Ni Hao (hello) from Shanghai!
So it turns out that my site is banned from China, I’m assuming because I use the word “social” throughout my content 
This means that I can’t upload any pics here, however, I have been posting a lot of pics on Facebook. Just click the link to my profile on the left hand side of this site and browse through my albums, however you have to add me as a friend to see them. So far we (me and my travel buddy Brian) have only visited Beijing and Shanghai but have been having a blast. We rode our bikes through the Hutong Alleyways in Beijing, saw the forbidden city and the Lama temple, and explored all over Shanghai (and of course much more, see the Facebook pics). The smog here is absolutely horrible!
Beijing was an amazing place with lots to see and do. The city is massive and takes a bit of getting used to. Getting around is quite hard when you don’t understand the language so it’s important to walk around with a phrase book and do a lot of pointing to words that mean things like “train.” Our buddy
Daniel has been living in Beijing so he has been taking us around to see the sites and some amazing restaurants. Once we left Daniel in Beijing things became complicated but we’re still alive and able to get around, so that’s a good thing! We will be returning to Beijing for a few days at the end of our trip and one of the things we’re looking forward to the most is going out to eat with Daniel (so we can get some good food!).
Shanghai is absolutely massive, the buildings here just make you stare into the sky with your jaw dropped. As far as site seeing goes in Shanghai
there isn’t as much to see as say Beijing. There are scammers everywhere trying to get us to visit “art exhibitions” or “have tea” with them, so you definitely have to be a bit careful. I’ve also been propositioned to “meet pretty girls” by several people not to mention buy cds, dvds, shoes, bags, watches, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
Tonight we head out to visit Huangshan to climb the Yellow Mountain, supposedly one of the top 10 sites in China. I will have a lot more pics going up on facebook soon and when I get back to San Francisco I will share more stories.
In the meantime I will be putting up a few guest posts (with the help of my brother Josh in LA) and who knows, perhaps a post or two of my own.
Zaijian (goodbye!)