Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Yichang

How could I resist?

To see this sign in China has to be about as funny as it gets!

Me and the Sis!

My Mom and Sister have arrived and now its time for POWER TRAVELING! In 2 weeks we are going to tackle as much of China as possible and as I told my sister before she left as she was asking me what to pack, I said "Less is more!" When she arrived I couldn't believe how little she actually brought! I have seen people fit more things in a purse and she was always the quickest one to pack and I figured after 10 months I would be waiting, but I was completely wrong. On the other hand Mom's pack was also small, but we spent a good amount of time digging through her pack to find stuff that seemed always missing in action.(THE HAIR BRUSH) In Beijing we saw a Chinese Acrobatics show which was amazing, visited Tienanmen Square, tried the famous Beijing duck, went to the Forbidden City, took a bus tour to see the Great wall and we were lucky enough to pick one of those extra special tours that that included an extra 8 hour shopping extravaganza for free! For me we were stuck in shopping hell and after we stopped for the 4th time to be led through a maize of isles with people pressuring you to look at their stuff our attitudes had gone from disgusted to one of the hardest laughs I have had in my whole life. The last time we stopped, which was well past dark we had some guy take us into a special room and show us all these special things with a laser and he was showing us how strong the jade was by scratching glass with it! Everyone else on the bus, who consisted of Chinese people and us was in complete awe. We obviously had no idea what they were saying the whole time, but it was as clear as daylight that it was a complete scam. When they brought out the stuff the Chinese people were fighting to buy things that they hadn't even looked at yet. They were throwing their money up and just grabbing things. One lady who bought a bracelet went to put it on and it broke. You could see it was just cheap string. Everyone on the bus spent a ton of money and they all seemed so happy about what they got! I myself would not have paid 1 dollar for the things they were selling and I couldn't believe how gullible they were and we all felt bad watching people getting ripped off. After Beijing we headed to Xian via sleeper train to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. When we arrived in Xian we hired a guy to get us around town as quick as we could, saw a few tombs, Terra Cotta Warriors, the town and that same evening we were back on another night train to Chengdu. In Chengdu we went to the panda reserve and took a day trip to see the worlds largest Buddha.(I am not talking about someone's rear side!) From there we headed to Chongqing to find a boat for the 3 day trip up the Yangtze to see the 3 gorges valley and the worlds largest dam. As soon as we arrived we found a boat that was leaving in about an hour and we all thought it was going to be impossible to get money and our bags and get back in time to catch the boat. We decided to split up, I would get the money out, they were headed to get the bags, and we were going to meet back up at the agency with the trip. I couldn't pull enough out of the ATM for all of us so at 8PM I was trying to find someone to exchange USD. I had a cab driver who I offered to pay good money to just drive me around. He must have been freaked out by me running like Forest Gump and he just ditched me really far away from where we were leaving with out taking any money at all. Some how I found another cab who helped get some money exchanged and although he didn't understand me, I used my best caveman conversational skills to get back to where I need to go. Along with running about a mile I got there just about a minute before the boat was leaving and it was a miracle that we made it! Like everything else we did in China, there were only 3 other travelers on the boat that weren't Chinese but it was a nice trip up the river. Looking back at the nearly 2 weeks we spent together we had some really good laughs, lots of food...ice cream....(my favorite), Pizza but most importantly memories to look back on for the rest of our lives. I really want to personally thank you both for making the time in your busy lives to come spend time with me on my journey. It really means the world to me. We split ways in Yichang and I headed toward Kunming to leave China and they took the train back to Beijing for their return flight home!