Chengdu, China; one shoe

Today was strictly a travel day. We got up at 5:30 am and walked through the empty streets of Hong Kong to the east rail station to take a train to Shenzhen. Shenzhen is where we walked over to mainland China and made the border crossing. I didn't expect so many differences between Hong Kong and mainland China as there was. First off, even the currency is different. Also, in the mainland they drive on the right rather than the left. Not many people seem to speak much English, and there are definately not a lot of tourists.

From Shenzhen, we took a flight via Air China, which I have to note is a remarkably clean and nice airline to fly, to where we are staying now, Chengdu.

I would say that we got lucky on three accounts today. First off, we really didn't have a clue where to go or stay when we arrived here, but a helpful man at the airport suggested a place called Dragon Town. Having no plans, it was just as good as any to find a room. This place has turned out to be picturesque with traditional Chinese architecture and a village type feel. There are no cars driving down these alley's and also all signs are in Chinese. So my guide book listed a place called DragonTown Guest House (www.dragontown.com.cn), but trying to find it was going to be a challenge. Remind you, no one can speak a word of English here, and there are no street signs. The first place I walked in to attempt to find the place happened to actually be the place.
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This is me with all my stuff as we are walking through the town.

So here we are in DragonTown staying at this incrediable youth hostel that is actually a historic building dating back to the Qing Dynasty (whatever that means).

Just a couple pictures of this place. Its rather strange, this village, since we are in the middle of a city of 10 million.





The last account of getting lucky today was me losing a shoe. This is a bit of backpackers humor because I actually had my sneakers strapped to the outside of my pack so that my clothes wouldn't get dirty. Somewhere along the line of walking through DragonTown to find the hostel I had lost one. Me and Bri backtracked to try to find my one shoe. I was bummed about not finding it. So we went back to the hostel and the lady at the desk said in her heavy accent something like this; "You have shoe? I knoc in doors for somebody shoe. " I was so happy to find my long lost shoe.

Here are a couple pictures from our walk through the Hong Kong harbor taken last night.