Maybe it is just me, but trying all of the wonderful and delicious types of food there are around the world is absolutely one of the greatest excuses to travel. It isn't just eating the food though that satisfies you, sometimes, its the reaction you get from those around you. Take this lady in the picture for example. I wish I could have had a video camera to show you how excited she was to cook, for the first time, for an American. She even went and put on her nice coat for the picture. Or tonight, the excitement on the young cook's face while he was staring at me eat his cooking. And how proud he was when I said his food was delicious (in Chinese) in front of his regular customers.

It was quite an experience to wake up at 7 am this morning in Urumqi in Xinjiang province and have it still be dark. It was even stranger when 8 o'clock hit and it was still dark. Imagine my surprise when I waited all the way until past nine in the morning to be able to take a picture of the sunrise over Tian shan (Sky or Heaven, Mountain). For some reason, Beijing has decided that the entire country needs to use the same time zone that it does... even provinces that are thousands of kilometers away. Although this is quite confusing, it makes for an interesting time.

I arrived today to Urumqi (pronounced: Wulumuchee) and was welcomed by comfortable negative 6 degree celius weather, or about 21 degree farenheit for those in the states. Surprisingly, it is not as cold as I expected but I was a bit worried when I looked out the airplane window to see mountains covered in snow. Hopefully I will be able to handle it when I am out seeing the sights... first stop... Heavenly Lake tomorrow morning.

Although it is the fifth day of the Spring Festival and I am in Urumqi, which is an autonomous region of China, there does not seem to be any letting up of the festivities. At least not when it comes to fireworks. They really must be cheap here because I find it amazing how many of them are constantly going off. When I buy fireworks in the states, I am lucky to get a good five minute show. This video is shot from the 7th floor of the Xin Rong Hotel between the hours of 9pm and midnight Beijing time and edited for the sake of your time. It kind of sucks because you hear them constantly but being in the hotel room, you can only see the ones right in front of you. By the way, here are a couple of interesting bits of information about travel during this time of year. Yesterday alone there were over 3.8 million people riding the rails and that number is expected to be 4 million riding the rails on Friday. In addition, there were 33 million people on the buses today!