Last bit of asia...

For the last week or two, I have been constantly traveling around...I think I'm getting used to it at this point. I've gone from Hangzhou to Shenzhen (southern China) to Hong Kong to Taipei to Ailishan (also in Taiwan) and finally back to Hong Kong before I head back to San Francisco tomorrow afternoon. Phew.

For the sake of brevity and actually having stories for later, I'll just outline some highlights:

Hangzhou: The last week was interesting with clinical work in a hospital and getting to see acupuncture, cupping, and tuina (massage). I even got a very unexpected first hand experience of acupuncture...it was quite a weird experience. I also got my pulse analyzed, though the analysis was not very optimistic. On my way to the airport in the morning, I took a taxi and started talking with the driver who didn't believe I was from the US at first and took a long stare at me (while driving rather quickly and cutting in front of cars) while saying, "You don't look American." Chinese drivers are scary. But he was really nice and as I left, he was screaming out "I hope you can come back to Hangzhou!" and "Remember my phone number!"

Shenzhen: Lots of food and family.

Hong Kong: So in total I've been in Hong Kong for about 3 days, so I've been running around meeting relatives, shopping, and eating lots of good food. Yum. :)

Taiwan: I got to see a family friend (and the daughter took me around excitedly), an old friend/my former dance teacher, and my lovely roommate. Lots of sightseeing, night market-ing, EATING, and shopping later, I went to the airport to my terminal, only to find that my gate was hello kitty themed. I'm not even kidding...Taiwanese people REALLY like hello kitty.

I feel like there's still a lot more to say about each place but I honestly can't remember right now. Anygay, this way I'll have some stories to tell you guys later. :) Back to sunny California tomorrow!