Grey Sky Mornings

Wow, i've been away for slightly over a week and it feels like almost a month already. Seems like whatever little bit left of the holiday is crammed packed with events. Christmas parties, watchnight and not to mention about the school projects and assignments that I havn't touched since the holiday begun.

Well this trip was a very intensive one, I must say. Cause we went with a tour group, and they had so many activities in every day, unlike last year's canada trip, which was at a much more relaxed pace.

I think my typing skills might have dropped a little, maybe it's the result of being disconnected from the internet for over a week. Anyway, I'll try not to make too lengthy posts so I won't bore you. The specific events can be talked about later, for now, i'll cover some trip reflections.

First off - airport security! This is one thing I want to credit to china. Immigration process was very smooth. The officer didn't bombard us with questions. No iris scans, no saving your thumb prints and photographs to add to their database. Not like last year.

Last year's transit through Portland was HELL. Don't know what is wrong with those people. Either they're paranoid or just trying to make life difficult. Either way I don't know what they're trying to prove. That they have the tightest security in the world?

Okay that was a bit off topic but anyway... China has changed a lot since the past few years. If anyone with white skin and colored irises still look down on them, they have a lot to learn. Especially in Beijing. I expected it to look like Kathmandu, Nepal. Instead it looked more like KL, Malaysia. Seriously, I was surprised too. They had huge skyscrapers and wide roads. BMWs. Electric buses like those in canada. Underground subway system.

Well we had this tour guide which wasn't that good in my opinion. I think he's getting paid some commission, cause he kept bringing us to places to spend money, like tea houses, pearl factories, tourist traps...

Then we sort of ran out of money since the tour guide signed us up for some additional package. Fortunately we were able to use credit card to withdraw some cash to spend. Bought plenty of goodies, as well as some cheap clothing and accessories.

Here are some photos



Commies













And a lot of bad signs.















And the best one



| HCH - 3:27 PM |