Monday, February 09, 2015

东北

I sometimes think I've seen very little of China and, in the land of ten thousand sites, that's doubtless true. But I've not seen nothing - especially if you include my 2012 trip, and Taipei five year before that. And I'll soon be seeing more: a friend invited me to visit after the Spring Festival/New Year and I agreed without realizing he lived quite so far north: Shenyang 沈阳, old Manchu capital and site of one of China's two ice and snow festivals. (It's where the pen is pointing, closer to North Korea than to Beijing.) Should be interesting! He assures me, as northerners do, that it's Shanghai that's cold - since it's south of the line where the government furnishes steam heat to all. We'll be toasty.