Though the looking glass, snarkily

After a long, long time away (but still in China), I've returned to bloggin. I feel bad about my absence but as I had guests visiting for approximately a month, I hope people can understand. (Note to self and others: not that I didn't enjoy all of my guests and what they brought to my experience here in Beijing but a month is too long. A week, maybe two. That's a reasonable amount of time.)

This entry is going to be a great disgorgement of pictures that have accumulated on my laptop over the past few weeks. Most are of Bonnie and me out and about, mostly in Xi'an and Suzhou.

I'm disgorging so that I can have space on my camera to show all the little stuff in Beijing that I've grown fond of (in certain cases, like my plumbing, "fond" is probably not the right word. Maybe "a tenuous detente" or "a hard peace" would be more appropriate.)

Here goes:

This is the Renmin Bin Guan (People's Hotel) in Xi'an. Very nice - 5 stars (which it was, more or less). Note the Sino-Russian, next to the Sino, next to the globalized capital. The many faces of China.

No trip to China is complete without seeing the Terra Cotta soldiers, which date from the Qin dynasty about 2300 years ago.

( Argg... damn you, Chinese internet, you've foiled me again. I'll be back. )