Time Management, part 2

And then I went to China. My brother, sister-in-law, and I made the trek to the middle kindgom in early April. We dropped in on our aunt and uncle in Hong Kong, got yelled at in a Beijing subway station, and cruised the Huangpu River in Shanghai.

Here are some of my observations:

• The bikes in China are old. The cars are relatively modern, so why are all the bikes rusty and old looking?
• Asian bakery pastries are so tasty. We went to one almost every day, sometimes twice a day.
• I'm terrible at bargaining (because I hate it so), but still ended up getting good deals.
• To get anywhere took a lot longer than we expected.
• Cars do not yield for pedestrians. Cross the street at your own risk!
• Pizza Huts are fancy.
• When we would finally work through language barrier issues with waiters and ticket counter agents — through a combination of Chinese, English and hand signals — it felt like a huge victory for mankind.



Hong Kong city shot.



On the street in Hong Kong.





Making our way up to the big buddha in Hong Kong.





Greetings from the Great Wall.





See?! Old bikes.

 



In Tiananmen Square -- out of all the places we visited, just milling around the square is what felt most like China to me.



An Asian bakery. My true love! They all look something like this.



Colorful shot of Shanghai. So sci-fi.