Some news was that I got locked out of my first hotel. Operating from a concept rather than staying aware in the moment, I paid a week in advance, bad move, it was a not good hotel. Was hanging out at my present hotel as it was a magnet for English speakers, stayed up too late, 10:00, went home, door was bolted, knocked and knocked, no answer, returned to present hotel, crossed my forearms in front of my face, universal sign, he went down and got them to open. I moved in 2 days, forfeited a day rent, showed them..

My new owner, he speaks no English, we have a good laugh crossing our forearms, we tell the story to others. I admire him greatly,

nice clean hotel, everything works, he's a good cook, CPA too, I think, was working on a stack of numbers books,,, seldom idle, his brother is a bank guard transferring funds with a shotgun, all business, ever eager to please me, skinny wife the same. We drank that kick-ass white rice wine one night.

Met a nice English speaking Chinese lady, perhaps you got her picture. We supped. She is more delicate, taking a parasol against the sun as she humored me by hiking a ways on the dragon lady trail. We had good talks. She is a published author.

I posited that the solitary isolation experienced by Westerners was unique. She said no, Chinese had it, too. She explained that she was at this remote ancient village to heal from a 10 relationship that had lost passion. Later, she continued that her new man of 3 months just confessed to being married. I explained the less you know about men, the better you like them. She said that she had a small dog that she loved very much. I told her my experience with women and dogs is that the man ended up dating the dog, not the woman, that she should eat the dog as it would separate her from what she wanted. She said no. She still got along with her ex, he was keeping the dog. I suggested she fuck around for passion and stay at home with him. She got squirmy, but didn't bolt. A very pleasant person, she wrote love stories.

I am becoming increasingly aware of racial differences, phenotypical and genotypical. I can see it in the way children move, too young to be influenced. I first noticed it 10 years ago in Suzhou, the way Chinese ping pong players would hold and move the paddle. I could not duplicate the moves. Chinese are built for that game. My friend Erjun who painted my portrait was pong champ in her Provence.

I am nursing a theory That the Chinese are from a migration out of Egypt, north, west then South, similar notions about death and monuments, they had the same required energy. Perhaps Ishmael's decedents. "as a jackass, against every man" were so obnoxious, they drove the then hard working, good natured Egyptians out. Remember, the Phoenix of SE Asia originated in Egypt, building pyramids takes serious energy.

Ishmael's descendants, desert people that worship Allah, you notice, drive everything else away, wherever they go.

My notion of archaeological evidence is that the high culture traveled down river, not up. Recall that the Yellow and the Yangtze begin in the Himalias, where the glaciers are receding---It just occurred to me that all those monuments: pyramids, Angkor Wat, Terra cotta army, tecal and palenca were an effort of the leadership to bleed off the surplus energy, like a house full of hyperactive youths, while making monuments to themselves, of course.

I love the way children are treated, little innocent people, each unique. Olders care lovingly for youngers. Hillary would like it here, the village extends the family. There is a permissiveness. Hope they don't end up like free will Americans. I've got 2 little ones watching me very closely as I write, so cute.

There is such a surplus of cheap labor here. It is manifest in highway construction. Roads through the mountains are flat, tunnels, whatever. Think about it, in many years,it pays for itself, less car wear, less fuel. The sides of the raised road beds are ornamented with cement/stone designs to look pretty and stop erosion. There are some extremely interesting patterns and ideas.

College entrance is based on national tests. You get one shot: headache, broken leg, dead mother: tough. I'm told a lot of money can influence a fractional test point. Hardball calls for tough minds.

America is at once blessed and burdened with it's notion that all men are created equal. We will forever wrestle with that tar-baby.

I remember a teacher of my youth explained that China absorbed rather than resisted invaders. They certainly bring me home with their kindness. And they can as easily retreat into another mode, without guilt or shame.

We really need to get out from under Taiwan. There is great national sentiment to bring it back home. On TV there is significant emphasis on war and its machinery. We need to negotiate out now while there is still wiggle room so we can save face, they , too. They may not absorb outsiders forever. Get this message your Congress persons, and the President, if he will listen.

The American influence here is profound, trying to copy everything.Watching TV here 10 years ago, there was a noticeable absence of focus on the pelvis, unlike Americans who learned from Elvis how to shake that second chakra. Today, they are shaking that thang more, but I'm not convinced they understand the implications. Americans are fixated on their gonads, a nation of crotch watchers. I cannot determine on which chakra the Chinese focus, it's not crotches. But they have that unrelenting energy required to build those ancient temples of Central/South America. Whites and Blacks cannot hold a candle to it.

Advertising is big everywhere, using our Christmas melodies in today's ads, TV, billboards, bridge embankments, selling everything: monthly pads with wings, family planning, industrial build materials. Government owns all stations, I think. But they show everything: war with Japs, love stories, lots of fantastic marshall arts, nature, archeology, art. 10 years ago it was just Little House on the Prairie. Noise doesn't seem to bother them, drives me crazy.

I saw 2 pigs in a pick-up with numbered ear tags. I guess they're going to slaughter, that number allows them to be traced throughout the whole process, if there's a problem. They are catching on , and up.

There's a new museum at Wu Yuan, 10 miles away, many rooms still unfilled. Generally, I'm not much on Chinese scroll painting. My sense is that the thrust is to be more like the last guy than he is to himself, very conceptual..Well, I went back for a second look at 4 brush and ink scrolls that I would hang next to anything I have ever seen. I could just be there all day. My eye ever moving, enjoying, exploring those paintings: old man and old tree, birds squawking, deer in a glade, retreated sages.

All the tourists, maybe 10,000 today, taking digital pictures. Say, 1/2 are downloaded into the great cyber. It takes physical stuff and electricity for all that memory. I'm concerned, beyond my understanding, where does it end? Most of the pictures are sentimental crap, world wide.

Some prices: big beer 25c., laundry shirt 13c., ball point refill 3c., water 10-15c. bus to town 30c.

I see few insects except mosquitoes, no pollinators but many flowering vegetables, there are ruby red dragon flies, always a nice surprise. A solitary heron prowls the paddies, we admire, one the other. Few critters, few minnows, and no fish farming I can see. A plethora of free range dogs and cats. not too much barking. Unfortunately, they don't eat the dog.

I have not used soap bathing since SE Asia, simplifying, and no deodorant, and have no body odor, that I can tell; Chinese food. No acid re-flux. And my descending colon, fickle traveler but faithful companion, ever humored to the extent necessary, daily shares it's treasure with a receptive universe.

S.