Hello friends
My first week in China went well. I have picked up a few more expressions in mandarin and have renewed interest in learning more.

I have been in Shanghai and Suzhou. Both places, I'm assured, are not typical of this country. Suzhou in particular is very clean and orderly with wide, very well lit boulevards - the polar opposite of colorado where there are no street lights even to see the names of the street. Here you can ride a bike around all night and you don't need a light. There are bike lanes separated from the roads by a median, just keep your head up because at any moment (day or night) a car, motorcycle or other cyclist could be heading toward you or cutting you off - traffic "rules" are just guidelines. Anyway my point is i haven't so far had the experience of China that I had imagined - it has all been very comfortable and not *that* much of a head trip.

My biggest surprise has been the cavernous divide between the haves and the have nots. Dont' you imagine the propaganda pushed by a communist government depicting life in the western world as the oppression of the poor by the bourgeois capitalists? And life here should be mundane, boring, but at least everyone is taken care of. Well there are a lot of slow moving people with blank stares on, but the poor people here have nothing. The rich folks here are choking on it. And yes, I suppose the man is dictating what happens in many aspects of peoples lives but really its the same corrupt fat cats living off the unfortunates that you see anywhere - I don't see much thought toward the "common good". So much for my idea of the cooperative utopia. Of course these are only my limited observations.

Last night I took a trip back into Shanghai to catch up with my old schoolmate Richard, whom I haven't seen in nearly 5 years. We went out for some good thai food, then walked around what appears to be the barbershop district. Haircuts, head massages and whatever else are all on sale. There must have been a glut of barber poles when they built that part of town.

I finished my work in Suzhou today, and tomorrow I will head back into shang to check out some markets and prepare for the big race. Richard has already hooked me up with some F1 team kit, and promises some autographed souveniers from the race. I will watch the race sunday, then help them break down the pits afterwards - then onto the F1 party, yeh!

Monday I leave for Taiwan, part II of this great adventure.

Hope you all are well
xox
uniK