Wǒmen zài dù jià!

(That's "We're going on vacation!")

So, what am I supposed to put on this thing? Well, first, a serious thank you for reading my blog! Keeping a travel blog about my trip to China wasn't really on my radar at first. Reading other people's travel blogs always just makes me jealous! But here it is, by popular demand (and by that I mean, shout out to Aunt Jill!) I made this so I can keep anyone who's interested up to date on this more-exciting-than-usual chapter of my life, and possibly, at some sinister Freudian level, to make you jealous.

So to explain what's going on, my high school roommate Sally and I are going on a monthlong vacation - no, I believe this qualifies as a voyage - to China!

(Sally will sometimes be affectionately referred to as "Sala". That's because, way back in the day, Sally told me my inner self is truly Chinese, and I ought to have a Chinese name. She chose "Beker", more or less pronounced bay-kor, which means "mollusc" and was the closest thing she could think of to "Becca". The obvious gravitas of my new name has endeared me greatly to her family, I can tell. :) In return, I decided that I should give her a Chinese name, despite the fact that her given name (Yimeng) IS ALREADY Chinese. So I dubbed her "Sala", with the deeply meaningful translation of "Salad". The names stuck. So that's the story.)

The trip starts June 4 and lasts until June 29. The plan is: Beijing, Xi'an, 4-day Yangtze river cruise downstream from Chongqing to Yichang, ten days split between Shanghai and the nearby cities of Hangzhou and Nanjing, and a brief stop to hike up a holy mountain, Taishan, on the way back to Beijing.

Fully aware that exactly no one cares about, you know, what skirt I wore today, I'll try to write about the most colorful, foreign, transporting, wistful, and in short, exotickest parts of my trip. There will be pictures. There will be food (David, I'm lookin' at you!) There will be mountains, lakes, a river lined with gorges, cities of twelve million with glassy pagoda-littered skylines, homestays with Sally's family, the Shanghai World Expo, the terracotta warriors, overnight trains, ghost towns and the Dragon Boat Festival.

I'll post whenever I can!