China was an adventure and I enjoyed it thoroughly (especially spending time with Dave and catching up with my expat friend Walter in Beijing), but at times it felt like I was having the same adventure again and again - arrive in a big (pop. 6 million +) smoggy dirty city with crazy drivers, eat in generic (but delicious) homestyle hovels and try to avoid roads filled with the same kind of kitch one finds in Chinatowns accross the world.
It was interesting traveling with Dave and hearing about how places had changed (at least the ones he had visited before) and it seems that China is plagued by unbridled "progress." Major cities have 25 skyscrappers going up each day, tourist destinations are over-run with tour buses full of the Chinese who for the first time in their lives have the economic means to travel, etc. The most enjoyable times were when we visited the "untouched" China - Leaping Tiger Gorge, wandering off the beaten path into smaller neighborhoods and alleyways and even just looking out the window of the train or bus at the countryside. Apparently this is what many of our destinations had been like a mere 10 years earlier. I'd like to go back, but I think seeking out the remaining rural areas would be more rewarding the second time round -- perhaps the Silk Road to get a taste for the "Wild West" of China where a lack of plush hotels and smoothly paved roads keep the neon lights and masses at bay.
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