Guess where I’m going tomorrow morning!

Amanda landed in Seattle tonight, and we leave first thing in the morning for China.  We start with a short jump up to Vancouver, then the long haul to Beijing, where we’ll land around 2:30pm on Thursday.  We will have spent roughly one million hours in the plane.  I have 42 new ebooks on my Kindle and two paper-copy design magazines; plus a bunch of granola bars and nuts.  At least I won’t get bored or starve to death.

Normally I’d say “stay tuned” for stories and photos of our adventures in the great Red State — only the censors appear to have barred Internet access to most of the websites I use for blogging.  So there’s a good chance it’ll be radio silence until I get back to the US in ten days.  

What will you miss?  Well, we’ll be staying with Quynh-Nhu and Nikolas, my Franco-German friends who are living the glamorous life of German diplomats in Beijing.  They’ve offered to let us use their place as a landing pad while we explore the city:  the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, street food tours, Michelin-starred restaurants, French theatre, shopping.  On Sunday night we’ll take an overnight train to X’ian to see the famous terra cotta warriors before continuing on to Shanghai.  After a couple of days in Shanghai, we’ll hop back up to Beijing for a couple more days there before flying home.  

It’s going to be quick and fun and only a mere scratch in the surface of all there is to experience in China.  And if I never find a way through the firewall, stay tuned for after-the-fact posts with photos and stories.

More soon!