For the record - back from china

yup, back from the middle kingdom, and was it an enriching experience!

second time visiting china after 13 years (went there in 1995), spent 4 weeks - 2 camps in Beijing, 10 days in Jiangxi province at linchuan and ningxia, and another 5 days in shanghai.

In Beijing, visited great wall twice, the summer palace, as wells as all the city center attractions like the forbidden city and tian an men. Also saw the olympic venues on the way to the great wall, and saw Beijing being transformed from a chaotic construction site to the ordered end product.

In Jiangxi, visited a number of villages that were turned into tourist attractions - they collected a fee from the tourists, and were very neatly managed, but housed villagers going about their daily lives. Also visited jindezhen, the place that produced china.

In Shanghai, visited some shopping district, the bund, sun yat san's residence, and the water village. With Ling and aunty mavis showing me around...