One Last Look

Whew! So I think I've about exhausted the pics of my China trip--thanks for indulging me. If you want to brave the more than 1,300 photos that I took during the entire journey, check out my Flickr page here. Note that I am still working on tagging everything; I'm finding that it's just too much to tackle in one sitting.

Hope you enjoyed. I know I did. And I would do it all again in a heartbeat. So thankful it's been part of my story! (And P.S. What am I even going to write about NOW? Stay tuned. And keep your fingers crossed for me...)

Shanghai in Slow Motion

In a few parks in Shanghai, I came upon several groups of people practicing tai chi, wushu, and other elegant martial arts-type exercises. It was beautiful and quiet and sort of fierce all at once. My favorite person to watch was the young woman in the first few pictures taking instruction from an older, white-headed wushu teacher. And that is because she was patient, skillful, cool-headed, and graceful--all while wearing bright-red Chuck Taylors.

And then there were the bikes.

(I bought a little wire bike from this guy on a sidewalk corner in the French Concession neighborhood of Shanghai. And if I interpreted our very-limited act of communication correctly, I believe he was actually trying to give me a "thumbs-up" sign.)

All the Tea in China

Okay, not all. But here are at least a few shots of some of the cups I happily took whilst out and about in the Middle Kingdom.