River Town

I just finished reading the book River Town by Peter Hessler. It details his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in China, teaching English in a rural town along the Yangtze called Fuling during the late 90's. I had been meaning to read it for a while, but there isn't an IPad version out yet and I had been too lazy to track one down at an English bookstore until I got to Beijing.

The writing is very good... heartfelt, mature, polished, intelligent, highly readable... and pretty much puts my dinky little blog to shame. I wish I had read the thing before I went on that riverboat cruise, perhaps it would have given me a different perspective. Regardless, if you are looking for an entertaining and insightful view on living in China, I recommend checking it out.

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Since the last entry in my blog, I have traveled from Yichang to Wuhan to Shanghai to Nanjing to Beijing and finally to Tianjin, a coastal port city just outside Beijing.

I am a little travel weary and have decided to settle down here for a bit. Next week is a national holiday in China and the Chinese tourists will be out in full force. My plan is to wait them out in Tianjin, catching up on my reading, brushing up on my Chinese, and maybe even posting a blog or two.