After a long, hard day of climbing the Great Wall you really don't want to climb back down. Fortunately Chinese people are incredibly smart. They setup an "Inertia Ropeway" which allows you to get down from the Great Wall with the greatest of ease.

I've been attending a small private Chinese language school here in Beijing in an attempt to improve my Mandarin language skills; which are currently at the baby talk level. The school took a trip out to the Simatai section of the great wall. Previously I had only visited badaling so it was nice to see a different part of the wall, especially one that is less touristy.

I shot this video several weeks ago and after I shot it the air cleared up for a few days and then got worse again. The last two days the SEPA index has been over 100. Fortunately today the rains and wind came to wash and blow away all of the pollution! yay!

I was fortunate enough to be in Shanghai for their Drupal user meetup. It was great to meet all of them and see the projects that they are working on. Shanghai has a good number of Drupal developers and some of them have worked on some really cool projects. For me the highlight of the entire meetup was when one of the guys introduced himself as "ian" and just in case you didn't know how to pronounce it, it is "Ian" of Deb-ian. Yes! There are super Chinese geeks! I love this place! Track the group at groups.drupal.org/Shanghai, they are growing quickly.

The picture is of my new "little red book" (he he) which I received after I gave blood at the expat show. My blood type is one of those nifty types that can be used in a lot of people and its clean so I try to give whenever I can.

For no good reason we subjected ourselves to the expat show in Beijing. I wouldn't say it was horrible but I wouldn't say it was mind blowing either. It was what it was, a show for expats. I'd go again next year if they have free stuff, its free to get into to, and its convenient to get to.

Cupping is a form of Chinese medicine believed to relief a myriad of ailments. Lately I haven't been feeling well and I've been meaning to go to a local Chinese medicine business situated just down the street. Putting two and two together and mixing in a bit of masochism for good measure I went and tried Cupping.

Two weeks ago Diana and I headed to Zhong Guan Cun, the major computer area, in Beijing to pick up a new keyboard/mouse combo to alleviate my inevitable descent into carpal tunnel. I attempted to capture the immenseness of the place but failed miserably at achieving my goal. I figured I'd post it anyway.

This morning I thought I'd film a short bit of my ride to class. When the weather is good it is a nice ride.

A sandstorm ripped through Beijing today.