I start my two week trip around China tomorrow morning. I'll be visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Canton and Hong Kong. I'll also be visiting three or so villages outside the Canton region. I look forward to spending time in my great grandmother's hometown. While I have been to five of the six cities before, plenty will be unfamiliar. Everytime I visit China, I notice shifts in my world view. My first trip to China was when I was five. The great thing about traveling as a kid is that you're free to roam around and notice the slight differences in culture because you're interacting with local kids (how other people play, that kids in villages hide corn in the ground to snack on later, and that it's not ok to free the ducks into the pond).
I also look forward to seeing most tourist sights in Beijing for the first time. I missed the sight seeing portion of the CAIS summer study program at the Beijing Opera School while I was in China in 2001 because I returned to San Francisco for 48 hours in the middle of the trip to perform in a production of Sleeping Beauty (I was only part of the corps, but had committed to the production months before). Forbidden city here I come!
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