China

The food wasn't the greatest, but we were adventurous. Though I didn't have scorpion, I ate chicken feet, jelly fish, watermelon soup, and chicken heart. And surprisingly, I only got a little sick on the second day.

The train ride to Beijing was a bit long, but cumfy-cozy with a bed and three roommates. None of whom spoke English.

One of the highlights was this discussion with Buddhist monks at one of the temples. They asked us great quesions, such as, why we believed what we did (as Christians), and what we thought about China.




And when I missed Cherie, there were friends like Drew to cuddle up with. Drew is in our ward, and is a great friend. He has a beautiful family with three kids. And he's a bit bigger than me.






The sky-line of Shanghai is very polluted, but it is amazing to think that of the 1,600 buildings above 24 stories, almost all were built in the last 10 years.





We spent the first five days in a mid-sized city of 6 million people, Suzhou. It was a great place to learn about business, and how to build a quality infrastructure that promotes great business and learning. We then hit Shanghai, the Sodom and Gomorah of the East. It was a great, modern city. Very capitalistic, and fun. The last day was spent by myself, on a twelve hour train ride to Beijing, where I went through the Forbidden City, visited a bell-tower, got ripped-off by a rikshaw driver, and then ended the day at Tiananmen Square, before taking the twelve hour train ride back to Shanghai, in time to catch my flight back home. Great trip! I learned a lot.