Everybody Shenyang Tonight

We're now in Shenyang, which was supposed to be the first stop on our Northern China loop. We were going to be here for 4 days, then head to Harbin, and Dalian before we went back to Beijing to start our travels in the South. Sadly, nature is not on our side. We initially canceled the Dalian trip because of the oil spill there. We were told by a friend who lives in Beijing that if the news was saying it was no bigs, we could pretty much rest assured that it was, indeed, bigs and that our beachy fun would be ruined.

Then came the floods. Initially we thought this would only impact the towns we had intended to visit in the South (Chengdu, Xi'an, Yangshuo) but now the flooding has spread to the North and the worst impact in Jilin separates us from Harbin. Considering the massive toll this is taking on the people of China and their economy, the inconvenience to
us really shouldn't be overstated. That said, it is frustrating that you can't access hard news about the situation or get a real understanding of how travel and transit are impacted. No flood maps, no in-depth news coverage, nada. Basically, CCTV will be like
"Flooding rocked the 3 Gorges area today with a massive death toll and billions of yuan in damage. And now this feature story about how awesome China is. Back to John Chang in the studio."

Its hard for me to accept that I can't control the weather (we're supposed to be making memories, here, people), but I'm trying to muster some travel zen and soldier on. Those of you who know me well understand that for me to release the strangled bunny and go to plan C is no easy ask. I'm working on the perfectionism/compulsion complex. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, but Shenyang! Its GREAT! People call it the armpit of China. The Newark, if you will. But its so so much more - its at least a shoulder and I highly recommend a visit. Since it rained, like, 4 inches yesterday we were rewarded with blue skies today for our visit to the amazing Bei Ling tombs in the North of the city. Having visited the Ming Tombs with Jose & Tichi & the fam, this was a very interesting contrast. Shenyang was the capital of the Manchurian dynasty, so many of the monuments were built before Peking was the big dog. Its smaller and less obsessively and overly restored and there are almost no tourists. So, you kind of get the run of amazing parks and grounds and ancient walls and tombs to run amok upon. Not that we did. Amok it.

Tomorrow we hit the Imperial Palace which is supposed to be Forbidden City-ish but on a smaller scale. I've fully recovered from the cold/fever/bug thing that was holding me back, so I'm back in full effect as Planny McPlannerson. While Ed is outwardly pleased that I'm
feeling my old snarky self, I know there is a part of him that misses the slightly sluggish and dialed back Rodney. The few days where I requested naps and didn't insist on sucking the very life out of every moment were maybe a nice respite for him. Hm.