Break on through to the other side!

If you've been wondering about the silence on the blog the last couple of days, the cause has been a bit of a mystery for me. When I got to my hostel in Shanghai and logged on to the internet, I could easily bring up the page for the blog and I could also sign on to my blogger account. But everytime I tried to edit a post or put up a new post, the computer would always mysteriously time out. I had assumed this was a result of the Great Firewall of China and the fact that the Middle Kingdom may not want protesters spreading the word about upcoming protests through online blogs, even if I in particular had no such intentions.

But strangely, here at the business center at my hotel in Nanjing for tonight, the blog is up and running! Weird. Either the hostel computer really was timing out or I've found a hole in the Wall. Either way, here's an update from the Mainland while I have the opportunity.

The last two days in Shanghai have been a lesson in supreme patience. My guide book has let me down a number of times and led me to parts of town that　I had no interest in visiting. Several parts of town are just overly commercialized spots rife with street vendors to sell you "copy watch, copy handbag," the occasional pimp offering sexy girls, and Lord knows how many pickpockets. The French Concession area is nice and seeing the tallest building in China was cool but all in all, Shanghai has lost its luster in my eye and I wouldn't recommend it to any of you.

That being said, the one benefit of visiting a spot overrun by tourists is that English is pretty common in the city. Outide the city: not so much. I spent today in Nanjing and was so glad to get away from the panhandlers, etc. in the city and see some green. I started the day walking through a park area near the Ming Dynasty city walls with some lovely areas to sit right next to the water. Next, I had a nice hike on Purple Mountain where Sun Yat Sen's mausoleum is located and enjoyed the day peacefully walking through the woods; it was exactly what I needed after the last two days.

Getting back off the mountain proved to be a pain however as hardly anyone here speaks English. After getting ever so slightly lost (read: really, really lost), I managed to find an unlicensed taxi who gave me a great deal for a very long ride back to the hotel. Dinner was a struggle too though as the waitress and I were left to point and mime what Ian might be thinking he'd like to eat. I ended up with noodles and beef and some sort of cream soup so I'd say we were pretty succesful. Let's just hope I feel the same way tomorrow.

I'm seeing a few more sights here in the morning before heading back to Shanghai tomorrow afternoon. On Friday I'll be off to Beijing. Hopefully the English will be more prevalent there what with the Olympics just ending and all. At the very least, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing some sights with substance in the capital. If I find another opportunity to keep you all updated or upload some pictures, I'll do the best I can. Take care in the land of the free until then.