So the parents left last week after a whirlwind tour of the two biggest cities in this country. We were in Hangzhou for a few days, had some nice weather and basically just walked around the lake and saw the sites worth seeing. On Monday we flew to Beijing and were there for 3 nights. I liked Beijing, but the weather was absolutely miserable and going out at night I found the popular bar streets to be sly cover-ups for brothels. Seriously I had never seen anything like it in China, I felt like every person I made eye contact with tried to sell me something that I had no intentions of buying. Couldn't find a place where I could just sit down and enjoy a beer really. The Forbidden City was pretty impressive, I can't imagine living in a place like that. It's ridiculously big and the only man that was allowed in the center courtyard and living area was the Emperor. Seems like it would get pretty boring. The Great Wall was pretty cool, but it was really just that, a great wall. The hike up took it out of me, and I was especially disappointed to hear that Pat went to a different section that had a gondola take you to the top, and a sort of alpine slide luge ride that you could take to the bottom. I've got to go back to that part.
After a few days in Beijing, we flew to Shanghai. Had a guided tour for the day, and met up with one of my mom's friends from work and got a great dinner. Shopped around a bit, picked up some pretty awesome hockey jerseys for 1/50th of the price I would pay back in the states. Oh and also got a custom tailored silk suit made back in Beijing that's pretty nice. The next morning I had to be getting back to Hangzhou and my parents left in the afternoon. It was a pretty awesome trip, I got to eat like an American and saw the sites that had I not seen while living in China, I would've felt like a real idiot.
Observation:
Pat and I went down to the lake on Monday because it was the nicest weather we've had this year. A crowd began to form around this one tree, and people started taking out their cameras and phones to take pictures. A lot of of "ahhhh, ohhhhh"s, and we felt the need to see what all the commotion was about, there were about 50 people checking it out. It was a squirrel. All of that for a squirrel, sitting in a tree, doing nothing
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Phi Alpha Bro -- I am arriving in China on Apr 27 in Shanghai -- I imagine James has made mention that a friend and I will be arriving. I would appreciate it if you added me on skype -- Chiefrican88 -- and if you could e-mail your contact information ( phone number, address, etc in China) so that I can finish getting everything prepared -- Abonilla330@gmail.com --
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