this was taken at a hair salon where i got my hair cut for the equivalent of $4. plus it's not customary to tip in china...hello!
so i was kind of having this meltdown in china. i was about to turn 30 and i was afraid that i was kissing my youthfulness goodbye. so i chopped off my hair...and i decided to go to beijing all by myself for a couple of days. my friend sent me in taxi to the airport and i was off. i can't speak chinese and it was a little bit disconcerting, but i was determined to do one last "crazy" thing that i could look back on and blame on my youth. this was my chinese tour guide in beijing, alan...naturally.
this picture was taken on the scary death trap that took us up the mountain to the base of the wall. now i'm adventurous as the next girl. i love roller coasters and the freedom of wind blowing through my hair...however i also believe in safety belts, and perhaps not giving your customers a view of the broken down models of your car and broken machiney bits strewn about all around them. just a thought, china. another alarming thing about this crazy place was the pit with two black bears hanging out. i was wondering what was behind this circular wall (not very tall by the way). i leaned over and took a look. there were two bears just chillin. nbd.
i took several shots i took on top of the great wall. it was such a surreal experience, i couldn't help photographing and photographing. it was soooo bitter cold and windy and the other people in my group went back to the bus early. i just wasn't going to sit in a weird cold bus while this amazing place lay in front of me.
this was the view from my friends' apartment in shanghai. it was a sweet pad!
this was a street vendor at the bund. you can see the pearl tower in the background. i love that building. it's so jetson's to me.
these were right outside of the forbidden city. it was crazy because of the smog, i guess, it was never really technically sunny while i was there. it was always overcast and you can see the sun in these two images, which i really love.
this was another freezing cold day at the summer palace. not too summery. the lake was frozen over and those little specks in the background are people walking on the lake.
when i was in beijing they were preparing to host the summer olympics and they were crazy go nuts about it all over the place...it's so athletic to drink coca-cola, let's be honest.
these were taken at tiananmen square.
we were just walking around old shanghai. we stopped to grab a vegetarian bite to eat, and it seems all the employees at this restaurant were involved in a very intense poker game. 
red lanterns.
this was taken on my last night in shanghai. laura and i went to the top of the jin mao tower. it's quite dizzying looking down. i felt like lucille 2. my favorite part was ordering a virgin sex on the beach in the bar at the top. kind of awesome.
