. Amy and I find that pointing and looking confused usually results in someone who speaks English popping up as if from nowhere. Last night we took the train to Huangshan shi, also known as Tunxi town. It's a cute place but the only real attraction is the mountain two hours drive away. We're climbing th...

It's our last day in Nanjing. Yesterday we headed to the Memorial Hall of the Massacre and found that it was closed on Mondays. Great... So we headed to the botanical gardens instead. Unfortunately, the gardens were a rather sad state of affairs and we spent the day wandering around it in confusion, trying to figure out where the flowers and stuff actually were. Today we checked out, stored our bags, and headed for the hall again. Man oh man is THAT a depressin...

Kaitlin reporting in, live from Nanjing. We made it to the train station and I think both our mouths dropped open as we stared at the hordes of people. It was utter madness! After finding our gate we stood around awkwardly, trying to sort out just exactly where to go next. A helpful man (whose name I forget but the last character of his name was made of the characters for China and Heart - Loyalty he said it translated to) showed us where to go because we were on...

Hey! Yesterday Amy and I woke up a bit later and took a lazy stroll to the Lama Temple. As we came out of the subway station, it began to pour rain, so we had a rather wet walk ahead of us. The temple was lovely. Very calm and relaxing. The giant sandalwood Buddha was incredible (3 stories high). Afterwards we hopped back on the subway and went to Snack Street. I had some mystery meat in a pita thing and Amy chickened out on the squid on a stick and had some sor...

Good day all! Amy and I had a FANTASTIC peking duck meal. Really quite extraordinary. We also were able to go the the opera after the summer palace yesterday. But I should explain... We woke up early for the changing of the guards at the square, which we missed somehow. Then we searched out a bank and Amy began to stress because her cards aren't being accepted. Another bank will take her debit but not her credit card. Fun fun fun. She can't get ahold of her ban...