Good bye to China

I spent 10 months in China and I enjoyed so much of my life there.  It is such a quirky country, in some ways it is more advanced/comfortable/safer than life in America but in others it is the exact opposite.  Overall, I told my students that in many ways the USA and China are nearly identical.  Both are oligarchical societies with massive inequality, both have similar economic and social problems, but there is one significant difference:  China views the glass as half full whereas America tends to see the glass as half empty.  Both countries have incredible potential, only time will tell how each one deals with national problems.  My best wishes to both.

I am now planning my next, and final, big trip:  Europe.  If I do go through with the trip, I will post it in a new blog and link the address here.  Best wishes!

More from Beijing

While on the day tour of the Great Wall, the tour company was most interested in making commissions on purchases we made so we spent a great deal of time in "museums", really factories that had larges stores selling jade, jewelry, silk art, silk garments and....tea.  Here are some pictures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Inventions