Below are some of my photos from Beijing.  I still can’t believe I walked on The Great Wall and strolled through the Forbidden City. Enjoy!

Here are some photos from my trip to see the Big Buddha… enjoy!

I haven’t posted photos for some time… thanks to the PRC firewall… but not for long! June 1oth!  Below are my photos from Tai-O which is in Hong Kong – great place.  Next is the Big Buddha!   Enjoy!

When I got to China, I kept hearing about Da Fen, The Artist’s Village. Essentially, the story goes that they (the artists working there) can copy any painting for super cheap and it’s usually excellent work. Flash to a year and a half later with me stumbling around Da Fen trying to find someone, anyone to copy a post card I bought in Istanbul. I wanted a large painting, something really bold. So my friends Robyn, Frank, Cody, and I randomly picked this hole in the wall place where it looked like they did good work… but who really knew?…

I keep hearing reports about China being the future.  There are many reasons that sends chills to my very core, but chief among them is the pollution.  It’s brutal.  I am attaching two photos below.  One is a comparison picture taken from my balcony and the other is on my way to school.  Now, the smog is particularly bad today but I have to say that it’s rarely like the blue sky shot.  But what the photos don’t capture is the smell.  It’s really like living in an exhaust pipe.  I simply don’t know how people manage in this yuck…

I had 5,000,000 dong in my wallet (roughly equivalent to about $200US) – I was a millionaire in Vietnam.  I already loved it but then I learned two things about Vietnam that will forever keep this country in my heart… in this place, sugar and coffee are kings. Find one of the many street vendors and have them whip up an iced, milk coffee (strong coffee with sweetened condensed milk and chilled on ice) or a freshly squeezed orange juice loaded with scoopfuls of sugar for about $1US.  Or just walk around any street and you will find some funky,…

I glance over to see the serene gaze, the praying silence, and I am smitten with my new Buddha.  He still needs to be cleaned up quite a bit, but with this quiet divinity next to my lovely cabinet, I can’t help but smile.  Looking at him, it’s hard to imagine that he will be packed off and shipped to wherever my new home will be in six months time.  Right now, that can’t come soon enough. Thank you to everyone for the thoughtful emails and comments.  Simply put, it warmed my heart to no end.  Like I told my…

Today is a particularly difficult day.  I want to go home today.  Like, California, mom’s hug, all the Christmas trimmings.  Right now, I miss it immeasurably.  

We knew that we were being laughed at. Jen and I were walking through the Zhu Hai ferry station with our bags full of Chinese goodies on the way home after a productive day of shopping. Jen’s ‘spidey sense’ was on fire as she led us to a new area where we discovered Dude #1’s shop.  Essentially, Dude is any Chinese vendor who sells us great things. He’s Dude #1 because so far, he has sold us the best stuff without the Western price tag. I have heard that many Chinese people in the countryside throw out what is now considered…

Jen and I did a ‘burn and turn’ this afternoon to Hong Kong – we left on the 4:30pm ferry right after work, shopped (purchased the cutest trouser jeans), and then returned on the 8:20pm ferry.  So on the way there, as we chit chatted away, this random guy approached us. The first I noticed was that he stunk.  And by that I mean he had really bad breath.  He then incoherently spoke to Jen in Chinese about going to Taiwan and needing $5,000 US dollars… we couldn’t really tell.  We both informed him that we weren’t interested, but then…