"you very fierce, own visited hohhot"

Mandy left Friday. I was sad to put her in the taxi. She was beaming. A combination of sinus infection, upset tummy, running a fever off and on all week, having to finish her professional portfolio, moving house next week, and missing Bryson (her husband) had her more than ready for home. Fortunately we had a nice hotel room in Beijing for her four day lay-in. By day, I traipsed around the sights she'd already seen. We made evening outings for acrobatic show, Peking Opera and duck.

Though we both found ourselves in degenerating states of health, we still had a wonderful time. She was a fountain of knowledge from her two prior weeks of classes and travel with a group of CCCU professors. She also knew practicalities like buying top-bunk hard sleepers on the train, which are the best value for your money. But more than that, she's a friend to both laugh with and talk about the gritty stuff of life.

One day in Beijing, I met Abby's friend Roy from English Corner at Xiamen University. His English is impeccable besides a few slight misspeaks. I must confess I didn't correct him for saying "mullets" in place of "minutes." He's currently doing a master's in liberal arts at Peking University, the best in the country. His undergrad was environmental engineering. I asked him if he'll be doing environmental work and he said that no one in China is very interested in the environment so he's going into consulting.

He was reading a water bottle label that listed Cadmium among the contents. "Isn't that a heavy metal?" asked Hannah. "No, it's a light metal," said Roy. It's a heavy metal. Maybe he meant Calcium.

China is very Chinese. No one can fault them for that. My guidebook says they have been largely recycling themselves for the past three millennia, geographically isolated from the rest of the world. There is no end to the layers of culture.

However as a world traveler, whose own exploits have been made possible by the fortunate/unfortunate homogeneity of the world, "globalization," this has been the least accessible place. It would be best with an adventurous roadie (last night was the grossest latrine of my life) and lots of time. I don't think they'll be ready for the Olympics but the explosion of capitalism will see them setting the pace in my lifetime.

After M left, I've visited the Great Wall, missing the weekend tourist bus by five minutes and spending the rest of the day on a public transport/private taxi drama. Which was worth it.

Then I've come out to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia (which is in China) to see the grasslands. That is, arid pastures. I did one night in a faux-yurt camp with genuine non-English speakers.

There was no phrase for "I don't like riding horses" in the back of my China guidebook when the camp proprietor came to sell me an experience. Nor the inevitable response, "But it builds character." So after 25 minutes of pictionary I finally gave in and went for an hour ride on a horse who's down on his luck. Unfortunately, the grasslands have the same smoggy haze as everywhere else I've seen in this country. But if the sky was clear, it would have looked like the pasture spreading out around Horse Creek.

I might have bought coral today. I'm not sure. Does that absolve me?