Wangfujing

The midwest is young and restless in Beijing. A nice shopping/tourist area near the Forbidden City. We ate at the upscale Pizza Hut - the first time I've had cheese since I arrived.

Connor getting down in club "Propaganda" with some of our new Chinese and Thai friends! 

Me riding on my new bike that is way too small. The traffic looks calm here, but this is unusual in the city where everyone has the right-of-way but a bus will get the better of a bike accident. Bikes and rickshaws also ride the wrong way in this lane and share it with speeding taxis, making for a scary ride.  

"Legend of Kung Fu" perforamance. A very cool show at the Red Theater about a monk reaching enlightenment. 

Rush our traffic. Beijing is an amazingly huge and dirty city. There are an endless amount of dirty high rise apartments mixed in with new modern skyscrapers. There is still a lot of city to explore. 

The IT district of Beijing. Similar to Times Square when it is lit up and night. By far the smoggiest and dirtiest area we have hit. 

The Canadian Rockies on the flight over 

My very own phone company! Use G-call when you need to reach G-unit 

China: Where everything is more complicated than it has to be

Connor and I have given China a new motto. Because everything here is a lot fricking harder than it has to be. The simplest tasks always take much longer than they should. And the money doesnt seem real, I've already taken several thousand Yuan out of the ATM.

Blocked

I am apparently blocked from viewing my blog although I can post just fine, so until I find a new host, I hope everything looks okay. Leave some comments even though I cant see them

China

Welcome to the farthereast blog chronicling the adventures of living China. Hello and ni hao! to all the friendly internet police that are reading this. It’s good to know that at least someone will be checking this blog daily. Connor and I moved into our new digs in Haidian District, Beijing a seemingly typical urban high rise with shoddy Chinese construction but a very nice wooded interior (except for the bathrooms).

I took my placement exam for the language course I am taking at the Beijing Language and Culture University and scored an astounding 0! I'm learning quite a few words each day and should be able to get around on my own in a couple weeks instead of holding Connor's hand all the time. Planning trips to inner mongolia, xian (too see the terra cotta warriors), shanghai, tibet, hong kong, and a shaolin temple.