And now...Beijing. I left Hangzhou feeling excited. Beijing was in my sights, the capitol. With tiananmen square, the great wall, and the history, I was truly looking forward to it. I would be dissapointed. Not with Beijing. I never really got to see it. I exited the train station and met the person who was there to pick me up. The train station is in the heart of Beijing and I thought it'd be a short drive to where I'd be staying and teaching for the ensuing several weeks. I was led to a car that got on an expressway and headed east. And kept going. And kept going. Soon the Beijing skyline wasn't visible anymore. I asked my collegue what the hell was up. She said, "You'll be teaching in a small suberb of Beijing. It's a little place called Yinjiao". "Great!" I thought. I was really looking forward to seeing some of Beijing and now you tell me I'm going to be teaching in a little place called Yin jiao? Thanks for the heads up, I sure wish you would have told me all this beforehand, I wouldn't have gotten so excited. Yin jiao wasn't too bad. It was cold, small, and cheap. I lived in a hotel with another American who was really laid back and easygoing. My passport needed extending so a trip to downtown Beijing was in order after a week of being in Yin jiao. Yin jiao is a small city in Hebei province, about 40 minutes east of Beijing. Me and a Chinese collegue took the bus into the city and I was once again excited. I went to the police station and took care of my passport. The word was that I had to come back in four days to pick it up, a small piece of good news seeing as that meant I had to come back. We checked out Yong He Gong, the Lama Temple, known for it's 50m tall Buddha statue carved out of one piece of Sandalwood. The trip to the city was quick, but I enjoyed it. Four days later I was back in Beijing.

This one day was to be the turning point for my whole Chinese experience. I met love. I ditched my collegues and told them I'd be back that night. Me and what would become my girlfriend hung out in Beijing, checking out such mandatory things as Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City palace compound. I left. We both knew my circumstances, that I would be leaving for Sichuan province for 5 months in less than a week. But I think we both knew that I'd be back. That night I caught the last bus back to Yin jiao. I finished out my short three week contract and found myself on a plane...