if i were naive enough to describe china with one word it would have to be, powerful. this is not a country or race to be taken lightly. example; i have been to one steel mill in my life. aside from the size and strength of it, it still seemed managable. you could walk it in say, an hour. 2 kms worth of indoor production seems quite impressive. what do you think the chinese did to a steel mill that stood on some prime land? demolish? no. how bout we take this steel plant, and ship it to another province? smelters and all. that is power. why would you do that? well, in 2008, the olymipics are coming to beijing and we cant have any smoke from blast furnaces polluting the air with the whole world watching now, can we? it has been said that china has been advancing at an alarming rate and they have not been taking care of the environment and that may be true but, and it is a big but, they would be the ones that would have the power to clean it up if they so chose. it is just amazing to me how much construction and expansion is happening here. they are suffering from a sort of "more is better" attitude that is, no doubt, coming from the western influences. there is a sort of reversal of roles happening that is kind of ironic. when everyone is starting to see the merit of eastern philosophies and ways of life back home, over here they want money and development to be at the forefront with all they do and that sometimes means advancment at a cost, human or other. i hope they dont self destruct in the process because i believe both our cultures have a lot to learn from each other. more us, than them. i cant say i'm too impressed with what i saw today tho. --- we went to silk alley today which was a sort of 6 story marche aux puces with anything and everything for sale. from knock off nikes to knock off Louis Vitton bags. Key word, knockoffs. i dont know how big it was but there must be thousands of employees in thousands of little shops hawking you-name-it. some of the stuff actually showed some quality but after 2 hours of walking around this place it was too much. think of all of las vegas' slots compacted into one building and you get the picture. even my pro-shopper of a wife said enuf was enuf at one point. it's not the "stuff" so much as all the clerks shoving some fake Timberland shoe under your nose saying "Fo yo, zpechal priz! supa kwalitry" then you turn the corner and facing you are 50 more hawkers, salivating at your non-asian eyes. how do you buy anything in this environment? well, loyal readers, i will tell you. you take a deep breathe, ignore whoever is infront of you and pick something. then, you turn to the nearest hawker who has offered you 22 versions of Puma sneakers and you ask how much. what ever his answer is you cut down 95%. no joke here kids. then when he scoffs, and he will scoff, they all scoff. whatever his reply, you say no and simply walk away. at that point he has put your purchase in a bag and says, "ok, yoo too tuf fo me" or some-such and you give him the 10 yuan($1.15) and walk away with the bag. after a while, alana and i just retreated to the bus and watched the world go by. much more sanity in that activity. we also visited a silk factory which was very interesting. did you know they can get 1500 meters of silk thread from one bug cucoon? and they developed a machine to harvest the threads. talk about a human to bug interface! --- did i mention how i am amazed at how north americans come over here and just "expect" to be understood. helloooooooo? english is a foreign language????? rant over. wait, wasnt i the one looking for a bathroom a few days ago? har har.