We are back in Chengdu now, and thankfully the weather has improved greatly. It had been raining for a few days so the temperature dropped, and the smog and pollution cleared enough to see blue sky and even some stars at night. After leaving Rilong we spent a full day in Xiou Jin, so far my favorite place on this trip. Everyone we met there was unbelievably nice and generous. We hit up some tibetan shops while we were there, and ended up getting a tour from a women and her 3yr. old daughter of the entire city (fairly small but quite nice). She took us to some cool little shops, and was able to get us cheaper prices on the souveneirs we were buying - usually it gets marked up for a foreigner. After that we met some local girls in the internet cafe we were using and they told us to meet back up with them at 7 to go to a performance later that night. We met them at 7 with some of their friends and were brought to a large schoolyard and stage where the entire town (maybe 2 or 3 thousand) were congregating. At about 8 the performance started which included various kinds of dancing and singing from around the world (indian, tibetan, and yes even some breakdancing). We watched for an hour or two enjoying pears that people sitting nearby insisted on sharing with us. We then cut out early because one of the girls we were with had a father who was in charge of a church - now turned museum, where Mao himself slept in (we saw a set of his clothes folded on a table) along with 3 other high ranking officials. It was closed for the night, but she was able to get the keys and we went in and explored it with just flashlights. Our new friends were able to explain the whole history behind it, showing us pictures of various important people and explaining which ones they liked, and which they didn't. After that just Rhys and I went on with them to get some food, and we ate pile after pile of various meats and veggies on kebabs (even a little duck tongue and chicken stomach), and of course they insisted on paying for everything. When we got back to the room we heard our other friend, who gave us the tour earlier that morning, had stopped by with some gifts of silk scarves and a book of pictures of the mountains. I guess its pretty easy finding which room we were staying in given we were again the only white people in town. The following morning we were catching the 7 o'clock bus back to Chengdu and were met by the two girls and two of their friends at 6:30am with a gift of some green and red tea to see us off.
Now that I'm back in Chengdu I'm planning the next part of my trip. Rhys decided to go home early because he missed Lindsay so much, so that put an end to any more climbing until thailand this winter. Marjie is going off to Mongolia soon, and it looks like I will be heading south. I just got an email from my cousin with a recomendation of contacting a magazine that is starting this winter about travel and leisure in south east asia. They are looking for freelance photographers and writers to contribute to the first issue of their magazine. So I will be trying to get in touch with them to see if they would be interested at all in my plans of trying to work on some sailboats out of Hong Kong. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed about that, I'll be taking tons of picures anyway so why not see if they would like some of them!
Sorry I havent been able to post anymore pictures, I never seem to have my USB cords and cameras at the same time when i do get to a computer. Feel free to keep in touch (brigham10@msn.com) it's great to hear news of how people are doing back in the states!

written by  Jakeb on September 1, 2007 from Chengdu, China
from the travel blog: Siguniang Shan
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