I've been traveling with the rest of the people in my program for the past week and a half. We went to four different cities in Yunnan province: Shangri-la, Lijiang, Xishuangbanna, and Kunming.

Notable events:

• Shangri-la was actually the coldest place of the four. It was also the highest up, so lots of people got altitude sickness. :(
• Also, Shangri-la was very, very unlike any other part of China I've been to. Clear skies, hardly any people, Tibetans running around everywhere. Real interesting.
• Lijiang had some pretty nice tourist-y shows. One that I saw was choreographed by Zhang Yimou (guy who directed Hero), and the second show I saw was really professional and had acrobatics and everything. *o*
• Saw Elephants in Xishuangbanna. :D
• We stayed in a realllllly sweet hotel in Kunming. It was right in the middle of the central shopping district, it was like thirty floors tall, the breakfast was awesome, and the bathroom was made out of marble (except the toilet, haha). Also, blew tooons of money on clothes in this city. It was around 1000 kuai in all, which is about $150 USD. x__x
• Also. I got my cellphone and hotel card stolen in Kunming while I was shopping. It wasn't even a particularly sneaky pick-pocket in retrospect. Still feel pretty salty over it. =_=

EDIT: Almost forgot! In Xishuangbanna, we went to a hotspring. One of the pools had little fish in it that eat your dead skin. It was really tickly. *o*