Recently someone guessed that I was at most 22 years old (I guess I have a bit of a chubby baby face), so I started wondering what I was actually like again at that age. I revisited my Xanga (OMGWTFBBQ so embarrassing did I snack on lead paint chips while typing???!!!!) and lo and behold, an entry on my first ever trip to China and Japan! My very good friend Terry and I went on a tour through China in 2006 right after graduation, and he made a beautiful, well-edited, and highly entertaining photo collage of our adventures. I am so grateful that he spent the time making this, because quite honestly I had forgotten that we did half of this stuff. I remember our China trip being very stressful but also very educational, but never in my wildest dreams did I even think that I'd end up LIVING here. (Never say never.) I got perks for being the only Mandarin speaker in our tour group, mainly because the local vendors thought that I was the tour guide and charged me 2RMB instead of 6RMB for bottled water. Now that I know better, I realize that they gouged me still back then! Oh yes, a farmer actually attempted to sell me a rock that he picked up off the ground. And I almost bought it, ha.
Terry and I took thousands of photos during this trip, so I know that every single picture below was selected because it successfully captured an important part of the story. I'm sure that none of my readers will pore over every single frame like I did, but I hope that if any of you do come to China now you'll realize that some of these scenes may not even exist anymore. For example, Yu Gardens in Shanghai has become a horrible tourist trap now, kite flying is probably strictly prohibited in that square in Xi'an (it was banned even then but we waited for the police to chase us off, haha), and Tiananmen Square in Beijing has been completely remodeled.
My second trip to China was in 2008 to see the Beijing Olympics, and my oh my it was amazing to see the city change so much in merely two years... to the point that certain parts were completely unrecognizable from before. You can't help but be stimulated and even inspired by China's very purposeful spirit, but of course it comes with its costs... No need to cue the stream of complaints right now. ;)
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