Memories. They bleed and fade into a blur and even the most momentus events and incredible emotions we experience become little more than an image or two in our cluttered minds. When I think of the things I've done in China the last 11 months, I realize that I've become immune to many of the things that filled me with awe. The incredible differences that form the gulf between my native land and the land I've adopted have become commonplace. However, at times I'm reminded, and I get a fresh surge of awe and thankfulness at being allowed to witness China with my own eyes and other sensory mechanisms. I've decided that I need to list in chronological order the places I've been in China and to highlight what I liked about them, or what is noteworthy. This is my feeble and more than likely less than adequate way of remembering.

1. Shanghai - Jan. 18 2003 - Shanghai was the first Chinese soil I tread upon. My first real travel outside of the N. American continent brought me to a land that is full of people and different ways. Shanghai was impressive, daunting, expensive, and modern compared to the rest of China, and indeed compared to the rest of the world. With the bund, that street with colonial architecture ranging from France to Britain, Nanjing Rd., a shoppers paradise with high end clothes, jewellery and electronics, to the shabby markets that inhabit the side streets with vendors selling everything from fake Rolex watches to squid kebabs. I spent three days in this special administrative region of China, and having nothing to compare it with was floored. I think what struck me the most was the unimaginable population density. It was really hard to believe. The scene consisting of innumerable bicyclists, taxis, buses, and trucks, millions of pedestrians, the impromtu bicycle repairman, the fruit stands, the walking street markets; was absolutely intoxicating. Really an incredible place, but it lacked what I was searching for in China, the serenity of the eastern mind, the countryside rice paddies, the peasants with smiling faces and red faced little girls. I would have my chance to see these things, but not in Shanghai.

I wont pretend that I liked Shanghai, I didn't know it then, but Shanghai is not for me. After seeing some of the rest of China, Shanghai resembles in an uninspiring way other big, metropolitan cities. With expensive everything, a reasonably large expat community, agonizing traffic jams, and expensive everything, Shanghai is an international powerhouse, but lacks the culture, and authenticity that I was hoping to experience while in China. The food is typical of the coastal cities, alot of seafood, and rice of course. Western food is also availible readily in Shanghai, but being so new to China, I didn't have the need for western food yet, and was therefore not moved by this fact. I left Shanghai on a bus three days later after seeing everything that I needed to see, and no real desire to return. I was lucky enough to be able to move around some, and I kept my mind on what it was I really wanted to extract from China. Next: Hangzhou.