Greetings from China

Hello dear readers, I'm currently sitting in an Internet cafe in Chengdu, China. It's very humid so I'm in a constant state of stickiness here. We've been having a great time thus far. A brief overview of what we've done until now.

5/19
-Visited Ming Tombs, walked along the Sacred Way, amused by piped in 80s and 90s pop ballads, like Elton John's "Sacrifice" -- someone needs to tell them to take away the music
-Climbed Great Wall of China (but not all the way to the end due to time constraints)
-Toured a cloisonne factory
-Ate Americanized Chinese food (yuck!)
-Ate Beijing duck (yum!)
-Stay at Ru Jia in Qian Men

5/20
-Toured Forbidden City, which is currently under construction so there are large screens in front of some of the major buildings. >_<
-Ate at Japanese ramen place
-Hopped on a plane to Chengdu, stayed overnight in a ghetto hotel with only squat toilets

5/21
-Hopped on early early flight out of Chengdu to JiuZhaiGou
-Arrive in JZG, haggle for a driver and hotel
-Tour a yak jerky store, ate lots of yak jerky
-Hiked in JZG (mostly left fork of park)
-Made friends with a Tibetan girl in a Tibetan village in the center of the park
-Ate illegal fish
-Cheap fantastic foot massage!
-Stayed at Aviation Hotel -- toilets don't flush very well and eventually are stuck for all three rooms

5/22
-Yummy free breakfast at hotel
-Hiked more of JZG (mostly right fork of park)
-Ate Tibetan snacks
-Saw Tibetan show (probably not that authentic, more like a Tibetan Chinafest for those who went to UVa)

5/23
-Early morning flight out of JZG to Chengdu
-Arrive and haggle for hotel, discover that being a foreigner means you get charged more
-Ate yummy Sichuan food that later is making us sick in terms of digestive system

Time's up! Logging off. More later!