We've spent the past few days in Yangshuo, a backpacker's town where there are actually other white faces and English can get you around without much trouble. It's been nice to eat semi-Western food and not have to unsuccessfully charade our way around. Yesterday we went to a Yao village where the girls seem to be the one's who are valued (for a change). They are known for their very long hair which is cut only on their wedding day and styled differently depending on their age and life circumstance (whether they are married, have a baby, ect.). We also visited some spectacular rice terraces built into some enormous mountains a very long time ago. Today we rented bikes and managed not to get killed on our way out of the busy streets of Yangshuo. It was lovely to explore the vast mountainous countryside and try to get away from the pesky women on bikes chasing us down and trying to sell us postcards, water, mudbaths and whatever else they thought we might like. Tomorrow we start on a three day cruise down the famous Yangtze River... third class all the way, Chinese style! We're bringing noodles and Oreo's and hope to survive on little else. After that we'll fly to Xi'an to check out the Terracotta Warriors and then perhaps to Changdu to see a panda preserve, depending on time and money, before heading back to Beijing to fly back to San Francisco.

That's it for now... so far we've been healthy with no signs of swine flu or diarrhea!